The Performative and the Prophetic

The authentic prophet, to borrow from Camus, is willing to speak out clearly and pay up personally

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Faith Virtue

Philosophers are intrigued by “performative speech.” In the right circumstances, “I promise” binds the speaker to act as promised. Similarly in the right context “I thee wed” binds one to a shared conjugal life. The British philosopher J. L. Austin spoke of “illocutionary acts,” that is, speech acts that accomplish, rather than describe, what they say. Here’s another example: “I bet the Dodgers win the World Series.” (Pity the foolhardy fan!)

On a linguistically related note, activist artists are intrigued by “performance art.” Their works are not in galleries, much less museums. Rather they practice their art on the streets or in parks and often in ways that surprise their unsuspecting audiences. I enjoy, for instance, the “flash mobs” that surface in shopping malls to sing traditional Christmas carols. With equal vigor, in years past, Catholic Worker folks would sometimes ride Wall Street elevators and voice such fiscal provocations as “Time is money!” and “The dollar is your best friend!” and “Buy now and save later!”

Of late, what’s linguistically trending, to use the argot of the day, is the accusatory label “performative,” as in “merely performative,” and the withering charge of “performative activism.” Such pejoratives aim to “call out” the pseudo-friends of social justice reforms. (“Virtue signaling” is a similar phenomenon.) Critics of the merely performative claim that its devotees are self-serving and, worse still, undermine the very reforms they allegedly support. The complaint, in other words, is “with friends like this, who needs enemies?”

In contrast to the merely performative is the truly prophetic. But given the human condition, there are probably more false than true prophets. So how are we to tell the difference? One mark of the authentic prophet, to borrow from Camus, is that he or she is willing to speak out clearly and pay up personally.

Humility is another mark of the real prophet. In awe of God’s glory, Isaiah cries out “Woe is me! I am lost… I am a man of unclean lips.” In response an angel brings a burning coal to the prophet’s mouth and says, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.” Thus healed, when God seeks out a prophet, Isaiah offers his service: “Here I am! Send me” (Isa 6:6–8). Indeed, Isaiah would prophesy the coming of the Messiah and that he would be “as one from whom others hide their faces…despised and held of no account” (Isa 53:3).

Whether in the best or worst of times, even the true prophet expects naysayers. It is Jesus himself who tells us that “No prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke 4:24). During World War II, few Germans were ready to recognize the mission of the White Rose Conspiracy. Today, few Americans are willing to acknowledge the pro-life witness of the Ploughshares Movement or the Red Rose Rescuers. Perhaps this comes as no surprise.

But I am dismayed that, in effect, Vatican policy still turns aside the insistent testimony of Hong Kong’s Cardinal Joseph Zen. China has set its face against religious freedom. Its program of Sinicization aims to eviscerate the faith of Christians and Muslims as well as Tibetan Buddhists. Some defenders of the Vatican policy seem to suggest that anything but a subservient “making nice” would amount to indulging in, well, the merely performative. No doubt too many of us are fainthearted spectators of the persecution of others. Even so, speaking up clearly, at last, is the best way to honor the heroism of the many Chinese Catholics who have paid up personally and the many who continue to do so. “May their memory be eternal.” Thus pray the Jews, our older brothers in the faith, for their beloved dead. Let us do the same for China’s martyrs and those who will join them.

 

Jim Hanink is an independent scholar, albeit more independent than scholarly!

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