Page - 35 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

“This Voice Has Come for Your Sake” | 35www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 35–47 ABSTRACT The gospel of John confronts the problems of human finitude and separation from God and others. Its theological innovations push at the boundaries of time and space, invoking the senses as vehicles for healing separation. The act of hearing is particu- larly significant and draws on biblical and rabbinic concepts. Perception, couched in the sense organs, is the source of understanding God. Philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Henri Bergson consider the role of sense-perception in understanding the self in relation. Transhumanism promotes the extension of sense-capabilities of hearing and seeing. Enhancement of the senses allows greater capacity for the self to develop, re- duces alienation, and provides the possibility, in secular terms, of what John promised in religious terms, “more abundant life” (John 10:10). KEYWORDS Gospel of John, voice, hearing, senses, incarnation, Deleuze, Bergson, transhuman- ism, disability, enhancement BIOGRAPHY Claudia Setzer (Ph. D. Columbia) is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan Col- lege in Riverdale, NY. Her books include, The Bible and American Culture: A Source- book (Routledge, 2011, with David Shefferman), Resurrection of the Body in Early Judaism and Early Christianity (Brill, 2004), and Jewish Responses to Early Christians (Augsburg Fortress, 1994). She studies early Jewish-Christian relations, women in the Greco-Roman era, nineteenth-century women interpreters of Scripture, and the Bi- ble in American culture. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Biblical Literature and on the Steering Committee for the Recovering Women Interpreters of Scripture group at the Society of Biblical Literature. In 2006 she founded the Columbia University Seminar on the New Testament and has chaired the Early Jewish-Christian Relations group at the Society of Biblical Literature. Claudia Setzer “This Voice Has Come for Your Sake” Seeing and Hearing in John’s Gospel