The worldviews differ in respect to the roles of seeing and hearing. In the classical view, the true knowledge is vision, theoria. It is the vision of eternal truth. One therefore makes a distinction between theoria and praxis. One must first grasp the vision and then, in a second step, find ways of embodying it in action. Readers of the Bible will have noticed that these terms are totally absent. Because ultimate reality is personal, God’s address to us is a word conveying his purpose and promise, a word which may be heard or ignored, obeyed or disobeyed. Faith comes by hearing, and unbelief is disobedience.

—Leslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence