Perspective is a funny thing. I'm thinking about how two people can agree on, or like a particular "thing" - but for different reasons.
For example, I love elaborate vestments (see below!) because they're beautiful and aesthetics help me draw closer to the Divine. Someone else may like them because they're canonically "correct," and what "the Church ought to do," and order helps them see God more clearly. Someone else may like them because they're subversive to the culture around them, and there they find Christ. Yet another might hate them for the same reason.
We think we're all in agreement, but it can be disconcerting to realize we like the same "thing," but for a different reason. We may not be in agreement at all!
And sometimes, we realize that what we thought we liked about it - the aesthetic, the order, the subversiveness - points to a deeper truth about ourselves and our relationship with God. We may have to let go of the reason for liking or disliking something - the aesthetic, the order - in order to see things the way they really are.
Using vestments as an example here - it could be anything. Church-related or not. An object, an ideal, a place, a person.
I know I'm being all highly theoretical and wishy-washy, so if this makes any sense at all to you, bravo :) Just thinking out loud again.
About the Writer
- Eric
- Episcopalian-flavored Christian with Anglo-Catholic proclivities and a yearning for social justice.
"When Anglicanism is at its best, its liturgy, its poetry, its music and its life can create a world of wonder in which it is very easy to fall in love with God." -Urban T. Holmes III
Episcopal Church
Diocese of Arizona
Saint Mary's Church
O Mary Magdalene, Paschal messenger and Apostle to the Apostles; Thy weeping in the garden hath been turned to joy, and thy myrrh hath become a holy chrism: Pray for us, that we also might encounter and trust in the Risen Christ, who maketh the tomb a bridal chamber for his Church, and hast taken away the sins of the world. Amen.
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5 comments:
Yes, but only and Episcopalian would use vestments to illustrate a point.
I agree though. This is also kind of where you get into the tricky situations of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, and the wrong thing for the right reasons.
Well, I had vestments on the mind :P
You sure have been thinking out loud a lot. :)
Perspective is definitely interesting to look at. I agree with April. This is also where you get things like gay marriage and the energy solutions and all that jazz. Perspective is imperative. How do we get our perspectives? That is the next question. I know my perspective has been influenced by my parents, but part of it is also what I have come to believe. This is how you have "fundamentalists" and "cafaterians". lol.
Can't we be fundaterians?
Yeah...a lot of perspective is reactionary, too I think. We sometimes respond in a way that is contrary to the environment around us.
Hmmm... fundaterians? Interesting concept. :)
I agree, many people's perspectives are reactionary.
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