Something Like the Middle Voice

Abstract

How much more attuned the ear may become to the middle voice of Gelassenheit if it is orientated toward Biblical doctrines of grace depends on whether these doctrines require faith from the person in the state of grace, as does the doctrine of the Jewgreek who wrote Ephesians 2: 8—9, on whether faith requires will and on whether will is my initiative. It is not at all easy to see how anything, including faith, can be my initiative on a reading of that account which exclusively opposes faith or trust to my works and deeds. The King James version has ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.’ If my faith were my doing, an act of faith willed by me, or the outcome of my initiative, it would be something of which I might boast, something for which I might take credit. The New English Bible translates dia pisteos (per fidem) as ‘through trusting him’, namely Christ. That this is a deed for which I am responsible is underlined by Galatians 2: 15—16, for which the NEB has ‘We ourselves are Jews by birth, not Gentiles and sinners. But we know that no man is ever justified by doing what the law demands, but only through faith in Jesus Christ; so we too have put our faith in Jesus Christ, in order that we might be justified through faith, and not through deeds dictated by law; for by such deeds, Scripture says, no mortal man shall be justified.’

approche d’autrui

Emmanuel Levinas, Éthique et Infini