Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

DIALOGICAL PERSONALISM REVISITED 217
is the ‘nature of the thou’ (Duhaftigkeit) of his consciousness,
synonymous with having the word.” 23
The very heart of Ebner’s thought is found in the first words
of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word.” 24 This is
the originating, creative, divine Word, which is before all things
– before history, before man – through which everything was
made, but was made flesh and became man: “everything that is,
is by means of the word,” 25 and Jesus Christ is the Word that
founds that word.
This creative, Johannine inspired word is the “body” of interhuman
dialogue, which constitutes or “places” (setzt) man’s
being. The Word (Verbum), the divine Thou of the Father, gives
origin to being. The word that “places” (setzt) being acquires its
meaning in the midst of a phrase (Satz). This is the foundation
of Ebner’s pneumatological thought: “The word is the primary
fact, the ‘place’ [position] of spiritual being – the relation between
the I and the thou – and of being in general. The logos is
not only a presupposition for thought but also for being.” 26
God created man by speaking to him: “I am and through me
Thou art.” 27 Thus, God placed the I in man: the I, created in the
relationship to his true Thou, to God, becomes conscious that he
exists and that God does not cease to address the word to him.
And man responds: “You are, and through You I am.” 28
The Prologue to John also announces the Word made flesh,
as a second creation for man, a rebirth, which reveals the ultimate
spiritual meaning of being for man as interpersonal life in
dialogue: “the light of man is in the word. Through it, consciousness,
as a fact of natural life, is transformed into self-con-
23
EDDA DUCCI and PIERO ROSSANO, in the introduction to their Italian
translation of EBNER’S Wort und Liebe, entitled Parola e Amore (Milan: Rusconi,
1983), 28, citing Ebner without further reference.
24
JOHN 1:1.
25
EBNER, Notizen (16. Juni 1922), in Schriften 2:301.
26
EBNER, Zum Problem der Sprache und Des Wortes, in Schriften, 1:65.
27
GREEN, 23; WR, Schriften 1:96.
28
DUCCI and ROSSANO, introduction to Parola e Amore, 28, citing Ebner
without further reference.