A Primer of Perspectivalism

John M. Frame

Key Points / Notes / Quotes

Perspectivalism in General

• Our knowledge is limited to one perspective or another.

• God knows how everything appears from every possible perspective.

Omniperspectival.

• We can enrich our perspective by looking at things from different angles,

consulting other people, and by observing other place and cultures.

• Perspectivalism is not relativistic (does not eliminate right and wrong).

• Perspectivalism presupposes absolutism (God’s absolute infinite viewpoint).

• God can speak to us through scripture or grant us wisdom in response to

prayer, and the human knowledge we obtain is warranted by his exhaustive
perspective.

• We can enrich our perspective much more by consulting God’s perspective.

• Finite perspectives are interdependent.

• “… all finite perspectives must, to attain truth, ‘think God’s thoughts after
him.’”

• We will never achieve perfect knowledge… but we advance toward it step by

step. That advance involves enriching our perspectives by:

o Referring to those of others (communal).

o Reference to the perfect, exhaustive perspective of God, insofar as he

has revealed to us.

• God’s revelation of his perspective is often multiperspectival (4 gospels, etc).

• God may use (multiple) human perspectives to reveal his perspective.

 Tri-Perspectivalism

• The Trinity is:

o One God, three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
o Each person has all the divine attributes and participates equally in
every act of God.
o Equal in honor and glory. Equally and uniquely the object of our
worship.
o Each person is distinct (but all are active)
 Father begets Son
 Spirit proceeds from Father and Son
 Son died for our sins
 Father calls us into fellowship with himself
 Spirit regenerates believers
 Spirit gives gifts to serve the church
o Their relation is that of persons, more than simply perspectival.
However they are perspectives.
o Cannot fully know one without knowing the others.
o Seems to be a division of labor in the work of redemption.
 Father establishes plan
 Son executes it
 Spirit applies it
o Generally, the father is the supreme authority, the Son is the executive
power, and the Spirit the divine presence who dwells with God’s
people.
• To know the Spirits work, we must see it as an application of the Son’s work
by the Father’s plan (similarly with knowing the work of the Father and Son).
• There is a distinction in God’s redemption between authority, power and
presence.
• The same distinctions apply to God’s lordship (power interchangeable with
control).
• The offices of Christ are that of Prophet, Priest and King. They reflect his
authority, presence and control respectively.
o Believers take on these roles (especially within the church).
 Can be imbalanced (too much prophet not enough king).
• Salvation involves power (expressing itself in grace), authority, and presence
(redemption applied).
• Every item of true human knowledge is the application of God’s authoritative
norm to a fact of creation , by a person in God’s image.

Questions
• If scripture tells me that God created the heaves and the earth, that
knowledge cannot be invalidated by any other perspective. What does this
mean?
• What is the difference between seeing thing from God’s perspective (which
we can’t do) and consulting God’s perspective (which we are encouraged to
do)?

• Wouldn’t finite perspectives only be interdependent if they are being

perfected? And the only perfect perspective would be God’s
omniperspective?

• What exactly does it mean for the Spirit to “proceed”?

• Doesn’t Jesus call us into fellowship as well? Ask, seek, knock?

• How is the knowledge of the three persons is perspectival?

• Who are the others on page 8 referring to? Trinity persons?

• How does do the normative, situational, and existential perspective apply to

God’s control, authority, and presence?

• How can we trust “what is most satisfying to a believing heart”?