Rev. Father A. Maximiadis

Discussion regarding the ‘call’ (or ‘summons’) ought to include ‘imagination’. For convenience sake, and clarity, this term will be defined as a summons, from God or a bishop, to perform a particular task. Moreover, ‘imagination’ will be defined as a vehicular faculty of supernatural revelations or futuristic visions. The qualifier ‘anticipatory’ will be appended to vision thus: ‘anticipatory vision’, to avoid any misunderstanding. To prevent confusion with the creative imagination of writers and reproductive imagination in retrospective surveys of past experiences.

The ‘Call’ in The Tenach and The New Testament.

There are two meanings in the Tenach. Firstly, invitations from God to Abraham (Gen.12), Moses (Ex.3), Isaiah (6:8), Jeremiah (1:2). Moreover, Ezekiel (1:1), and Hosea (1:2) to engage in His philanthropic plans for mankind. For example Amos, a herdsman, a pincher of sycamore fruit. Amos was ‘called’, somewhere between 760 and 745 BC., to address the wanting socio-economic, religiopolitical, and moral conditions of the day. Moreover, perhaps inadvertently initiated a new period in the Hebrew prophetic tradition.

Καὶ ἀνέλαβέν με κύριος ἐκ τῶν προβάτων, καὶ εἶπεν κύριος πρός με Βάδιζε προφήτευσον ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν μου Ισραηλ.

Αμος, 7:15. LXX.

Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, And the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to My people Israel’.

Amos, 7:15 NKJV.

Secondly, man’s ‘call’ to God during times of danger, conflict et cetera, for example:

“πᾶσαν χῆραν καὶ ὀρφανὸν οὐ κακώσετε ἐὰν δὲ κακίᾳ κακώσητε αὐτοὺς καὶ κεκράξαντες καταβοήσωσι πρός με, ἀκοῇ εἰσακούσομαι τῇς φωνῇς αὐτῶν”.

Εξοδος, xxii:21,22. LXX.

“You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry”.

Exodus, xxii:22,23 NKJV.

Furthermore, in the New Testament, Jesus’ ‘call’ to His first Disciples: Peter, Andrew, James, John, at the sea of Galilee; and Paul on the Damascus road; in the 1st-century.

Περιπατῶν δὲ παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας εἶδεν δύο ἀδελφούς, Σίμωνα τὸν λεγόμενον Πέτρον καὶ ̓Ανδρέαν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, βάλλοντας ἀμφίβληστρον εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ἦσαν γὰρ ἁλιεῖς. καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς, Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου, καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων. οἱ δὲ εὐθέως ἀφέντες τὰ δίκτυα ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ. Καὶ προβὰς ἐκεῖθεν εἶδεν ἄλλους δύο ἀδελφούς ̓Ιάκωβον τὸν τοῦ Ζεβεδαίου καὶ ̓Ιωάννην τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ μετὰ Ζεβεδαίου τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῶν καταρτίζοντας τα δίκτυα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐκάλεσεν αὐτούς δὲ εὐθέως ἀφέντες τὸ πλοῖον καὶ τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ.

Μαθθαῖος, iv:18-22. GNT.

Now Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they immediately left their nets and followed Him. And going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

Matt. iv:18-22 NKJV.

Ἐν δὲ τῷ πορεύεσθαι ἐγένετο αὐτὸν ἐγγίζειν τῇ Δαμασκῷ, ἐξαίφνης τε αὐτὸν περιήστραψεν Φῶς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ πεσὼν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἤκουσεν φωνὴν λέγουσαν αὐτῷ, Σαοὺλ Σαοὺλ, τί με διώκεις; εἶπεν δέ, Τίς εἶ, κύριε; ὁ δέ, Ἐγώ εἰμι Ἱησοῦς ὅν σὺ διώκεις ἀλλὰ ἀνάστηθι καὶ εἴσελθε εἰς τὴν πόλιν καὶ λαληθήσεταί σοι ὅ τί σε δεῖ ποιεῖν.

Πραξεις, ix:3-6. GNT.

And as he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, Who are You, Lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said “Lord, what do You want me to do?” And the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Acts, 9:3-6 NKJV.

For an example of the anticipatory imagination, subsequent to the Pauline experience on the Damascus road in Syria, 14-centuries later; in France.

Jeanne d’Arc’s ‘Imagination’ and ‘Voices’.

Jeanne d’Arc, ‘La Pucelle’, is admired as a French patriot, a great National heroine. Jeanne believed she was inspired by divine guidance. She received her ‘call’ at Domrémy, Champagne circa 1425. Jeanne is a remarkable case in point who was quite conscious of her ‘call’. Moreover, able to identify her ‘voices’ as those of Saints Michael, Katherine, Margaret, and others. Also, the ‘call’ for her mission to ‘save France, from the British occupation, and crown the Dauphin; Charles VII’.

The eventual deliverance of Orléans in April-May, 1429, and coronation of the Dauphin on the 17 July did virtually saved France. Jeanne was canonized, 489-years later, as a holy maiden, in the Christian West by Pope Benedict XV; on 9 May 1920. Jeanne’s mission, although controversial and inconclusive among psychological and historical theorists, does however, appear to have demonstrated a reality-based outcome of the influence of the ‘call’ through the cognitive anticipatory imaginative processes of the human psyche.

A Biochemical and Neurological Framework.

The ‘call’ could be conceptualized in a reductionist and elemental schema, as this would have the effect of reducing cognitive activities to afferent neural pathways, which would exclude the metaphysical. Subsequently, omitting the supernatural, and diminishing the dignity and integrity of the human constructs of both demonstrable, and subjective ‘reality’; underlying the phenomenon of being. The importance of the biochemical and neurological influences underlying human (and animal) behavior, must be acknowledged. Notwithstanding the importance of these rationales (or synthesis), towards a satisfactory understanding of psychological phenomena is, as I understand it, incomprehensible. The identifiable structure, where these processes supposedly occur are through the activities of post-synaptic neurons (in the current scientific brain lateralization theory) in the parietal and occipital lobes of the right side hemisphere. Mediating this structure, particularly its abstractions of psychic representations in a psycho neural schema would require some very fanciful hypotheses. Perhaps the anticipatory imagination and ‘call’ could be considered in a Kantian type framework. That is to say, conceptualizing the commonalities between the properties. That is to say, ‘anticipatory imagination’ and the ‘call,’ in a holistic and interactionist schema within a set-theoretical model. With the reciprocal influences of these properties for evaluation. This, however, would be an ineffectual exercise if a verifiable logical conclusion were to be sought.

With the wisdom of hindsight, perhaps with retrospective falsification, or even editorialization, one might question the impulse. motivating the ‘call,’ or vice versa, suggesting it may have been an Adlerian, or Freudian counterbalancing towards bringing to others what one may have lacked in their formative years, or defense to suppress any supposed psychological anomalies from surfacing to consciousness. Others may perceive themselves as ambiguous functionaries, doubtful as to whether or not a decision, either way, could be logically validated due to the principles of verification dealing solely with cognitive processes. Another view might suggest that the abstract concept (the mind) cannot refer to the ‘call’, or any other private and subjective experience, independent of the phenomenal, unless one leaps into the realm of faith.

” ὁ δὲ εἶπεν, Τὰ ἀδύνατα παρὰ ἀνθρώποιςδυνατὰ παρὰ τῷ θεῷ ἐστιν.

(Λούκιος, xviii:27b. Greek New Testament) 

“The things which are impossible with men are possible with God”.

(Luke, xviii:27b. NKJV).

~ Finis ~