加尔文的敬拜观JohnCalvin’s Views on Worship

------罗伯特•戈弗雷博士在格林维尔神学院敬拜研讨会上的发言

文/长老会与改革宗新闻杂志 译/煦 校/述宁

https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2003/john-calvins-views-on-worship/

https://www.churchchina.org/archives/170303.html

The great danger the church faces today is the separation of our theology from our practice or the viewing of the Bible as somehow separate from theology

by Dr Robert Godfrey

一、背景

2003年3月11日，在南卡罗来纳州的泰勒斯市格林维尔神学院关于敬拜的研讨会上，加利福尼亚威斯敏斯特神学院院长戈弗雷（Robert Godfrey）探讨了约翰•加尔文的敬拜观。戈弗雷博士也是一位教会历史学的教授，并在北美联合归正教会事奉。他以朗读诗篇第2篇并解释对于加尔文常见的误解开始。戈弗雷博士说，人们认为加尔文是一个“无趣的、煞风景的、毁了日内瓦人生活的人。”人们对加尔文的这种消极反应始于16世纪，那时“他的敌人散播谣言说他的妻子死于无聊。”

In Taylors, South Carolina on March 11, 2OO3, at the Greenville Seminary Conference on Worship, Robert Godfrey, President of Westminster Theological Seminary in California, discussed John Calvin’s views on worship. Dr. Godfrey, who is also a church history professor as well as a minister in the United Reformed Churches of North America, began by reading Psalm 2 and by addressing common misapprehensions regarding Calvin. People think of him, stated Dr. Godfrey, as a "joyless killjoy, ruining people’s lives in Geneva." People have had this sort of negative reaction to Calvin since the l6th century when, ‘His enemies circulated the rumour that his wife had died of boredom"

在加尔文主义者中关于加尔文的误解也几乎同样比比皆是，因为我们认为他是一位神学家甚于把他看作是一位牧师。但戈弗雷博士说，我们不能将“神学家加尔文”与“牧师加尔文”分开来，因为牧师不仅关注真理，而且还关注真理的服事与应用。

Nearly as many misapprehensions abound about Calvin among Calvinists because we think of him as more of a theologian than as a pastor. We must not, Dr. Godfrey said, divorce Calvin the theologian from Calvin the pastor, one concerned not only with the truth but with the application and ministration of that truth.

今天教会面临的巨大危险是我们的神学与我们的实践分离，或认为圣经在一定程度上是与神学分离的。加尔文认为真正的神学没有不是出自于圣经的，而来自于圣经的神学是统一连贯的。戈弗雷博士说，当看到人们认为改教神学没有充分的圣经依据而拒绝它时，是令人痛心的。关于加尔文在回答他人时是否过于尖酸刻薄，戈弗雷的回应是，今天大多数做出这样指控的人对圣经的了解不及约翰•加尔文或马丁•路德的十分之一。

The great danger the church faces today is the separation of our theology from our practice or the viewing of the Bible as somehow separate from theology. Calvin believed that there was no theology that did not come out of the Bible, but that out of the Bible came a theology of coherence. It is distressing, President Godfrey said, when people dismiss the theology of the Reformation as being not adequately Biblical. Concerned with being "mean spirited" in his reply, Godfrey responded that most people today who would make such a charge do not know one tenth as much about the Bible as John Calvin or Martin Luther did.

加尔文没有把他的神学与圣经分开或与他的牧养分开。他是一位出色的讲道者，虔诚的牧师，一位自己写要理问答的教义教导者，一位探访病人的探访者，一位辅导者，一位非常关心宣教、关心普世教会、关心教会体制和教会纪律的人。

Calvin did not separate his theology from the Bible or from his pastoring. He was an extraordinary preacher, a devoted pastor, a catechist who wrote his own catechism, a visitor of the sick, a counsellor, and one deeply concerned about missions, ecumenism, church polity, and church discipline.

二、加尔文论敬拜

按照戈弗雷博士的说法，在生活每一个领域，加尔文都是一位牧者，他也是一位对敬拜有着仔细思考的牧师。

He was, according to the seminary president, a pastor in every area of life, and he was a pastor in the matter of the careful thought he gave to worship.

在他的论文《关于教会改革的必要性》（由改教运动领导人提交给皇帝查理五世的一份文件）中，加尔文写道：

In his treatise, "On the Necessity of Reforming the Church," a document to be presented by the leaders of the Protestant movement to the Emperor Charles V, Calvin wrote.

基督教何以长期存在于我们中间并保持她的真理？如果要按照事情的主次来查究，那么你会发现以下两方面不仅占据了主要位置，而且它们也涵盖了所有其他部分，并且因此它们就是基督信仰的整个实质，即，第一，关于恰当地敬拜上帝的方式的知识；其次，关于得救来源的知识。

"If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly; the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained."

戈弗雷博士表示，加尔文将敬拜排在第一，认为其重要性超过得救，是出于一个非常重要的事实，即得救是达到某种目的的一种手段，而敬拜就是这目的本身。戈弗雷博士说，我们得救是为了现在和永远敬拜上帝，而我们的公众敬拜是我们将来天上敬拜的预演。所以，对于约翰•加尔文来说，敬拜不是外围性的，而是基础性的。

The speaker stated that Calvin’s ranking worship as first in importance over salvation is due to one very important fact, namely that salvation is a means to an end, with worship being the end itself: We are saved, Dr. Godfrey said to worship God, now and eternally, with our public worship being a foretaste of the heavenly worship that awaits us. So, worship was not peripheral to John Calvin but fundamental.

才华横溢的红衣主教沙杜里多（Sadoleto）是一位宗教改革的批判者，加尔文在回答他的信中写下了这些话：“没有什么比一个荒谬和不正当的敬拜对我们的得救更加有害。”加尔文对敬拜非常重视，他写道：“让我们知道并完全相信，只要信徒们按照神的话语所指定的，以正当的形式并且单纯地敬拜他，无论他们在哪里聚集来进行这一庄严的敬拜，因着恩典，他必临在他们中间。”

In Calvin’s reply to Cardinal Sadoleto, one of the brilliant defences of the Reformation, Calvin penned these words: "There is nothing more perilous to our salvation than a preposterous and perverse worship of God." Calvin took worship very seriously. He wrote, "Let us know and be fully persuaded, that wherever the faithful, who worship him purely and in due form, according to the appointment of his word, are assembled together to engage in the solemn acts of religious worship, he is graciously present, and presides in the midst of them."

戈弗雷博士说，这就是我们的敬拜所失去的（很大程度上是由于复兴传统）——敬拜主要不是为了让人们得救或教导会众，而是与上帝会面。他认为有些人被更重视礼仪的教会吸引，是因为去这样教会的人通常明确自己是去与上帝会面的，而在我们福音派教会里，我们常常失去了敬拜中那种虔诚参与的感觉。

This, Dr. Godfrey said, is what has been lost in our worship due largely to the Revivalist tradition – the fact that worship is not primarily about getting people saved or about instructing people but about meeting with God. He stated he believes that people’s attraction to more liturgical churches is that in such churches it is often clear the people have come to meet with God, and too often in our Evangelical churches we have lost that sense of reverent anticipation in worship.

“与上帝会面”也许是对敬拜最佳的简短定义，这是加尔文所理解的。加尔文因此觉得敬拜必须按照上帝的话来构造。虽然加尔文的著作中没有出现“限定性原则”（Regulative Principle）这一说法，但这种观念在他的著作里是普遍存在的。对于戈弗雷博士来说，那些认为清教徒的敬拜观不如加尔文的敬拜观念“开放”的人，好像没有读过加尔文所说的：

"Meeting with God" is perhaps the best brief definition of worship, and it is something Calvin understood. Calvin felt as a result that worship must be structured according to God’s word. Although the phrase "Regulative Principle" does not appear in Calvin’s writings, the idea is pervasive. Those who suggest that the Puritans were less open in their ideas of worship than Calvin can suggest such only, it seems to Dr. Godfrey, if they have not read Calvin who said:

我知道，要说服世界相信这一点是多么困难的事:上帝反对所有明显不符合他的话语的敬拜模式。错误的信念根深蒂固，好像是深入他们的骨骼和骨髓，就是，无论他们做什么，只要它具有某种荣耀神的热心，就足够被认可了。

"I know how difficult it is to persuade the world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word. The opposite persuasion which cleaves to them, being seated, as it were, in their very bones and marrow, is, that whatever they do has in itself a sufficient sanction, provided it exhibits some kind of zeal for the honor of God."

戈弗雷博士说，大多数人认为，如果他们在敬拜中所做的是真诚的，上帝就会高兴。这是不对的。不管你有多真诚，如果你错了，你仍然错了。再次，根据加尔文下面的话：

Most people think, Dr. Godfrey stated, that if what they do in worship is sincere, God will be pleased. This is not true. It doesn’t matter how sincere you are. If you’re wrong, you’re still wrong. Again, according to Calvin:

但是，不管我们怎样热情地敬拜上帝，却背离了他的命令，上帝不仅会视这样的敬拜为无用，而且也很讨厌；我们怎么通过一个相反的过程获益？上帝的话语是清晰的，“听命胜于献祭。”“他们将人的吩咐当作道理教导人，所以拜我也是枉然。” （撒上 15:22；太15:9）。在他的话语之外添加的任何东西都是谎言，特别是在这个问题上。单纯的“崇拜意愿”是虚荣。这是定论，一旦法官做了决定，就不再有辩论的余地。

"But since God not only regards as fruitless, but also plainly abominates, whatever we undertake from zeal to His worship, if at variance with His command, what do we gain by a contrary course? The words of God are clear and distinct, ‘Obedience is better than sacrifice.’ ‘In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,’ (1 Sam. xv. 22; Matth. xv 9). Every addition to His word, especially in this matter, is a lie. Mere "will worship" is vanity. This is the decision, and when once the judge has decided, it is no longer time to debate."

戈弗雷博士说，“这和所有清教徒的观点一样‘狭隘’。”加尔文认为，我们本性是偶像崇拜者。我们在第一诫中看到，我们不能随意地敬拜他神。第二诫也涉及偶像崇拜的问题，它提醒我们不要以错误的方式来敬拜真神。以色列人建造金牛犊的时候，是要用它来代表耶和华的，而不是另一个神！

"That," said the church history professor, "is as narrow-minded as any Puritan ever was." Calvin believed we were by nature idolaters. We see in the first commandment that we are not free to worship other gods. The second commandment also relates to the problem of idolatry and warns us against worship of the true God in a false way. When Israel built the golden calf, it was meant to be a representation of Yahweh, not another god.

根据加尔文的说法，“经验告诉我们，人类头脑中谬误的土壤是多么肥沃，再小的谷物被播种都会得到巨大的收获。”

According to Calvin, "Experience teaches us how fertile is the field of falsehood in the human mind and the smallest grains when sown there will grow to yield an immense harvest."

加尔文认为人心是偶像加工厂，这就解释了为什么加尔文认为有必要对我们的敬拜如此谨慎。戈弗雷博士说，因为我们在敬拜方面很容易堕落，我们迫切需要从上帝那里得到充分的启示，告诉我们如何敬拜；而加尔文认为我们已经得到了这样的详尽启示。他看到，在我们的敬拜中，我们常常想取悦自己，而不是取悦上帝。加尔文写道，“不容置疑的是，在神圣热情的掩盖之下，迷信的人们放纵肉体；撒旦用作诱饵的虚假敬拜模式是那样的有吸引力，以至于他们心甘情愿地渴望被俘获并且顽固地留在那里。”

The fact that Calvin believed human hearts to be factories of idols explains why Calvin thought it so necessary to be so careful about our worship. Dr. Godfrey stated that because we are so prone to corruption in our worship, we are desperately in need of a full revelation from God about how we are to worship, and Calvin believed we have been given such an exhaustive revelation. He saw that too often, we want to please ourselves rather than please God in our worship. Calvin wrote, "Nor can it be doubted but that, under the pretence of holy zeal, superstitious men give way to the indulgences of the flesh; and Satan baits his fictitious modes of worship with such attractions, that they are willingly and eagerly caught hold of and obstinately retained."

加尔文也说，上帝与我们如此不同，那些最让我们开心的，对上帝来说却是可恶和恶心的，由此人性越喜爱的东西，信徒就越是应该怀疑。

Calvin says as well that God is so far unlike us that those things that please us most are loathsome and nauseating to God, that the more something delights human nature, the more it ought to be suspected among believers.

戈弗雷博士指出，中世纪的教会视自己为热情敬拜上帝的，集结自己所有的艺术天赋用于对上帝的敬拜。对于那时的教会来说，似乎人再也不能比在宏伟的大教堂里感觉更接近上帝。但是，这样的人类发明并没有忠实地表达出上帝所启示的他渴望被敬拜的方式。加尔文洁净了日内瓦的大教堂，去掉所有的圣像和宗教象征物。对加尔文而言，圣经是最重要的影响来源，但作为一个真正的大公教会的基督徒，他也仔细研究了古代教父们的著作，以检验自己对圣经的解释。他认为纯粹的敬拜包含两部分：话语的仪式和圣餐的仪式。

The professor pointed out that the Medieval church had seen itself as zealous in the worship of God and had marshalled all their artistic talents for the worship of God. It seemed to that church that one could not feel closer to God than one did in their magnificent cathedrals. But, such human invention did not express in a faithful, way what God has revealed about how He desires to be worshipped. Calvin purified the cathedral church in Geneva, taking out all images and religious symbols. The Bible was the most important source of influence for Calvin, but being a truly catholic Christian, he also studied care fully the writings of the ancient fathers of the church to test his own Biblical interpretation. He concluded that pure worship contained two parts: The liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the upper room.

关于圣餐，加尔文的结论是，应该每周施行。他认为圣餐是对福音的总结，由此他认为每次讲道都应该以领受主的晚餐作为福音性结尾，这是适当的。真正的得救信心是通过传讲福音而有的，而且这福音是透过圣礼向我们证实的。

Regarding the Lord’s Supper, Calvin concluded that it should be administered weekly. Believing that the Lord’s Supper is a summary of the Gospel, he believed there was an appropriateness that every sermon should end with the Gospel by the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. True saving faith comes by the preaching of the Gospel, and that Gospel is confirmed to us by the Sacraments.

论到话语的礼仪，戈弗雷博士说，在敬拜中上帝来与我们会面，而牧师的功能是向上帝的子民宣讲上帝的话语。这就是为什么牧师在讲道中没有权利说自己的观点。上帝的子民不应该从主日讲台接受牧师的个人意见，因为他在那里不是来说他个人的意见，而是把上帝施恩的管道带给上帝的子民。

Regarding the liturgy of the Word, God, said the URCNA minister, comes to meet with us in our worship, and the function of ministers is to speak God’s Word to the people of God. That is why a minister has no right ever in a sermon to speak his opinions. The people of God should not be subjected to a minister’s personal opinions on the Sabbath day from the pulpit, as he is there, not to speak his personal opinions but to administer the means of God’s grace to God’s people.

三、加尔文敬拜观的几个原则

 Several principles inform Calvin’s approach to worship.

首先是话语的中心性。宗教改革后的敬拜，尽管被指责为过于理性化，但实际上是符合上帝心意的。上帝给我们话语来学习。有人认为我们对于敬拜方式和教导不再需要小心，这种观点往往被概括为“在新约圣经中没有利未记。”戈弗雷说，新约里的确“有”利未记，就是使徒行传2:42。旧约敬拜和新约敬拜的区别不是在于：旧约是严格的，而新约是自由的；而是旧约是复杂的，新约是简单的。新约的“利未记”就是讲道、祷告、团契和圣礼。

1] First is the centrality of the Word. Reformed worship, though accused of being too intellectualistic, is in fact God’s idea. God gave us a Word to study. The suggestion that we are no longer meant to be careful in our direction and instruction for worship is often summarized that "There is no book of Leviticus in the New Testament." Godfrey said there is indeed a book of Leviticus in the New Testament, and its Acts 2:42. The difference between Old Covenant worship and New Covenant worship is not that one is rigidly instructed and the other is free. It is rather that the old is complex, and the new is simple. It is preaching and prayer and fellowship and sacraments.

然而，在我们的敬拜中我们不需要更多地投入情感了吗？当圣经教导我们敬拜的时候，它确实教导我们的头脑，但它也召唤我们的心参与其中。

Don’t we, though, need more emotion in our worship? When the Bible informs our worship, it does inform our minds, but it calls upon our hearts to be engaged as well.

第二个基本原则是简单性。这对加尔文意味着没有让人分心的事物，如精心的装饰和人类发明的仪式。加尔文反对艳丽的敬拜仪式。敬拜应该是单单专注于上帝的。

2] The second basic principle is that of simplicity. This meant for Calvin the absence of distractions such as elaborate decoration and rites of human invention. Calvin was opposed to showiness in worship. It should be rather a focusing on God in simplicity.

第三个原则是，当我们与上帝相遇时，我们在属灵方面得以提升。改革宗希望简单的敬拜场所的一部分原因是为了防止我们把它当作圣殿，因而不恰当地依赖于我们敬拜的场所。加尔文坚持改教传统，他知道我们真正敬拜的场所是在天上。我们看这天上的耶路撒冷，不是凭着我们的眼睛，乃是靠着信心，我们在敬拜中，就是向这锡安山举起我们的心与上帝相遇。我们不是在地上重建一座圣殿，因为我们作为新约儿女的特权就是在天上的圣殿和耶稣基督一起敬拜。

3] The third principle is that we ascend spiritually when we meet with our God. Part of the reason the Reformed wanted simple places of worship was to prevent our thinking of them as temples and thus becoming unduly attached to the place in which we worship. Calvin, in the Reformed tradition, knew that the real place in which we worship is Heaven. We see this Heavenly Jerusalem not with our eyes but by faith, and it is to this Zion that we lift up our hearts to meet with God in worship. We don’t recreate a temple here on earth, because our privilege as children of the New Covenant is to worship in the Heavenly temple with Christ.

第四，加尔文非常关注敬畏上帝。戈弗雷博士引用诗篇2篇，“当存畏惧事奉耶和华，又当存战兢而快乐。”然后他据此质疑强调快乐的当代敬拜，其中在快乐之外是否也应该有战兢。他说，快乐不能压过敬畏。当然，敬畏也不能压过快乐，但真正的快乐不只是滑稽或感觉不错。真正的快乐与敬畏之间并没有张力。加尔文写道：“纯粹和真正的虔诚就是：信心与对上帝真诚的畏惧如此不可分割，而这种畏惧也包括心甘情愿地敬畏，因而带出来按着律法规定的正当的敬拜”，“我们应该更加努力注意这个事实：所有的人对上帝都有一个模糊的尊敬，但很少人有真正的敬畏；只要有大排场仪式的地方，真诚的心就确实罕见。”

4] Fourthly, Calvin was very concerned about reverence. Dr. Godfrey quoted from Psalm 2, "Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling"; and then questioned whether or not contemporary worship, in which there is an emphasis on rejoicing, there is also trembling to accompany the rejoicing. Joy can’t trump reverence, he said. Neither, of course, can reverence trump joy, but real joy is not ‘just goofiness" or feeling good. There is no tension at all between real joy and reverence. Calvin wrote, "Here indeed is pure and real religion: faith so joined with an earnest fear of God that this fear also embraces willing reverence, and carries with it such legitimate worship as is prescribed in the law," and, "we ought to note this fact even more diligently: all men have a vague veneration for God, but very few really reverence him; and wherever there is great ostentation in ceremonies, sincerity of heart is rare indeed."

加尔文相信我们的情感应该参与敬拜，且我们被创造成有情感的存在。但他也认为，由于我们的堕落，我们必须非常小心我们的情感。

Calvin believed that our emotions ought to be engaged in worship and that we were created to be emotional beings. But he also believed that we must be very careful with our emotions due to our fallenness.

根据戈弗雷博士的说法，今天很多人似乎认为应该依赖我们的情绪，仿佛它在引导我们达到真诚和行动上是完全可靠的指南。十九世纪的复兴运动形式带着太多的自由放纵的情感主义。

According to the lecturer, many people today seem to think that our emotions are to be depended on as a totally reliable guide to genuineness and to action. Forms of 19th century Revivalism carried too much free reign emotionalism.

加尔文对敬拜中情感所扮演的角色的关注使他十分关注敬拜音乐。他明白音乐是我们在敬拜中表达我们感情的主要方式之一。因为知道它是强大的，其潜力不是有利就是有害，所以他非常仔细地考虑它。因此，他认为教会的音乐需要认真地监管。加尔文按照他所认为的早期教会的教导，在教堂只唱诗篇并淘汰乐器。他认为教会不应该保留乐器，正如不应该保留熏香和献祭一样。对于加尔文来说，诗歌最重要的是，我们应该有合适的话语来向上帝歌唱，配上可以适当地承载主题的旋律。我们唱的歌和我们如何唱之间一定有相应的关系。

Calvin’s recognition of the part emotions play in worship caused him to be very concerned about worship music. He understood that music is one of the chief ways by which we give expression to our emotions in worship. He thought about it very carefully due to knowing it was powerful and so had the potential to be either advantageous or pernicious. As a consequence, he believed music of the church needed careful regulation. Calvin, in following what he thought was the teaching of the ancient church, practised exclusive Psalmody and eliminated musical instruments in the church. He thought the church should no more retain musical instruments than that it should retain incense and sacrifice. For Calvin, the most important thing about music was that we should have the right words to sing to God supported by melodies that can appropriately carry the weight of the subject. There must be a correspondence between what we are singing and how we are singing it.

Calvin was deeply concerned about the heart in worship. While sincerity does not justify practice, correct practice doesn’t count much with God if it’s not coming from a sincere heart. We should, Dr. Godfrey said, meditate on Psalm 50 to be careful about more than just the externals of worship. We must be those who come to meet with God, to hear the Gospel, to praise and pray and be built up in the faith.

加尔文是一位出色的牧师，他的牧养和事奉融合了神学和实践，值得我们这些改革宗信徒仔细思考，以便帮助引导我们走上被更新的信心之路。

Calvin was a wonderful pastor, and it is his pastoral ministry in its integration of theology and practice that we need to ponder as Reformed people to help lead us in new paths of faithfulness.

Presbyterian and Reformed News, January-March 2003