2018-01-21

改教家如何看待伊斯兰教?How Did the Reformers View Islam?

作者Matthew Miller  译者:  Duncan Liang

宗教改革期间,伊斯兰教的推进是“新闻”大事。土耳其帝国的推进在16世纪中期达到高峰,在政治和军事方面威胁欧洲基督教王国。虽然欧洲军队在1529年维也纳城门外将土耳其人赶了回去,但伊斯兰势力已如此纵深进入这事实,在接下来几十年间让基督教欧洲“极其惊惶”。[1]因此,虽然改教家首要与罗马天主教会争战,但他们也不时关注伊斯兰教。改教家除了解释伊斯兰教的性质,还思想上帝要教会从“土耳其人”(当时与“穆斯林”是同义词)向外表作基督徒的人推进这件事上吸取什么教训。
During the Reformation, the advance of the Muslim religion was very much “in the news.” The advancing Turkish Ottoman Empire, which reached its height in the early to mid-sixteenth century, posed an unnerving political and military threat to European Christendom. Even though the armies of Europe turned back the Turks at the gates of Vienna in 1529, the fact that the forces of Islam had made it that far left Christian Europe “severely rattled” for decades to come.1 Thus, while primarily doing battle with the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformers also gave occasional attention to Islam. In addition to explaining the nature of Islam, the Reformers pondered what lessons God wanted the church to draw from the advance of “the Turks” (synonymous then with “Muslims”) upon an outwardly Christian people.

我们刚刚记念了宗教改革五百周年,发现自己被同样的问题困扰。看起来是时候问,改教家如何看待伊斯兰教?
As we’ve just recognized the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation, we find ourselves troubled by these same questions. It seems timely to ask, how did the Reformers view Islam?

伊斯兰教的性质
THE NATURE OF ISLAM

改教家并不认为伊斯兰教是世界其中一种大宗教”,与亚伯拉罕有关三大信仰之一。他们而是最主要把穆罕默德的教导看作是一种偏离基督教信仰的异端。
The Reformers did not consider Islam “one of the world’s great religions” or “one of the three Abrahamic faiths.” Rather, they predominantly thought of Muhammad’s teachings as a heretical deviation from Christianity.

  “异端”一词源自于希腊文,意思就是“挑选”,按此理解,一种基督教异端,就是不领受基督教整体信仰,而是挑选某些元素,牺牲其余元素。剩下来的,就是从基督教信仰中抽取,但已不再是基督教信仰的事情。教会历史上两种最有名的异端就是亚流派异端(这异端否认亘古三位一体),以及伯拉纠主义(这种异端否认原罪,教导人可以靠行为得救)。教会与异端的争战是一场持久战。
The word heresy comes from the Greek meaning “to pick, to choose,” and as such, a Christian heresy does not receive the Christian faith as a whole but rather selects certain elements at the expense of others. What’s left is something that has been extracted from Christianity but is no longer Christianity. Two of the most well-known heresies in church history are Arianism (a heresy that denies the eternal Trinity) and Pelagianism (a heresy that denies original sin and teaches salvation by works). The church’s struggle against heresy has been perennial.

伊斯兰教于第七世纪在一个曾受基督教影响的地区兴起声称保留了上帝在旧约和新约圣经原来的启示虽然伊斯兰教宣称基督教的圣经已经败坏。它也保留了一神论的认信以及相信灵魂不死。但它拒绝几样至关重要的基督教信仰元素主要就是三位一体和道成肉身的教义。换言之,它在基督教信仰里挑选,和众多异端的做法一样。
Arising in the seventh century in a region once influenced by Christianity, Islam purports to retain the original revelation of God given in the Old and New Testaments (though Islam claims that the Bible possessed by Christianity is corrupted). It also retains the confession of monotheism and a belief in the immortality of the soul. It rejects, however, several critical elements of Christianity, chiefly the doctrines of the Trinity and of the incarnation. In other words, it picks and chooses from among Christian beliefs, as heresies do.

因此,在伊斯兰教成立后不到一个世纪,那位叙利亚人,伟大的基督教神学家,大马士革的约翰把伊斯兰教归类为众多异端的一种。在约翰的《论异端》一书中,他最详细关注伊斯兰教,讲到穆罕穆德,“这人偶然读到旧约和新约圣经和相关书籍之后,似乎与一位亚流派(异端)修道士交往,发明了属于他自己的异端。”约翰凸显了极多关注点,包括(1)穆罕默德宣称领受了启示,却没有见证人;(2)穆斯林容许人娶超过一位妻子(最多四位);(3)他们容许丈夫轻易与妻子离婚。
Accordingly, writing less than a century after the founding of Islam, the great Christian theologian (and native of Syria) John of Damascus categorized Islam as one among many heresies. In his book Concerning Heresy, John gave his most extended attention to Islam, writing of Muhammad that “this man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testament and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an Arian (heretical) monk, devised his own heresy.” John then highlights numerous points of concern, including that (a) the revelation Muhammad claimed to receive was received without witnesses; (b) Muslims allow men to take more than one wife (up to four); and (c) they allow men to divorce their wives easily.

12世纪,真福彼得(Peter the Venerable10921156)专注使用第一手资料研究伊斯兰教,甚至委托人将伊斯兰教的圣书完整译为优雅的拉丁文。彼得然后写书论述伊斯兰教,坚持认为它是一种基督教异端,一种已经如此偏离,接近异教的异端。[2]
In the twelfth century, Peter the Venerable (1092–1156) devoted himself to studying Islam in its original sources, even commissioning a complete translation of Islam’s sacred writings into elegant Latin. Peter then wrote about Islam and maintained that it was a Christian heresy, one that went so far afield as to approach paganism.2

到了十六世纪改教家的时候,我们看到慈运理在苏黎世的继任人布林格(15041575),他查考并广泛著述伊斯兰教,超过所有其他改教家。布林格也把伊斯兰教看作是由几种异端组成的一种异端——否认三位一体,否认基督中保赎罪的工作,以及断言人类可以靠行为得救,他把这一点与伯拉纠主义异端联系在一起。[3]布林格认为,穆罕默德宣称是上帝的先知,这就应验了耶稣在约翰福音5:43的教导:“我奉我父的名来,你们并不接待我;若有别人奉自己的名来,你们倒要接待他。[4]
As we come to the Reformers in the sixteenth century, we encounter Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575), Huldrych Zwingli’s successor in Zurich, who studied and wrote more extensively about Islam than any other Reformer. Bullinger also viewed Islam as a heresy composed of several heresies—the denial of the Trinity, the denial of Christ’s atoning work as mediator, and the affirmation that human beings can be saved by works, which he connected to the heresy of Pelagianism.3 Bullinger understood the claim that Muhammad was God’s prophet as fulfilling what Jesus taught in John 5:43: “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.”4

 我们有名的先辈加尔文又如何看待伊斯兰教?他在写于1550年的帖撒罗尼迦后书注释中简单提到了“土耳其人”,那是在讲解帖后2:3的地方。加尔文描写伊斯兰教是一种“背叛”,已经“广泛传播”,认为穆罕穆德的作品是“让跟从他的土耳其人离开基督”。结果就是,加尔文说伊斯兰教“用暴力将教会几乎一半撕裂抢走”。[5]
And what of our celebrated forebear John Calvin? In his commentary on 2 Thessalonians, written in 1550, Calvin briefly references “the Turks” when commenting on 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Describing Islam as a “defection” that has “spread more widely,” Calvin understands Muhammad’s work as that of “turn[ing] his followers, the Turks, from Christ.” Consequently, Calvin says that Islam “in its violence tore away about half of the Church.”5

加尔文描写伊斯兰教的影响时,也诊断了伊斯兰教神学错谬的根源。加尔文大力倡导唯独圣经,把这错谬归咎于他们错误的圣经论。虽然穆斯林表面持守旧约和新约圣经的启示,但他们承认另外的启示(就像今天的摩门教),因此他们“并不保守自己紧紧停留在圣经范围之内!”[6]
In describing its effects, Calvin also diagnoses the root theological error of Islam. Ever the champion of sola Scriptura, Calvin lays the blame at the feet of their faulty doctrine of Scripture. For though they ostensibly hold to revelation given in the Old and New Testaments, Muslims recognize additional revelation (in much the same way that Mormons do today), and thus they “keep not themselves fast enclosed within the bounds of Holy Scripture!”6

总结来说,改教家普遍认为伊斯兰教是一种基督教异端,选取了一些基督教信仰元素,拒绝其他元素,在真基督教信仰已被信仰和生活实质堕落遮蔽的地方扎根传播。那么改教家为当时的教会吸取了什么经验教训?
In summary, the Reformers broadly viewed Islam as a Christian heresy that, having selected some elements of Christianity and rejected others, took root and spread in areas where true Christianity had been eclipsed by substantial degeneration in faith and life. What lessons, then, did the Reformers draw for the church in their day?

给教会的教训
LESSONS FOR THE CHURCH

布林格观察说,伊斯兰教在历史上是在基督教信仰已经严重降格,脱离圣经规范的地方兴起。因此布林格认为,伊斯兰教实际上是上帝对基督教信仰整个地区邪恶生活的审判——他留意到,这就正如上帝在旧约圣经中使用外邦人(如非利士人、亚述人和巴比伦人)惩戒祂走偏路的百姓。[7]因此布林格祷告上帝让教会看到伊斯兰教的推进要求她作出两种回应:第一,为她自己的罪和失败悔改,第二,(相应)就是向穆斯林宣教的回应。[8]
Bullinger observes that Islam historically rises in those places where Christianity has severely degenerated from biblical norms. Accordingly, Bullinger suggests that Islam is actually God’s judgment on the evil lives of whole regions of Christianity—just as, he noted, God used foreign peoples (such as the Philistines, Assyrians, and Babylonians) to chasten His wayward people in the Old Testament.7 Thus, Bullinger prays that the church will see the advance of Islam as requiring two responses: first, the response of repentance for her own sins and failings, and second (and subsequently), the response of missions to the Muslim people.8

加尔文也把伊斯兰教看作是对各地基督徒发出的警告:“因此让我们认真留意,我们必须让自己持守纯正的信仰。”[9]这要从坚定委身圣经开始。加尔文在一篇根据约伯记所作的讲道中重申:“魔鬼般的好奇并不甘于单纯受教于圣经!也要留意——土耳其人的宗教在建立在什么基础上!穆罕默德记载说自己是要带来完全启示的那一方——在福音之上,超越福音。[10]
Calvin also sees in Islam a warning for Christians everywhere: “And therefore let us mark well, that we must hold [ourselves] to the pure religion.”9 This begins with a steadfast commitment to the Holy Scriptures. In a sermon on Job, Calvin reiterates: “Devilish curiosity is not contented to be taught simply by the Holy Scripture! Behold also—whereupon the religion of the Turks is founded! Mahomet [Muhammad] has reported himself to be the party that should bring the full revelation—over and besides the Gospel.”10

改教家认为,伊斯兰推进到从前相信基督教地区,这是上帝对于从前基督徒堕落灵命光景的审判。因此他们呼吁,基督徒每次听到伊斯兰教威胁和成功的消息,就要聆听上帝要人悔改的呼吁,特别要听到上帝要人持守圣经、唯独持守圣经的呼吁。只有因着这样的悔改和对圣经的忠心,教会才能期望上帝祝福他们向穆斯林宣教的工作。我们很难看不到今天对应的情况,在五个世纪之后,我们见证伊斯兰教正正就在西方推进兴旺,而在西方,宗教改革的信条和普世基督教传统已遭破坏,被人拒绝,人转而相信世俗人文主义。
The Reformers understood the advance of Islam into formerly Christian regions as God’s judgment on the degenerate spiritual state of formerly Christian peoples. Accordingly, they called Christians to hear God’s call to repentance whenever they heard news of Islam’s threats and successes, and especially to hear God’s call to hold to Scripture and to Scripture alone. Only out of such repentance and faithfulness to Scripture can the churches then expect God’s blessings on their mission efforts to the Muslim peoples. It is hard to miss the parallels today—five centuries later—as we witness Islam advancing and flourishing precisely in the West where the tenets of the Reformation and of the universal Christian tradition have been corrupted by, or rejected in favor of, secular humanism.

描述今天的伊斯兰教
DESCRIBING ISLAM TODAY

改教家的洞见并不局限于他们才有。罗马天主教学者别洛克Hilaire Beloc20世纪写作强调同样的基本立场:“穆罕穆德主义伊斯兰教是一种异端必须首先把握这基本点然后才能再进一步。它开始的时候是一种异端,不是一种新宗教……它扭曲了基督教教义。它的生命立和持久力很快为自己披上一种新宗教的外衣,但与它兴起同时代的人,是按它的真相看它——不是否认,而是采用和误用了基督教的事情。”有名的C.S.路易斯同样简明讲到伊斯兰教:“伊斯兰教只不过是基督教各种异端当中最大的而已。”(God in the Dock
The perspective of the Reformers did not remain confined to them. Writing in the twentieth century, the Roman Catholic scholar Hilaire Beloc maintained the same basic posture: “Mohammedianism [Islam] was a heresy: that is the essential point to grasp before going any further. It began as a heresy, not as a new religion. . . . It was a perversion of Christian doctrine. Its vitality and endurance soon gave it the appearance of a new religion, but those who were contemporary with its rise saw it for what it was—not a denial, but an adaptation and a misuse, of a Christian thing.” And the renowned C.S. Lewis spoke succinctly of Islam in the same way: “Islam is only the greatest of Christian heresies” (God in the Dock).

在今天的政治讨论中,人敦促我们的领袖要正确“认出敌人”,意思就是按伊斯兰教恐怖主义的本相看待它。但作为基督徒,我们也必须正确认出伊斯兰教本身。把它称为“世界上重要一神论宗教的一种”,这就掩盖了这事实,即从基因方面来说,伊斯兰教认定自己有特权从基督教信念中作挑选,确立它自己的信念——这就正如教会自从存在以来不断与之争战的其他大型异端一样。
In political discussions today, it’s been urged that our leaders properly “name and identity the enemy,” which means calling Islamic terrorism what it is. But as Christians, we must also name and identify Islam itself properly. Calling it “another of the world’s great monotheistic religions” hides the fact that Islam, genetically speaking, assumed the prerogative to pick and choose from among Christian beliefs to establish its own—just as other great heresies that the church has battled throughout her existence have done.

保罗劝勉提摩太“嘱咐那几个人不可传异教……但命令的总归就是爱,这爱是从清洁的心和无亏的良心、无伪的信心生出来的。有人偏离这些,反去讲虚浮的话,想要作教法师,却不明白自己所讲说的、所论定的。”(提前1:3-7)。人很难找到比这更贴切的描述,用在默罕默德身上。
Paul exhorted Timothy to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. . . . The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions” (1 Tim. 1:3–7). A more apt description of Muhammad one would be hard-pressed to find.

认出伊斯兰教是一种异端,这让我们能把它逐点与基督教信仰作对比,认出伊斯兰教具体的多个偏离点,重新坚持强调我们特有的教义(三位一体、道成肉身、圣经的全备性、唯独因信唯独靠恩典得救)。
Identifying Islam as a heresy enables us to contrast it point by point with Christianity, marking Islam’s specific and several points of departure, and to lay claim to our distinctive doctrines (the Trinity, the incarnation, the sufficiency of Scripture, salvation by grace alone through faith alone) with renewed devotion.

认出伊斯兰教是一种异端,也有助于我们相信,防备伊斯兰教的最好办法,就像防备任何异端一样,就是我们自己要坚持不加掩饰和不加妥协的基督教信仰,不管我们这时候,在我们国家,这样的基督教信仰是多么不受欢迎。正如伊斯兰教第七世纪在堕落的基督教地区兴起,同样今天它在世界一些地方传播,那里的人已偏离了一种不妥协的全备基督教信仰。
Identifying Islam as heresy also helps us to be confident that the best defense against Islam is the same as that against any heresy—namely, our own commitment to unvarnished and uncompromised Christianity, however unpopular that may be in our time and in our land. For just as Islam arose in the seventh century in an area of degenerated Christianity, so it spreads today in those parts of the world where people have turned away from an uncompromised, full-orbed Christian faith.



按同样脉络,一位从前的阿拉伯穆斯林,后来成为一位基督教牧师的贾迪德牧师(Rev. Iskandar Jadeed)曾经说过:“如果所有的基督徒都是名副其实的基督徒,今天就不会再有伊斯兰教。
It is in that vein that a former Arab Muslim who became a Christian pastor, Rev. Iskandar Jadeed, once said, “If all Christians were Christians, there would be no more Islam today.”

或者正如加尔文在四个世纪以前说的:“因此让我们认真留意,我们必须让自己持守纯正的信仰。
Or, as Calvin put it four centuries ago, “Let us mark well that we must hold [ourselves] to the pure religion.”


[1] Stuart Bonnington, “Calvin and Islam,” The Reformed Theological Review, vol. 68, no. 2 (August 2009): 77.
[2] Emidio Campi, “Early Reformed Attitudes towards Islam,” Theological Review 31 (2010): 134.
[3] Ibid., 144.
[4] Bullinger, Reply to SevenCharges (1574), Reply 34r-v, quoted in W.P. Stephens, “Understanding Islam– in the light of Bullinger and Wesley,” EQ 81.1 (2009): 24.
[5] Calvin, Sermon on Deuteronomy,quoted in Campi, 146.
[6] Campi, “Early Reformed Attitudes towards Islam,” 146.
[7] Ibid., 145.
[8] Ibid., 145.
[9]Ibid.,146–47.
[10]Ibid.,146–47.

 Rev. Matthew Miller is director of the Greenville campus of Erskine Theological Seminary in Greenville, S.C.


本文原刊于Tabletalk杂誌2018年一月号