block of text which opens and closes with narratives about the historical Isaiah (chs. 6–39) functions as ‘vision’ and ‘testimony’ from the past,28 to support the implied community wrestling with its own experience of judgment and hope. Whether Conrad’s apparent commitment to Stanley Fish and the hermeneutic which Conrad actually employs are completely consistent lies beyond the scope of these introductory remarks. What is important just now is for us to recognize in Conrad the presence of someone