A Response to John Dickson's Hearing Her Voice (2 of 7)

Critique | A shift story?

One of the first responses to John Dickson’s Hearing Her Voice involved the observation that it was a ‘shift story’. 

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A ‘shift story’ is a form of argument in which an author describes his or her journey from ‘Point A’ to ‘Point B’, with the natural implication being that the reader should embark on a similar journey.  Rhetorically, it’s a powerful way to argue, because what it can do is leave the reader who disagrees with the argument feeling old-fashioned and conservative, quaint, even naïve and immature.  In our current context, it’s especially effective because we live at a time when what is new and fresh is nearly always better than what seems old and stale. 

As far as I could tell, this response to Hearing Her Voice was galling to John.  It was galling mainly because in his view, the ‘shift story’ aspect of his argument was so small as to be virtually non-existent, and also because it did nothing to address the substance of his argument.  It seemed to feel like a rhetorical ‘slap on the wrist’.

Several points can be made in response to all this:

·       Hearing Her Voice is definitely a shift story.  In fact, John expressly states at the start of the book (p9) that there was a process of changing his mind about what 1 Tim 2:12 means.  Therefore, it's a shift story.  I don’t think John disputes this, which is why in one facebook thread he expressly identified what he thought was the sum total of shift story elements in his argument.  I personally don’t think he got them all.  But I don’t think there were very many he missed out.  And in any case, the ones he missed weren’t as substantial as the ones he got, so there's no real advantage to be gained from quibbling over this detail.  If we all recognise that it's a shift story, let's move on.

·       one important consequence of it being a shift story, though, is that it does have a very strong rhetorical force.  For me, the overall effect was that I left the book feeling old-fashioned and not-yet-mature in the way that John is now mature, simply because I haven’t yet made the same journey from Point A to Point B that John has made.  As a result, it’s hard not to feel like I enter the conversation, even half a year later, in a negative and defensive position.  I don’t think this is what John was trying to achieve by writing it this way.  I think he was just writing personally.  And perhaps I've been an over-sensitive reader.  I’m just trying to articulate my own responses to the book, especially as it relates to the issue of it being a shift story.

·       most importantly, though, we should all be clear that recognising it as a shift story does nothing to engage with the substance of John’s argument.  More than that, to be fair, it’s very hard to think of another way that John could have written the book, given that this is, in fact, a shift that he has made.  Perhaps he could have written it without any personal elements whatsoever.  I have tried to imagine how such an argument would read.  It’s probably not an impossible task.  But it's certainly not the natural way to write it.  Therefore a different, and (I think) more charitable, way of reading the shift story elements of Hearing Her Voice is to say that by identifying what he used to think, John is simply inviting his fellow gospel workers into a conversation with him.  On a purely practical level, many of these fellow gospel workers are Sydney Anglicans, like myself.  They can, therefore, be assumed to still think the way that he used to.  Identifying this (old) common ground simply makes it more likely that we will engage with the argument.  As an example of how this works, if I am honest, there are many Christian books that I don’t even bother to buy or read, because I make a quick ‘gut call’ that the author is probably coming from a very different theological background to the one that I come from.  Therefore we will speak a different theological language, and have little common ground.  In the case of Hearing Her Voice, however, apart from our own personal knowledge of John’s theological background (if we have it), describing what he used to think is a valid way to overcome this kind of ‘gut call’ dismissal, so that those who share the same background will feel like it’s safe and worthwhile to enter the conversation.

What I think we need to do, therefore, is simply recognise that it is a shift story, and that it can’t really help but be a shift story, and then leave those observations to the side.  Those who have made a similar journey to John on this issue should not feel any inherent superiority because of it, and nor should they use it to put illegitimate rhetorical pressure on their ‘opponents’.  At the same time, those who have not yet made the journey should not feel any inherent inferiority because of it, and nor should they use it to illegitimately dismiss John’s argument.

Again, then, all we can do is engage in the substance of what John writes, and contend with each other for a right understanding of the text.