The Parable of the Sower: A Hermeneutic Reading of the Text and the Painting (Van Gogh) 3700-AL-PS-OG

Every reading of the text is conditioned by our previous understanding. Therefore, there is no reading without doing certain violence to the text in terms of imposing our own horizons of understanding on it. However, hermeneutic experience considers those fore-understandings and prejudgments and invites new horizons of meaning by exposing the reader to yet unknown dimensions of understanding. This unconditional openness of the reader toward the unknown contributes to the multifaceted growth in understanding the matter of the text, which, in turn, leads to an enlarged self of the reader. This enlarged self is the self-transgressing of one’s own particularities to understanding without expecting the final overcoming of them from oneself. It always welcomes the new and unexpected in one’s own horizons of understanding.

Understanding oneself “happens” through the reception of the world of the text. The text is the medium through which we understand ourselves. There is a reciprocal relationship between the text and the reader. The reader understands him/herself better when he/she better understands the text. To understand oneself, therefore, is to confront the self with a lingual expression that discloses new possibilities for existence. The journey to self-understanding is a detour of interpretation. This interpretation involves the various signs, symbols, and texts which disclose the character of human life and its world. Understanding of the textual meaning leads to self-understanding.
The parable of the sower is available in the Synoptic Gospels (Mt 13:1-23, Mk 4:1-20, and Lk 8: 4-15). St. Matthew masterfully tells the short story of the sower with powerful suspense. After the invitation to think through, to work through (Durcharbeiten), the reader is suspended. The prophetic admonition follows: Who has ears, let him hear (Hörenlassen).

The parable of the sower is about the agent of this action, about sowing, caring for the seed, and recognizing the stages and conditions of growth. It is a story about the sower’s care for himself, his responsibility for being in the world with Others, for the world as our ecosystem (οἶκος), and for the sustainable development of our lifeworld. It is oikopo(i)etics in the strict sense of the word as the po(i)etic way of dwelling between the sky and the earth, humans, and divinities. It is about being together in the world (Miteinandersein) when togetherness is perceived as gathering.

Like in many of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, the sower’s generous sharing and spreading conveys not only his professional dedication but the very giving of himself. This is a lyrical and expressional movement, like in a dance, lingering at the threshold where and when something is happening, wondering and marveling (θαυμάζω) about the mystery of the beginning (ἀρχή, An-fang), how it really works, the movement back and forth, the explosiveness of the seed. It depicts the parabolic journey, an interpretive pathway toward understanding the mystery of life and death.

The symbolic figure of the sower indicates the circle of life. Van Gogh was obsessed with the rich entanglements between the sower and sowing, reflecting constantly on his personal vocation as a painter. To understand his life and the work of art, van Gogh brings the beginning (ἀρχή) and the eschatological future (ἔσχατον) to his painting. It is precisely the condensation of meaning that is happening on the canvas. The circle of life is depicted in this opportune moment (καιρός) of sowing, and yet this moment itself (Augenblick) is long gone or has not come yet. Hence, van Gogh’s technique: rapid strokes to catch the moment. Like the sower breathes (in-spiro, einhaucht) new life into the seed, encourages and promises (zuspricht und verspricht), the painter dwells in the realm of hope to reveal himself on the canvas while dedicatingly standing in service to the Witness of Painting.