Wednesday, November 03, 2004

reflecting on progressisve orthodoxy

I enjoyed the evening with Dave Tomlinson. It was good to hear what he had to say, as well as to catch up with some old faces, and a couple of newer ones.

There were two things that I really remember from what Dave said. He talked about the importance of shared speech and shared symbols. This links to something I have had drummed into me as a youth worker - the importance of creating shared experiences. I can't get away from the fact that youth work/mission/living my life, is about walking alongside people, accompanying people, having relationships with people.

The second thing that Dave spoke about, which I found quite helpful, was the concept of 'perspectivism'. This was a new term for me, though it summed up the way I've been feeling about knowledge. Can we really know the truth, or do we each have our own 'perspective' of what truth is. The same truth, but looked at from different angles.

As ever, my limited attention span meant that remembering all that Dave said was always gonna be a struggle. I was therefore pretty glad when I found this. (This guy has obviously heard Dave talking about the same kind of stuff, but he took some notes)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

different perspectives - that's kinda like 'changing lenses' that classic book we read !! i reckon there on to something, everyone gains truth in different ways, and places more importance on certain aspects of their gained truth...like i'm a fan of community and trinitarian faith, where as others value individualism and personal faith........hmmmmn. big it up! love sid.