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2020-10-18

 宗教改革紀念日
Reformation Day

作者: Timothy George  譯者:誠之
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2009/10/reformation-day
https://www.h-land.us/blog/f06417f0-0f1a-11eb-bdcc-558086d9b702?fbclid=IwAR2y1ENDOYbf3pKvUWrxhlfsWpdUVaf1ozsdlQ06xRIlVSDiKi9ybFCuRHs
 
 15171031日,這個所有聖徒的日子,大約是下午兩點鐘,馬丁路德拿著錘子,來到威登堡城堡教會(the Schlosskirche, Castle Church)的北門,把他的〈九十五條論綱〉釘在教堂的大門上,以抗議當時教會對贖罪券的教導和實踐。為紀念這個事件,成千上萬的基督徒至今仍慶祝這個象徵宗教改革開始的日子。例如在比森神學院,我們不慶祝萬聖節,而是舉行一個宗教改革的晚會。
It was around two o’clock in the afternoon on the eve of the Day of All Saints, October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther, hammer in hand, approached the main north door of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg and nailed up his Ninety-Five Theses protesting the abuse of indulgences in the teaching and practice of the church of his day. In remembrance of this event, millions of Christians still celebrate this day as the symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation. At Beeson Divinity School, for example, we do not celebrate Halloween on October 31. Instead we have a Reformation party.
 
但這個事件真的發生過嗎?一位天主教的學者Erwin Iserloh,把這個張貼論綱的故事,歸因給日後的傳說故事。他指出,這個故事最先是莫蘭頓(Philip Melancthon)在路德死後講出來的。其他研究路德的學者們,紛紛為這個威登堡釘錘的歷史性辯護。事實上,城堡教會的大門,的確被用來作為大學正式的公告板,經常被用來作為公佈像路德所作的這類公告,要大眾一起參與有關贖罪券的討論。
But did this event really happen? Erwin Iserloh, a Catholic Reformation scholar, attributed the story of the theses-posting to later myth-making. He pointed to the fact that the story was first told by Philip Melanchthon long after Luther’s death. Other Luther scholars rushed to defend the historicity of the hammer blows of Wittenberg. In fact, the door of the Castle Church did serve as the official university bulletin board and was regularly used for exactly the kind of announcement Luther made when he called for a public disputation on indulgences.
 
這個事件到底是不是發生在下午2點鐘,或甚至是否實際上發生過,並不是重點。但路德寫就的論綱的副本,確實很快地被人文主義學者傳播到全歐洲,這的確是事實。在幾個禮拜之內,這個在一個偏僻的大學城中,本來籍籍無名的奧古斯丁派的修士,忽然成了家喻戶曉的人物,並且變成了眾人口中談論的對象。
But whether the event happened at two o’clock in the afternoon, or at all, is not the point. Copies of Luther’s theses were soon distributed by humanist scholars all over Europe. Within just a few weeks, an obscure Augustinian monk in a backwater university town had become a household name and was the subject of chatter from Lisbon to Lithuania.
 
路德並沒有想要分裂教會,更不是要創立一個全新的教會。直到他生命結束前,他都認為自己還是一個忠心順服獨一、聖潔、大公、使徒教會的僕人。雖然路德聲明放棄他修士的誓言,並與一位還俗的修女凱瑟琳(Katarina von Bora)結了婚,他從來沒有忘記他接受過一個聖經博士的學位。他的天職是教導神的話,並把男男女女帶到聖經的主,也就是耶穌基督的面前。
It was not Luther’s intention to divide the Church, much less to start a brand new church. To the end of his life, he considered himself to be a faithful and obedient servant of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Though Luther renounced his monastic vows and married a former nun, Katarina von Bora, he never forgot that he had received a doctorate in Holy Scripture. His vocation was to teach the written Word of God and to point men and women to the Lord of Scripture, Jesus Christ.
 
在這個宗教改革紀念日中,我們應該記得馬丁路德是屬於全教會的,不是專屬於路德會和新教徒,有如阿奎那(Thomas Aquinas)對所有宗派忠心的信徒來說,是基督徒智慧的一個寶藏,不只是屬於道明會和羅馬天主教一樣。幾周之前(2009年),包約瑟(Franz-Josef Bode),北德Osnabrück的一位天主教的主教,當他在一個聯合崇拜中以路德為題講道時,也承認了這點。他說道,「路德如何徹底地把上帝放在中心,是很迷人的!」路德教導說,世上每個人在生命的每個時刻,都絕對地直面上帝(coram deo)——在上帝面前,與上帝面對面,接受祂的質問——這帶領他質問當時教會重大的錯誤,以為恩典和赦罪可以像市場的商品一樣進行買賣。「以基督、聖經和神真實可靠的話為我們的焦點,是今日羅馬天主教會所唯一需要強調的。」包約瑟說。這位主教的觀點受到第二次梵蒂岡會議後許多神學家的回應,路德的教導,特別是他對神的話的尊崇,在許多方面都受到讚賞,這在一個世紀以前是無法想像的。
On this Reformation Day, it is good to remember that Martin Luther belongs to the entire Church, not only to Lutherans and Protestants, just as Thomas Aquinas is a treasury of Christian wisdom for faithful believers of all denominations, not simply for Dominicans and Catholics. This point was recognized several weeks ago by Franz-Josef Bode, the Catholic Bishop of Osnabrück in northern Germany, when he preached on Luther at an ecumenical service. “It’s fascinating,” he said, “just how radically Luther puts God at the center.” Luther’s teaching that every human being at every moment of life stands absolutely coram deo ”before God, confronted face-to-face by God”led him to confront the major misunderstanding in the church of his day that grace and forgiveness of sins could be bought and sold like wares in the market. “The focus on Christ, the Bible and the authentic Word are things that we as the Catholic church today can only underline,” Bode said. The bishop’s views have been echoed by many other Catholic theologians since the Second Vatican Council as Luther’s teachings, especially his esteem for the Word of God, has come to be appreciated in a way that would have been unthinkable a century ago.
 
 2009年標誌著普世信義宗聯會(Lutheran World Federation)和天主教會所簽署的〈因信稱義聯合聲明〉(Joint Declaration of Justification)的第10周年。如同1997年的「福音派與天主教攜手運動」(Evangelicals and Catholics Together)所共同發表的「救恩的禮物」(The Gift of Salvation),這個因信稱義聯合聲明代表在某種程度上,天主教會和改教教會對信心這論題有了更為一致的看法(a convergence)。我們可以引用一句路德派最喜歡的話,信心的問題是教會存亡的關鍵。例如,聯合聲明主張:
The year 2009 marks the tenth anniversary of the Joint Declaration of Justification between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church. Like The Gift of Salvation statement issued by Evangelicals and Catholics Together in 1997, the Joint Declaration represents a measure of convergence between Catholic and Reformational understandings of that article of faith by which the Church either stands or falls, to quote a favorite Lutheran saying. For example, the Joint Declaration asserts, “We confess together: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”
 
「我們一同承認,我們之所以得神的接納,領受聖靈,唯獨是靠著恩典,因著信心,並藉著基督的救贖工作,而不是因為我們所作的任何功德。聖靈更新我們的心,並裝備我們,呼召我們去行善。」
For example, the Joint Declaration asserts, “We confess together: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”
 
但對稱義有更接近的看法並不等於在救恩論上所有的看法都達成了共識。聯合聲明的起草者被迫在文件之後加上了一個附錄,描述了一個未獲解決的差異:一個信徒同時既是義人又是罪人(simul iustus et peccator)。這是路德的觀念。稱義和成聖如何聯繫到基督徒的一生,仍然有待辯論。在這些問題和其他許多有關權柄和教會的問題上,向前走的方法不是去把這兩個傳統間仍存在的一些深層差異越描越黑,而是公開地承認其存在,並繼續以禱告,以及更深入地查考聖經,得到新鮮的亮光,共同來奮鬥。前進的道路是在認信上達成一致,而不是在妥協上達成一致。
But convergence on justification does not equal consensus on all aspects of the doctrine of salvation. The framers of the Joint Declaration itself were forced to add an annex to the document delineating unresolved differences on simul iustus et peccator , Luther’s idea that justified believers are at one and the same time sinful and righteous before God. How justification and sanctification are related in the life of the Christian still continues to be debated. On these and many other issues related to authority and ecclesiology, the way forward is not to smudge over deep differences that remain between the two traditions but to acknowledge them openly and to continue to struggle over them together in prayer and in fresh engagement with the Scriptures. The way forward is an ecumenism of conviction, not an ecumenism of accommodation.
 
幾年前,我的朋友樂馬可(Mark Noll)要我為他的書《宗教改革結束了嗎?》(Is the Reformation Over)寫一些話。我的回應是說,只有當它的目標完成了,宗教改革才算結束。事實上,在某種程度上,宗教改革是成功的,在羅馬教會內的改革,比一小部分新教世界的改革還要來得更大。路德神學中恩典的勝利,過去是——現在也是——對整個基督的身體的服事。路德不是沒有缺點,但是我們無法想像他會被封為聖人。(記得:simul iustus et peccator!)但是1933年卡爾巴特曾經問的一個關於路德的問題,仍然值得我們在這個宗教改革紀念日沉思:「基督教會的教師紀念路德最好的方式,除了聆聽他之外,還有更好的辦法嗎?」
Several years ago I was asked to endorse a book by my friend Mark Noll called Is the Reformation Over? I responded by saying that the Reformation is over only to the extent that it succeeded. In fact, in some measure, the Reformation has succeeded, and more within the Catholic Church than in certain sectors of the Protestant world. The triumph of grace in the theology of Luther was”and still is”in the service of the whole Body of Christ. Luther was not without his warts, and we can hardly imagine him canonized as a saint. (Remember: simul iustus et peccator !) But the question Karl Barth asked about him in 1933 is still worth pondering this Reformation Day: “What else was Luther than a teacher of the Christian church whom one can hardly celebrate in any other way but to listen to him?”
 
 Timothy George是三福德大學比森神學院(Beeson Divinity School of Samford University)的創校教務長。他是First Things雜誌編委會的成員,也是今日基督教雜誌的資深編輯。