| To hear is to see
Hearing relates to the vocative—that
is, being addressed by another. Someone speaks into our existence. The source
of this speaking is unique and uniquely creative within human life through decisions
and actions, generating events beyond the sum of material items that constitute
our surroundings. In the vocative, we are confronted, not by the world of things
but by relationships. In a relationship, information may
be exchanged but an event occurs beyond what is seen as tangible. The phenomenon
of being addressed by another precedes and exceeds any correlation of facts as
to whom or what this person is by reference to a context. In the vocative, I am addressed by
another as unique as myself. I may see this person but beyond seeing is the inner
event that goes unseen as heard—the event of address. I am addressed, however
incidentally, by a specific person who is in proximity to my existence—not a hypothetical
parent, partner, child, sibling, friend or colleague, but this person here at
this time. I exist as an addressed-one among
many who likewise have as their primary locale of meaningful existence the fact
of being addressed by specific others. No one is merely constituted as a bundle
of facts and statistics. The vocative establishes me as a person, which precedes
any such data about my material existence within phenomena. Being addressed by another, I am
also held to account by another, which occurs at various levels of ethical response
as responsibility, whether this responsibility is ultimately appropriate and accepted
or not. Whatever transacts in the acceptance or rejection of responsibility, it
occurs through the initial prism of vocative address or summons by another and
volitional response. As volitional, response to another
person is particular to each. It is therefore a response to the vocative, even
if no words are uttered. By responding or ignoring I answer another who has addressed
me. The vocative gives me a unique relationship to every other, who is also unique
beyond generic nomination—social, racial, economic etc.—but as addressed and summoned
by another to some form of personal response. The vocative invokes hearing and
response, an interpretive process in which deliberative choice is called forth
in the addressed, unlike nomination, which relates to collation and systemisation,
and does not require a moral volitional decision unless the vocative enters. The
vocative requires a relational or social response, which is therefore intrinsically
ethical. Phenomena may be correlated and ordered
into data that is then applied to certain use. This use in the context of others
will involve interpretation that extends well beyond the first procedure, collating
and ordering, ultimately involving the vocative. Interpreted data in the social
realm will become a question of: What is my response—acceptance,
rejection, obedience or refusal? It will be vocative. v The biblical tradition of resistance to idols and satire
of idolatry is central to the incursion of a word that is volitional and significant
for existence founded on the vocative register of human experience in eventful
hearing and response. The prophetic satire of idols makes
the point that these figures and images remain dumb. They cannot speak for the
Absolute. The idolater cannot see that what is made an ultimate source of meaning
as a medium of the Absolute is consumed for warmth and cooking. It is one with
the material objects that can cease to exist. These are consumed in sustaining
daily existence. There is total passivity. An idol is unable to give effect to anything of eventful
consequence. A material idol is of less value than the material that has pragmatic
use (Isa. 44). This is a decisive word on the status
of the material vis-à-vis human existence; it is of pragmatic use but is
dumb as a medium of the divine. This satire is repeated in brief
sketches throughout Scripture. The stupidity of the idolater is in assuming that
mere matter, what can be nominated within a generic series, could represent the
Absolute. The alternative is the living and evocative, volitional and relational
word of hearing and response, which cannot be represented but is given effect
in eventful and responsible human life. The vocative encounter is not primarily
aesthetic—based on appearance of the more or less beautiful—but volitional, relational
and ethical, even if adorned with the aesthetic, which is seen for having heard
in inheriting a social language. Language is always and already ahead of us in
the vocative. The vocative encounter is not a static
space, like the idol and the Absolute, but living and eventful, responding to
temporal and volitional factors in the midst of acting subjects in time. It occurs
eventfully as a word otherwise than our own because it always
comes from beyond my assimilative powers to control or to determine. v Biblical testimony is primarily concerned with hearing in
contrast to the eidetic world of Greek philosophical tradition with its legacy
of seeing and evidence (an idea is to see Gk. idein
to see). If something is to be seen, in biblical testimony it must
also be heard or interpreted as heard. Whoever has ears to hear implies
that existence is always before an otherwise—even as another familiar person—which
is encountered in word, hearing and volitional response. Consequently, the enigmatic
sayings throughout Scripture that reiterate in various ways the aphorism: Let
the one with ears to hear, hear.* If they look and do not
see, what is to be seen is not seen because there is no hearing or word from
which to interpret what is before one’s eyes. A word might illuminate something,
its absence leave it unperceived. To hear is to see. While it is possible to see persons
as objects, in the biblical priority of hearing, the vocative and therefore interpersonal
is primary. A vocative word that comes from another, however proximate, will also
be a word otherwise than our own. In the vocative encounter, there
is the possibility of grace as humans encounter limits to their assumed self-standing
among others. They also encounter creative possibilities through a new word, such
as the word of forgiveness, dignity, accountability, encouragement or love. The New Testament everywhere gives
testimony to the supreme initiative of vocative address as the eternal Word becoming
flesh. Christ the Word speaks into human existence as vocative word and volitional
deed, calling to relationships and responsibility in grace. In the absence of this vocative incursion
of another word and our response, we could never be sure that humans are not consigned
to listen to murmurings of the elemental as the only word to be heard as an imprimatur
on human existence. Even vociferous competing ideologies pertaining to the elemental
cannot rise above murmurs of matter that, like dumb idols, can say nothing about
the uniqueness and dignity of human life. The vocative word of grace speaks
otherwise than the elemental phenomena surrounding humans. It is only in hearing
this word that we can see our world in light that gives light as it gives pre-eminence
to the creative word of love and the call to response and responsibility in grace.
*Variations:
Isa. 6:9; Jer. 5:21, 6:10; Ezek. 12:2; Matt. 13:9-17
and parallels; Acts 28: 25-28; Rom. 11:7-8; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22;
13:9. Method
sources: Levinas; Husserl |
