To the postmodern mind, perception is reality, which might strike you as an appealing idea, until it occurs to you that this idea is just a rhetorical sleight of hand – attempting to redefine reality as perception. But it is true that our perceptions play a key role in how we engage reality. In this regard, we are in a constant state of interpretation of reality, ever seeking to reconcile each new idea and circumstance with all of our previous experiences of reality. Now, this is not done as a conscious cognitive exercise, but rather, operates on the deeper psychological levels of our subconscious minds . . . where we presuppose our understanding of reality.
Paul Ricœur, a 20th-century French philosopher, within his work on the hermeneutic of phenomenology, talks about “the hermeneutic of suspicion” . . . which I found very interesting and insightful. But before I go too far, let me explain — hermeneutic is a ten-dollar word used to describe a system or method of interpretation. So when Ricœur talks about the hermeneutic of suspicion he is speaking of the human tendency to interpret the world through the lens of suspicion – which is to say, our first impulse is to assume an adversarial relationship to everything and everyone we encounter . . . always imagining ulterior motives are at play, or that some karmic trap door is about to open up beneath our feet.
I think a hermeneutic of suspicion best explains those who feel like they are somehow at odds with their own existence – unable to reconcile, for whatever reason, the life they are given, with the world in which they live. But in a very real way all of our hurts, disappointments, and hard turn in life events that we experience can form in us a rather dark psychological pathology, ever tilting our perception of the world away from anything hopeful, and towards the place where our fears and anxieties set our every expectation about life, on edge.
Now, imagine if such a perception of reality were reality – some would undoubtedly say it was a more realistic perspective, and given the state of the world today, it would be hard to argue, otherwise. And yet, intuitively we know that such hopelessness isn’t the way the world was meant to be. We can’t help but believe that our longing for a world set right, is more than a self-deluded pipe dream . . . and that there must be a different hermeneutic (system of interpretation) that unlocks the deeper truth of reality. So what if it were instead, a hermeneutic of beauty — one predicated on a grateful perspective, appreciative of everything as a gift? What if such a hermeneutic was able to find the love of God at work in everything — even in the unexpected places . . . what do you think that would look like?
It was in the backwater town of Bethlehem that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The same Word that was with God, and was God in the beginning (John 1:1). And here’s the part that best interprets the world as we experience it – “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him (John 1:10, 11)” And it’s this tragic truth that the next hopeful verse is set against “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”.
It is this beautiful narrative amidst the tragedy of a fallen world that breathes hope into our expectation of a world set right. So we need to remember that perception is a matter of focus – we can choose to focus on the tragic, or we can focus on the beauty . . . the beauty of the babe in the manger.
Early on one Christmas morn . . .
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