Vantage Point

I absolutely love the previews before movies. Some people don't care if they see them or not, but I really enjoy getting to the theater with enough time to see the trailers. I suppose the reasons I like them are exactly what the movie studios are hoping for - I am usually entertained and it helps me figure out what movies I want to see in the next several months. But I love them anyway.

So when my brother and I went to see I am Legend last week (good movie), I was excited to sit and watch the trailers before the film. One particular movie caught my eye. I had seen the trailer once before and it intrigued me then, but in some ways the concept of the movie grabbed me for different reasons this time.

The movie, Vantage Point, is an action movie about the assassination attempt on the American President. The tag line for the film early in the trailer is, "8 strangers, each with a different vantage point, each with a piece of the puzzle." This got me thinking a bit about faith and life in general (of course...). (If you want to watch the trailer, click here)

I have been thinking a lot lately about how our particular perspectives of God are not complete - they are only perspectives and cannot encompass everything God is. If we were fully able to describe God, God would no longer be God. God is the one Truth, but we all only have part of the picture.

What if we approached our faith from that perspective? What if the other Christian traditions have a perspective that is just as valid as ours but only different? Sure, there are probably things we are wrong about just as there are things they are wrong about... but what if we can respect each other's faith as an authentic attempt at understanding the Truth? What if we listened to one another seeking to learn from the other's perspective? What if we approached church and faith like this?

Then I started reading Peter Rollins' book, How (Not) to Speak of God. He makes many of the same claims and puts more language to what I had been struggling with, what I had been thinking about. He constructs a whole theology based around this very notion (and I think very solidly too). This theology emerges out of postmodern thought and as we think about how to be the church in the world today, I think Rollins has something very valuable to offer to the conversation.

But again, I do think faith should be approached from the idea of perspectives and vantage points. None of us has a lock on God, none of us has a clear idea of who God is. We only see what we can given our limitedness (and God's infinite nature) and our given context.

The final tag line in the trailer for the movie says, "If you think you've seen it all, look again." Maybe we should all look again at what it means to be Christian.

Just some thoughts. I would love to hear what you all think.

Kate