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2019-12-29


郁金香的根:多特信经与宗教改革的神学传承

2019宗教改革研讨会:多特信经| 洛杉矶华宗恩约教会讲座
讲员:Daniel R. Hyde  译文:大迪

在第二部分:多特信经与改革宗的神学传承中,我们从历史过渡到神学,从教义背景过渡到教义认信。

多特信经是以1610年的《抗辩书》五要点为架构的:预定、补赎、败坏、回转和保守。为了回应每个要点,多特大会不是只写了一个反对论点,而是每一要点都成为一项“标题”(头)或教义的主要论点。在这些要点上,他们以许多条文的形式草拟了一连串的信仰“准则”或判决。每一项要点都包含两部分:有关正统改革宗教会认信的正面条文,然后是对包含在抗辩派著作中具体错误的驳斥。在每项标题下,头几条条文都阐述了每个教义要点的背景共识(《多特信经》1.142.173 / 4.12455.12),然后有一条过渡条文,定义了这项教义(《多特信经》1.72.83 / 4.365.3),最后是几条条文,内容涉及上帝的公义和罪的过错对教牧和信仰实践的含义,人在救恩中的责任,得救的确据,敬虔和蒙恩之道的重要性。

我会从不同于你的期望的角度,来看对多特的这些教义。我们会从《使徒信经》的有利位置来看:“我信……圣而公之教会。”这句话把这些教义定位在教会历史的故事中,认定这些教义是在“神的家”(弗2:19)里,而且是建立在“使徒和先知的根基”(弗2:20)上的教义。这是我的论点:我们经常把“加尔文主义五要点”称为“改革宗的特色”,好叫我们自己从拥挤的教会环境中凸显而出。这样做,我们会错失这样的认识,就是“我们改革宗的”教义其实是大公教会的发展和讨论里的另一篇章。

没有“加尔文主义五要点”

没有“加尔文主义五要点”。我是什么意思呢?

首先,提出五要点的是抗辩派。反抗辩派或正统派只是用几个相反要点来回应这五要点。然后多特大会阐述了这些要点。这对我们的回忆和重温非常重要。为什么呢?我们改革宗教会的信仰内容,并没有总结在多特信经中,当然也没有总结在现代美国式的、而且过于简化的缩写“郁金香” TULIP里。理查·穆勒(Richard Muller)总结了不同的观点,他说TULIP的缩写是20世纪初的产物,重新排列了抗辩派的实际观点和多特信经的回应(更像是ULTIP),而且在17世纪的荷兰不可能想到这个缩写。为什么呢?因为郁金香的荷兰语是tulp

回到主题,在多特大会前夕,荷兰神学家费图司·霍米乌斯(Festus Hommius15761642)在他写给多特大会代表的作品中总结了这场争端:《放眼荷兰的争议》。霍米乌斯的观点是:“整个争端只和这五个特定问题有关……这样的概念是不够充分的,这只是亚米念派对实际发生的事情的描述。” 因此,把改革宗信仰归纳为五要点是亚米念派提出的!

任何有学识的改革宗人士都知道,我们相信的内容已在《比利时信条》的37条和《海德堡要理问答》的129个问答中得到了承认。你看过YouTube频道上的“改革宗暴徒的生活”(Reformed Thug Life?)吗?上面有很多“五要点人士”令人难忘的引句。重点来了:我们认为, “五要点人士”,确实是在展示他们的神学实力!但是在多特大会之前,有基于《海德堡要理问答》和《比利时信条》的“166点加尔文主义”,在多特之后则添加了93条条文和驳斥,出现了“259点加尔文主义”。这就是真正改革宗的 “暴徒生活!”

因此,穆勒说,加尔文主义不只有五要点,而且,就信仰告白和从加尔文到凯波尔的改革宗教理神学家来说,不可能有“五点加尔文主义者”或“五点改革宗基督徒”这种事。这些人只拥有从多特信经抽出来五条条文,却拒绝接受真正改革神学提出的其他“要点”。

多特信经的大公性

这引出了我们的第二点:多特信经的大公性。多特大会的辩论是大公教会的辩论。用塞恩·休斯(Seán Hughes)的话说:“在此期间,几乎所有基督教传统,包括罗马天主教和东正教,都对恩典教义进行了深刻的辩论。” “多特教义背后的神学议题并不纯粹属于‘加尔文主义者’,在其他基督教传统中,也可以找到类似的思想”。关于预定、补赎、败坏、回转、保守的教义,以及它们的正面条文和对错误的驳斥,都源于西方大公教会的历史。

多特信经是“主流”的历史教义。普法尔茨的代表们建议多特大会像古代大公会议那样,用简短有力的条文来写作其回应。詹姆士国王指示他的代表要以一种反映古代大公会议反对伯拉纠和半伯拉纠的方式来撰写,而不使用与改革宗信仰告白相符的新用语,并且尽可能不要冒犯路德派。这是英国修道士伯拉纠(Pelagius360418)和奥古斯丁(Augustine354430),以及之后奥古斯丁和卡西安(John Cassian360435)之间旷日持久的辩论。在迦太基议会(Councils of Carthage418)和奥兰治会议上确定了其主要特征(Councils of Orange529)。

奥古斯丁简洁地陈述了他的神学:“上帝拣选信徒,但是祂拣选的目的是要叫他们成为信徒,而不是因为他们已经是信徒。” 这种预订论的观点可以从奥古斯汀一直追溯到宗教改革。因此,范·阿瑟特(van Asselt)结论说:“多特大会的神学争斗涉及到整个西方教会中奥古斯丁传统的核心。”

让我们特别来看多特信经第一项教义的第15条:

圣经特别强调我们的拣选这一永恒、不配得的恩典,并且更加清楚向我们表明它,因为圣经进一步证实,并不是每个人都被拣选,而是有一些人没有被拣选,或者说有一些人在上帝永恒的拣选中被越过——对于这些人,上帝基于祂完全自由、完全公义、无可指摘、不可改变的美意,做出了以下决定:把他们留在普遍的悲惨中,这原是他们因自己的过犯自陷其中;不把得救的信心与回转的恩典赐给他们;而是按着祂公正的判断,让他们偏行己路,最终彰显祂的公义,定罪并永远刑罚他们,不仅因为他们的不信,也因为他们所犯的其他各样罪。这就是遗弃的旨意,它绝不使上帝成为罪的始作俑者(这种念头本是亵渎),相反这表明上帝是大而可畏、无可指摘、绝对公义的审判官,按着公义报应各人。

我们的三一上帝以祂惊人的恩典拣选了一些堕落的人,使他们得救。这里会出现一个合理的问题:其余未蒙拣选的人,他们的命运如何呢?当我们以谦卑的心来探讨这个题目时,保持正确的视角是很重要的。辛尼玛(Sinnema)说:“对于遗弃,加尔文主义者没有一致的观点。‘正统’加尔文主义神学家在一些要点上的差异虽然很重要,但这些差异还没有深到会造成分裂的程度。”

例如,人们普遍认为,改革宗神学承认所谓的“双重预定论”(double predesination)。约翰派博(John Piper)称自己为“七点加尔文主义者”,因为他承认五要点和额外的两点真理,即双重预定和最好的世界。然而,双重预定并不是改革宗独有的,甚至它究竟有什么涵义,改革宗神学家也没有一致的看法。从奥古斯汀开始就有对双重预定的讨论。上帝的预定有两个方面,拣选和遗弃,并不代表这两个方面完全对等,而是相似的。

在多特大会后不久,安东尼奥·瓦劳斯(Antonius Walaeus)会说:“预定论被正确地用来指代遗弃和拣选,但这不是表示在各方面都有相同含义的两个类别,而只是表示两者相似。”上帝“积极地”预定了一些人得生命,与他们的善行无关,而那些没有蒙拣选的人,则“被动地”、“消极地”遗留在他们的罪过中,因为他们配得死亡;祂随后主动地因着他们的罪而定旨他们最终的定罪。

第十五条说圣经的明确见证是:不是所有的人,而是只有一些人是蒙拣选的。教导上帝拣选一个特定的人得救的一些圣经经文,也是在教导上帝没有拣选其他人。我们当中没有一个人配得到恩典。当你真正理解这点时,就可以明白什么是遗弃。它特别会向我们说明并劝诫我们,拣选是永恒的、人不配得的恩典。我们知道拣选是恩慈的,但上帝对那些在永恒旨意中未蒙拣选的人,为什么还是公义的呢?

第十五条给出的答案是,“上帝基于祂完全自由、完全公义、无可指摘、不可改变的美意,做出了以下决定:把他们留在普遍的悲惨中,这原是他们因自己的过犯自陷其中。” 这是因为他们自己的过犯才堕落在这种悲惨中。这正是奥古斯汀所说的。没有一个人配得救恩。因着亚当的罪我们都堕落了。所以,多特信经讲上帝越过那些未被拣选的人,上帝也没有把信心和回转的恩典赐给他们。这是为什么在上帝的遗弃中,上帝依旧是公正的。被上帝忽略而越过的人,上帝就以公正的审判任凭他们按照自己的方式行事,最后是为了宣告祂的公正,以永远定罪和刑罚他们,不仅因为他们不信,而且还因为他们其他的一切罪过。

上帝积极地以恩典拣选了某些人,并为他们准备荣耀。我们谈到拣选是积极的和直接的。另一方面,我们谈到上帝越过其他人,则是被动地或间接地保留、不赐予恩典。只有到那时,我们才能说到祂积极地把那些在罪中的人配得的定罪赐予他们。上帝造人,不是为了定人的罪,但亚米念派常以这种论调扭曲改革宗教义。多特大会希望保护上帝是良善和公义的这项教义。

15条以遗弃的谕旨结束:“这样的教义绝不使上帝成为罪的始作俑者(这种念头本是亵渎),相反这表明上帝是大而可畏、无可指摘、绝对公义的审判官,按着公义报应各人。” 这与奥兰治第二次大公会议(The Canons of the Second Council of Orange529)的决议一致,后者在它对信心的最终定义中说到:“但是,任何一个人是因为神的能力而注定成为邪恶,这种说法我们不仅不相信,而且如果有人相信如此邪恶的教义,我们要彻底憎恶他们,并要咒诅他们。”

在这点上,我们开始看到多特大会是独一、神圣、大公、使徒教会历史上的另一篇章。多特信经为我们彰显的是历史上的大公信仰。

当时的战斗,现在的战斗

讲述以上斗争的目的,不是为了让你现在像看博物馆展览品那样去看这些信条。保罗与律法主义和反律法主义的斗争、奥古斯丁与伯拉纠主义的斗争、路德与罗马天主教的斗争,以及多特信经与亚米念派的斗争,至今还在继续,从未中断。菲利普•沙夫(Philip Schaff)说:“亚米念争议是发生在改革宗教会内部最重要的争议。”至少对四百年后的我们来说,应该还是很重要的。

  1)在我们的战斗中,我们需要多特信经,以此来保存并传讲一个古旧的教义,就是上帝的恩典如何拯救像你我这样的罪人。我们已经堕入败坏的深渊,却复活得以定睛在上帝那永恆的爱上。我们被带到十架之前,俯伏在这为我们所作成的补赎面前。之后我们要站立,因为这补赎是如此充足,所以我们必须毫无分别地,在每一片大陆上,向各族各民、万国万邦广传这福音。我们经历圣灵那使人重生的大能(约3),它有效地把上帝之子的无限功德施作在我们这些罪人的心中。我们感受到作为基督徒的痛苦和挣扎,被天父所爱,却为爱而挣扎;与基督一同埋葬,却不断地挖掘我们自身的罪;被圣灵充满,却也被我们自己的情欲引入歧途。然而三位一体的上帝有大能保守我们安歇在祂慈爱的膀臂中,领我们进入天上的圣城。

 2)在我们的战斗中,我们需要这信条,因为它们与圣灵的声音相呼应,用一条又一条充满圣经真意的语言,向我们宣讲什么是靠着恩典而得救的意义。

3)在我们在战斗中,我们需要这信条,因为与其他历史上的信条或信仰告白不同,多特信经是以教牧心肠来应用圣经,解决基督徒生活中最紧迫的事情:得救的确据(1. 12-13165.9-13);人既被称义,又是有罪的(5.14-6);信徒婴孩的死(1.17);每周领受蒙恩之道(1.142.53/4.8-9175.1014),以及基督徒持守圣洁的必要性(1.185.12)。

  4)在我们在斗争中,我们需要这信条,因为它们是第一次和最后一次普世基督教改革宗会议的产物。菲利普•沙夫(Philip Schaff)称,多特大会是“改革宗教会历史上唯一具有普世特征的会议。在这方面,它甚至比西敏大会更重要,尽管西敏大会产生了更优秀的教义标准,但它的范围只局限于英格兰和苏格兰。” 作为一个国际会议,“多特大会发挥了普世改革宗教会议会的作用,是一个空前绝后的改革宗大集会。因此,多特信经不只是荷兰的产物,更是代表着当时整个改革宗群体内最优秀的头脑产生的普世教会共识。

在多特会议之后,当法国的改革宗教会面对自己内部关于恩典问题的争论时,在第23届在法国阿莱(Alais)召开的法国全国总会上(1620年)和第24届在查伦顿(Charenton)召开的总会上(1623年),都使用了多特信经来规范约束所有的牧师。后来,苏黎世的约翰•雅各布•布莱廷格(John Jacob Breitinger)博士说,如果圣灵曾在教会会议中出现,那祂就一定是出现在多特大会上。后来,每当巴塞尔的沃尔夫冈•迈耶(Wolfgang Meyer)谈起多特大会时,他都会脱帽高呼:“Sacrosancta Synodus(神圣的宗教会议)!”关于这次会议,英国清教徒约翰•欧文(John Owen1616-1683)说到:“那次会议的神学家们……被认为是荷兰所有改革宗教会(法国除外)所可能提供的最优秀神学家”。会议结束后,荷兰国家最高议会希望继续加强整个欧洲接受宗教改革的各公国之间的联络网,因此就把《多特法案》(Acts of Synod)的印刷本呈交各个君主。

5)我们需要多特信经,因为恩典值得我们为之奋斗。正如来自日内瓦的代表们所解释的那样:“亚米念派的教导岂不是亵渎上帝在祂无条件拣选中所当得的荣耀,亵渎基督在祂的救赎中所当得的赞美,亵渎圣灵在使人回转上的权能吗?它也削弱了基督徒在或生、或死中的安慰,撕裂了我们得救的确据。最后,这是削弱信徒内心对天父上帝的敬畏和信靠,反倒会点燃人内心的骄傲自大来反对上帝、荣耀自己,而不是荣耀上帝、荣耀基督。”




改教精神的没落与激进派的胜利ProtestantismIs Over and the Radicals Won

作者:Michael S. Horton    译者/校对者: 大迪/诚之

庆祝宗教改革500周年的喧闹依旧甚嚣尘上。去年(2016年),普世教会联合大会主席、瑞士牧师克里斯提娜.奥德奥(Chiristina Aus der Au)在柏林的一份声明中提到的问题:“宗教改革意味着勇敢的去破旧立新”。没错,这就是宗教改革的所发生的事:当时的平信徒和主教因信仰而遭受火刑,并且由于西方教会的分裂,导致人们变得厌倦了一成不变的旧习俗,并开始寻找非传统的信仰和生活方式。这和如今的我们并无二致!
Perhaps the most evident example of missing the point is the statement last year in Berlin by Christina Aus der Au, Swiss pastor and president of an ecumenical church convention: “Reformation means courageously seeking what is new and turning away from old, familiar customs.”  Right, that’s what the Reformation was all about: average laypeople and archbishops gave their bodies to be burned and the Western church was divided, because people became tired of the same old thing and were looking for nontraditional beliefs and ways of living—just like us!

在华尔街日报的皮尤研究中心的一份报告中显示:百分之五十三的美国新教教徒对马丁路德是宗教改革的发起人这事一无所知。奇怪的是,犹太人,无神论者,和摩门教徒却更熟悉路德。事实上,“只有不足十分之三的白人福音派基督徒能够因相信Sola fide的教义(即因信称义)而被认定为新教教徒。”
The Wall Street Journal reports a Pew study in which 53 percent of US Protestants couldn’t identify Martin Luther as the one who started the Reformation. (“Oddly, Jews, atheists, and Mormons were more familiar with Luther.”) In fact, “Fewer than 3 in 10 white evangelicals correctly identified Protestantism as the faith that believes in the doctrine of sola fide, or justification by faith alone.”1

今天许多自称是宗教改革继承者的人士,反而更像是当年激进的重洗派(Anabaptists)的后裔。事实上,我想用一个古怪的建言来做一个测试:我们是否可以把现代社会理解为,至少在某程度上说成是激进派的胜利?这听起来几乎毫无根据;毕竟,重洗派是那个时代最受迫害的一个群体——不仅受到来自教皇的迫害,还受到信奉路德宗和改革宗的地方官员地迫害。此外,今天的重洗派是和平主义者,他们通常避免与外界交往,他们也不像托马斯·闵采尔(Thomas Müntzer)那样的革命煽动者去组织暴乱并试图建立末世的共产主义乌托邦(革命者则扮演救世主式的统治者角色)。
Many today who claim the Reformation as their heritage are more likely heirs of the Radical Anabaptists. In fact, I want to test the waters with an outlandish suggestion: Our modern world can be understood at least in part as the triumph of the Radicals. At first, this seems a nonstarter; after all, the Anabaptists were the most persecuted group of the era—persecuted not only by the pope, but also by Lutheran and Reformed magistrates. Furthermore, today’s Anabaptists are pacifists who generally eschew mingling with outsiders, rather than revolutionary firebrands such as Thomas Müntzer, who led insurrections in the attempt to establish end-time communist utopias (with themselves as messianic rulers).

我指的并不是在宾夕法尼亚州农村的阿米什(Amish)社区。事实上,我并没有想到具体的一个对象,比如亚米念浸信会等等。我更多思考的是关于激进的重洗派,尤其是早期的那一批人,他们更像是爆发于中世纪晚期的一股神秘主义革命,而不是宗教改革的一个分支。我心里想到的是一种追求“内在之光”的、乌托邦式的、革命性的、类似诺斯底主义的宗教,它影响了基督教世界的所有分支。宗教改革人士视这种虔诚为“狂热主义”,但它却像迷雾一般渗透到了我们的一切传统信仰当中。
I’m not talking about Amish communities in rural Pennsylvania. In fact, I don’t have in mind specific offshoots, like Arminian Baptists, as such. I’m thinking more of the Radical Anabaptists, especially the early ones, who were more an eruption of late medieval revolutionary mysticism than an offshoot of the Reformation. I have in mind a utopian, revolutionary, quasi-Gnostic religion of the “inner light” that came eventually to influence all branches of Christendom. It’s the sort of piety that the Reformers referred to as “enthusiasm.” But it has seeped like a fog into all of our traditions.

值得注意的是,早期的重洗派与通常被称为正统的宗教改革有着千丝万缕的关系。重洗派的主要领袖是路德和慈运理的学生,但他们自己的神学课程的设置方式,是以一种中世纪后期的神秘主义的激进形式,特别是梅斯特·埃克哈特(Meister Eckhart,德国神秘主义神学家)和德国神学。这种带有泛神论倾向的神学体系,更接近古代的诺斯底主义,而不是主流的基督教教义;这既不是罗马天主教的教义,也不是宗教改革运动的教义。他们也受到了十二世纪的神秘主义“先知”,菲里奥的约阿希姆(Joachim of Fiore)的影响。他对《启示录》的注释中把历史分为三个时代:父上帝的时代,是与律法有关并要求人们婚配;这一切最终是为了通向“圣子的时代”,即对福音的承认和对圣职的呼召。但是约阿希姆认为,那一天即将到来——也许很快——即“圣灵的时代”将降临在历史当中,表现形式就是新约替代了旧约。在圣灵的时代,每个人都会立即、直观、直接地来认识上帝。不需要讲道的人,甚至不需要圣经、信条、教义或圣礼。事实上,外在可见的有形教会本身将不复存在,因为整个人类将构成一个属上帝的大家庭。约阿希姆的假说使得中世纪在经过了一段革命的苦难时期后,充满了一种乌托邦式的期望。早期重洗派教徒明确表示,他们正在实现约阿希姆的愿景。
It is important to note that the early Anabaptists had a precarious relationship to what is usually called the magisterial Reformation. Its main leaders were erstwhile students of Luther and Zwingli, but their theological course was set by the Radical forms of late medieval mysticism, especially Meister Eckhart and the German Theology. This pantheistic-leaning system bore a closer resemblance to ancient Gnosticism than to mainstream Christian teaching, whether Roman Catholic or Reformation. They were also influenced by the twelfth-century mystical prophet Joachim of Fiore, whose interpretation of the book of Revelation divided history into three ages: the Age of the Father, associated with the law and the order of the married, would eventually give way to the Age of the Son, identified with the gospel and the order of the clergy. But the day is coming—perhaps soon, Joachim argued—when the Age of the Spirit will dawn within history, rendering the new covenant as obsolete as the old. In the Age of the Spirit—that is, the order of the monks—everyone will know God immediately, intuitively, and directly. No need for preachers or even for Scripture, creeds, and doctrines that divide religions or for sacraments. In fact, the external, visible church itself will be no more, as the whole human race will become one family of God. Joachim’s speculations impregnated the medieval era with expectations of utopia after a time of revolutionary suffering. The early Anabaptists said explicitly that they were fulfilling the visions of Joachim.

早期的重洗派也表现出了对“唯独因信称义”教义 (即“sola fide”)的不感兴趣。从本质上说,“与神合一”与“义的归算”有很大的区别。事实上,按重洗派历史学家的说法,他们在这些问题上甚至与罗马天主教没有任何不同,因为救赎的全部意义就在于如何通过极端的操练达到与上帝的联合。他们几乎不能算是“唯独圣经”(sola scriptura)这教义的拥护者,因为他们甚至比教皇更确信,同时代的先知是受到上帝新的启示的人间代理人。所以,讽刺的是,重洗派教徒比激进的新教徒更激进。加尔文在1539年给红衣主教萨德尔托的信中说:“我们受到两个教派的反对:教皇和重洗派。”他承认,乍一看,这种比较没有什么意义,因为这些政党处于截然相反的两个极端。然而,实际上,他们在一个重要的方面是共通的:“因为他们都隐瞒了上帝的真道,为了给他们的虚谎腾出空间,” 他们声称当下的启示的权威要大过于由先知和使徒所定下的教训,凌驾在圣经之上。
The early Anabaptists also showed no interest in the doctrine of justification, sola fide. Becoming essentially one with God was a big jump from the imputation of an alien righteousness. In fact, according to Anabaptist historians, they were if anything further removed from Rome on these questions, since the whole point of salvation was to attain union with God through extreme discipline. They were hardly fans of sola scriptura, since they were even more convinced than the pope that contemporary prophets were inspired agents of fresh revelation. So, ironically, the Anabaptists were more radically papist than Radical Protestants. This strange claim was made by Calvin in his famous 1539 letter to Cardinal Sadoleto: “We are opposed by two sects: the pope and the Anabaptists.” At first glance, he acknowledges, the comparison makes little sense, as these parties were at opposite extremes. Nevertheless, they are actually united in an important way: “For both bury the word of God in order to make room for their falsehoods,” claiming the authority of modern vehicles of revelation over the express teaching of the prophets and apostles of canonical Scripture.2

改教家不一定就是革命派,路德和加尔文认为教会确实已经明显偏离了正道,但仍然能够被挽回。他们当然相信神迹和启示,但不是说今天仍有先知和使徒能带来启示。他们当然相信律法的重要性,但他们相信教皇和重洗派教徒基本上已经把福音变成了新的律法。改教家坚信基督是这个世上国度和教会的主。但就像天主教一样,早期的重洗派想要将前者转化为后者,在地上建立一个上帝的国度,就像旧约中的神治政权一样。
Reformers rather than revolutionaries, Luther and Calvin believed that the church had been blown off course significantly but that it could still be called back. They certainly believed in miracles and revelation, but not that there were still prophets and apostles bringing inspired revelation today. They certainly believed in the importance of the law, but they were convinced that the pope and the Anabaptists alike had basically turned the gospel into a new law. And the Reformers insisted that Christ was Lord over both the kingdoms of this world and the church. But like the pope, the early Anabaptists wanted to collapse the former into the latter with one kingdom of God, like the Old Testament theocracy.

改教家称这种思想为狂热主义”(Enthusiasm。字面的理解就是“上帝内住主义”(God-within-ism)。他们哀叹道,这种将自己与上帝混淆的倾向,一直是一种常在的试探。马丁路德在他的施马尔卡登信条第三章(Smalcald Articles)中提到,他认为亚当是第一个狂热主义者(first enthusiast)。他的观点是,人类渴望将我们内心的声音认为是从神而来的话语,而不是遵从外在的经文和教导,这正是原罪的重要组成部分。
The Reformers had a name for this: “enthusiasm.”  Meaning literally “God-within-ism,” this penchant for confusing ourselves with God was a perennial temptation, they lamented. In his Smalcald Articles (SA III. 4–15), Martin Luther argued that Adam was the first enthusiast. His point was that the craving to identify the word of God with our own inner voice, rather than heed external Scripture and preaching, is part and parcel of original sin.

我们都是狂热主义者enthusiasts。闵采尔(Müntzer)和其他激进分子声称(现在仍然声称)圣灵直接与他们对话,有时甚至与圣经中已经显明的相矛盾。改教家们追问:这难道不正是罗马教皇的所做的吗? 狂热主义的表现是由内自外的(内在经验、理性和自由意志的外化表达),而神是由外及内的(通过圣道和圣礼)。“因此,我们应该并且必须不断地坚持这一点,”路德说道,“上帝只愿意藉着圣道和圣礼来对待我们。凡在圣道和圣礼以外被尊崇为圣灵的,便是魔鬼本身。”(施马加登信条,第三部第810-11)。
We’re all enthusiasts. Müntzer and other Radicals claimed (and still claim today) that the Spirit speaks directly to them, above and even sometimes against what he has revealed in Scripture. The secret, private, and inborn “word” was contrasted with the “outer word that merely beats the air.”3 The Reformers pressed: Is this not what the pope does? While enthusiasm works from the inside out (inner experiences, reason, and free will expressed outwardly), God works from the outside in (the word and the sacraments). “Therefore we ought and must constantly maintain this point,” Luther thundered, “that God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. It is the devil himself whatsoever is extolled as Spirit without the Word and the Sacraments” (SA III. 8.10–11).

对于重洗派来说柏拉图式的物质和精神之间的二元论Platonic dualism between matter and spirit),被映射到新约中关于肉体和精神的对比上。一切外在的、有序的、普通的、有组织的、正式的东西都是“人为的”,而与之相对的,圣灵内住的证明都是内在的、自发的、超凡的、非正式的、个人性的。
For the Anabaptists, the Platonic dualism between matter and spirit was mapped onto the New Testament contrast between the flesh and the Spirit.4 Everything external, ordered, ordinary, structured, and official was “man-made,” as opposed to the internal, spontaneous, extraordinary, informal, and individual testimony of the Spirit within.

因此,当伊曼努尔·康德(Immanuel Kant)说:我们真正可以信任的启示是我们内心的理性和良心的道德法则时,他并不是在追随路德,而是在追随狂热主义所说的“灵”。当他赞美“真正的宗教信仰”——即有责任遵循我们所熟知的普遍性准则——而不是“教会式的信仰”,用他们独特的信条、要求、教义和宗教仪式,他基本上是遵循诺斯底主义和受中世纪激进主义分子影响的早期重洗派教徒的教导。我们都是狂热主义者,不愿意听从一个外在的讲道,被外在的圣礼所标记,不愿意服在一个有形教会的外在纪律之下。我们想要自己做主,从我们自己的自由意志、行为、理性和主观经验的小宝座上扩展我们的领域。若不是神得胜的恩典,我们永远不会允许我们自己是借由上帝的律法和福音而被告知我们本相究竟如何的。
So when Immanuel Kant said that the revelation we can really trust is that which is inside us—reason and “the moral law within”—he was not following Luther but the “spirit” of enthusiasm. When he extolled “true religion”—namely, duty to the universal law we know deep down—over against “ecclesiastical faiths” with their particular creeds, miraculous claims, doctrines, and rituals, he was basically following the script of the Gnostics and the Radical medieval sects that led to the early Anabaptists. The enthusiast in all of us does not want to hear an external word, confirmed by external sacraments, submitting to the external discipline of a visible church. We want to be autonomous, extending our domain from the little throne of our own free will, works, reason, and subjective experience. Apart from God’s conquering grace, we will never allow ourselves to be told who we are by God in his law and gospel.

同样的内在和外在的对比支配着自由主义化的新教。那在人心里的才是耶稣,而不是一位历史上的、外在的、拯救世人的耶稣:祂是通过圣经、布道、洗礼和圣餐而为人所知。即使在某些信仰上存在重大差异的地方,保守的新教徒也表现出相同的思维和生活方式。几个世纪以来的自由主义所描绘的同样的对立画面出现在五旬节派的宣言中:“我们……寻求如何改换那些僵死的形式和信条…以一个活泼且实用的基督教取而代之。”
The same contrast between inner and outer dominates liberal Protestantism.5 It is Jesus in my heart—not the external, salvific Jesus of history who is known through Scripture and preaching, baptism, and the Eucharist. Even where important differences exist on particular beliefs, more conservative Protestants exhibit the same categories of thinking and living. The same antithesis drawn by centuries of liberalism appears in the manifesto that launched Pentecostalism: “We are . . . seeking to replace the dead forms and creeds. . . with living, practical Christianity.”6

但是相同的对比在非五旬节派的福音派中也一样明显。例如,浸信会神学家斯坦利(Stanly Grenz)支持一个敬虔派信徒的奋兴运动,这根本上是与宗教改革和后宗教改革运动的核心理念截然相反的,他说:“近年来,我们已经开始将我们对焦在教义上的注意力转移开来,进而关注什么才是真命题? 这有利于我们重燃对于构建独特的、福音性的灵性异像的兴趣。” 其他类似的对比观点出现在他的个人书籍《对福音派神学的修正》(Revisioning Evangelical Theology)中:“以信条为基础”对比“敬虔”,“宗教仪式”对比“做耶稣会做的事”,优先考虑“我们每天的灵修”(daily walk)多过“主日礼拜的出勤”,以及个人及其内在的承诺,多过共同的身份。“一个人来教堂不是为了得到救赎,而是为了得到在日常生活中不断前进的动力。” 他补充说:“我们实行洗礼和圣餐,但我们需要谨慎地思想这些仪式的意义。与其说它们具有永久的价值是因为它们是神赐给领受者的恩典管道,不如说是因为它们提醒参加者和整个团体,上帝的恩典是需要内在领受的,是“顺服的回应”的一部分。
But the same contrasts have long been evident in non-Pentecostal evangelicalism. For example, Baptist theologian Stanley Grenz encouraged a retrieval of the movement’s Pietist roots over against the Reformation and post-Reformation emphases: “In recent years, we have begun to shift the focus of our attention away from doctrine with its focus on propositional truth in favor of a renewed interest in what constitutes the uniquely evangelical vision of spirituality.”7  Other familiar contrasts appear in his Revisioning Evangelical Theology: “creed-based” versus “piety” (57), “religious ritual” versus “doing what Jesus would do” (48), with priority given to “our daily walk” over “Sunday morning worship attendance” (49), and individual and inward commitment over corporate identity (49–53). “A person does not come to church to receive salvation,” but to receive marching orders for daily life (49). He adds, “We practice baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but understand the significance of these rites in a guarded manner.” They are “perpetuated not so much for their value as conduits . . . of grace from God to the communicant as because they remind the participant and the community of the grace of God received inwardly” and are part of “an obedient response” (48).

考虑到狂热主义的历史,社会学家韦德·克拉克·鲁夫(Wade Clark Roof)的发现并不令人惊讶。他讲到,“精神”和“机构”之间的区别对今天的灵性追求者来说是非常重要的。“精神是宗教内在的、经验性的形式;机构是宗教的外在的、既定的形式。”他补充道:“直接经验总是更值得信赖,除非因为有别的原因,否则它所体现出的‘内在灵性’(inwardness)和‘内心景况’(withinness)——这两种品质在如今日益追求高度自我表达和自恋式的文化下,将变得越加被欣赏。” 不容忽视的讽刺现象是:现代的世俗化与其说是无神论的产物,不如说是一种盲目的“狂热主义”的产物。这种“狂热” 持续不断地将其自身严谨的宗教内核给剥离出去。当种人们说他们是“属灵的,而不是属宗教的”时,他们的脑袋里所揣想的正是这种空洞的神秘主义。
Given the history of enthusiasm, sociologist Wade Clark Roof’s findings are hardly surprising: “The distinction between ‘spirit’ and ‘institution’ is of major importance” to spiritual seekers today.8 “Spirit is the inner, experiential aspect of religion; institution is the outer, established form of religion.”9 He adds, “Direct experience is always more trustworthy, if for no other reason than because of its ‘inwardness’ and ‘withinness’—two qualities that have come to be much appreciated in a highly expressive, narcissistic culture.”10 The irony is not to be missed: modern secularization is the product less of atheism than of a fanatical “enthusiasm” that is perpetually being stripped of its explicitly religious reference. It is the type of vapid mysticism people have in mind when they say they are “spiritual, not religious.”

正如约阿希姆Joachim所预言的圣灵的时代就是上帝的国度现在地上的有形教会及其使命已经被废止了。“社会福音”之父,沃尔特·劳森布施(Walter Rauschenbush)断言:“耶稣总是提到上帝的国。在经文里中只有两句话提到“教会”这个词,而这两段话的真实性都值得怀疑。可以肯定地说,耶稣从未想过要建立“教会”这样一个组织机构,而这个组织后来却声称是为了要服侍祂的。劳森布什认为:随着那本该属于上帝国度的转而从属了教会,而教会与生俱来那种对教义、崇拜仪式、讲道和圣礼的执着,才导致中世纪教会的腐败和新教对社会结构改革的失败。
Just as Joachim prophesied, the Age of the Spirit, identified with the kingdom of God, has now rendered the visible church and its ministry obsolete. The father of the Social Gospel, Walter Rauschenbusch, asserted, “Jesus always spoke of the Kingdom of God. Only two of his reported sayings contain the word ‘Church,’ and both passages are of questionable authenticity. It is safe to say that he never thought of founding the kind of institution which afterward claimed to be acting for him.”11 With the subordination of the kingdom to the church, Rauschenbusch argued, came the eclipse of ethics by an ingrown focus on doctrine, worship, preaching, and sacraments—hence, the corruptions of the medieval church and the failure of Protestantism also to reform the structures of society.12

天主教神学家马修·莱弗林(Matthew Levering)引用了宗教学者戴安娜·艾克(Diana Eck)的例子。艾克避开谈及教会是“基督的身体”的层面,而支持“一家人”(household)的观点。她宣称:“天下一家的根基就是,世界最终将变成为多元文化的社会。”对此,莱弗林进一步将其学说变得合理化,他说:“这个受神祝福的国度的疆界,会比教会要宽广得多。领受上帝祝福的是祂的国度,而不是基督教的教会。”
Catholic theologian Matthew Levering refers to the example of religion scholar Diana Eck, who eschews the image of “the body of Christ” as hierarchical in favor of “household.” “The underlying foundation of the world household will finally have to be pluralism,” she claims.13 Further, “this kingdom of divine blessing ‘is much wider than the church. It is the Kingdom of God, not the Christian Church.’” Levering properly judges,

艾克这种人类世界大同的异像忽略了我们需要被宽恕和怜悯的这一事实,而这正需要永活的上帝用他历史性的行动来弥合我们对他人所造成的破碎和伤害。我们需要仁慈的上帝,在耶稣基督和圣灵里,来医治我们被遗弃的状况,并通过改变世界的爱(这一礼物)为我们建立“爱”和“公义”的关系。更进一步,对于艾克来说,死亡就是一切的终结;因此,我们唯一的指望就在今生。一切神圣的东西,包括圣灵和上帝的国度,都被简化归入到一个普遍框架内——换句话说,它被世俗化了。
Eck’s vision of a world-unity based on the recognition of our common humanity neglects the human need for forgiveness, for mercy, which requires the historical action of the living God to overcome our brokenness and the harm that we have done to others. We need the God of mercy, in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, to heal our alienated condition and establish for us a relationship of love and justice by a transformative gift of love.14 Further, for Eck, death is the end; thus our only hope lies in this life.15 Everything sacred, including the Spirit and the kingdom, has been reduced to the immanent frame—in other words, it has been secularized.

但是,这种狂热主义的精神在罗马天主教的文化圈子里也很明显,莱弗林也承认这一点。上帝的国度(是普遍的,是内在的)是与教会相对立的(是特殊的,是由外在的话语所创造的)。理查德(Richard P. McBrien)在《我们需要教会吗?》一书中写道:“教会不再被认为是上帝拯救计划的中心。并不是所有人都被呼召成为教会的会员,教会成员的身份既不是当下得救赎的标志,也不是将来得救赎的保证。救恩是通过参与到上帝的国度当中,而不是通过加入基督教会来实现的。他又说:“所有人都会进入天堂,因为福音向所有人都有效。” 但是得救的生活并不一定与可见的、有组织的基督教团体的成员身份相关。托马斯·希恩(Thomas Sheehan)的《第一次降临:上帝的王国如何成为基督教》(The First Coming: How The Kingdom of God Became Christianity)(兰登书屋出版社,1986)是当今罗马天主教圈中国度与教会对立的又一个例子。
But this spirit of enthusiasm is evident in Roman Catholic circles as well, as Levering also recognizes. The kingdom of God (which is universal and inward) is set over against the church (which is particular and created by the external word). In Do We Need the Church? Fr. Richard P. McBrien writes, “The church is no longer to be conceived as the center of God’s plan of salvation. Not all men are called to membership in the Church, nor is such membership a sign of present salvation or a guarantee of future salvation. Salvation comes through participation in the Kingdom of God rather than through affiliation with the Christian Church.”16  He adds, “All men are called to the kingdom, because all men are called to live the gospel. But the living of the gospel is not necessarily allied to membership in the visible, structured Christian community.”17 Thomas Sheehan’s The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity (Random House, 1986) is yet another example of the opposition between the kingdom and the church in Roman Catholic circles today.

要我提供所有详细的说明是不可能的(尤其是在这么短的篇幅内)。但我的论点是,我们现代世俗化的世界的主要特点,一部分程度上说,正是由于我们将那位在在历史中真实的对我们说话,对我们有着绝对权威、既审判我们也拯救我们的上帝,偷换成一种“内住的上帝”的概念,实质是把自我内心的声音当成我们的至高统治者。甚至像保罗·悌利希(Paul Tillich)这样的自由派神学家也承认启蒙运动在某种程度上是激进的狂热主义的胜利:“启蒙运动所说的‘内因’(inner reason of the Enlightenment)实际上就是贵格会信徒所说的‘内在光照’(inner light of the Quakers)。”
It is impossible (especially in such a short space) to offer any detailed account. But my contention is that many of the principal features of our modern, secularized world are driven in part by this shift away from a God who speaks authoritatively, judging and saving us, outside of us in history, to the “god within”—meaning that our own inner voice is our sovereign ruler. Even a liberal theologian such as Paul Tillich recognized that the Enlightenment was to some extent the triumph of Radical enthusiasm: “The inner reason of the Enlightenment is really the inner light of the Quakers.”18

我们也同样看到了类诺斯底主义思想quasi-Gnostic对现代宗教、文化和政治改革的冲击。埃里克·沃格林(Eric Voegelin)的工作帮助我了解到诺斯底主义是如何对这个世界充满了敌意,这可以体现在两个形式上:要么是诺斯底主义者在纯粹的精神层面一意孤行地摧毁这个世界,并且彻底改造它;或者诺斯底派会干脆避世不出,在一小群将自己从不虔的世界中分离出来的纯粹主义者的群体中寻找安全感。我们可以在无数的社会运动中看到这两种形式的出现,这些运动的基本动机总是带有深刻的宗教色彩或精神烙印——即使是无产阶级取代了上帝。把这个世界夷为平地,从零开始建立一个新的文明。历史正在走向终点,要么是预言的末日灾难,要么是建立乌托邦,而我们将成为这个天选之人。正如卡尔·洛维斯(Karl Löwith)所解释的,现代主义学说的进步就是基督教末世论的世俗化(Christian eschatology secularized)。历史的高潮不在于历史的终点,而是在中间,不是通过基督的再来,而是通过我们的团结奋斗。
We also see the quasi-Gnostic impulse in the modern obsession with religious, cultural, and political revolutions. Eric Voegelin’s work has helped me to understand how the Gnostic’s hatred of the world can take two forms: either the Gnostic insists on destroying it and remaking it all over again in the form of pure spirit, or he recoils from the world altogether and seeks security in a small group of purists who isolate themselves from the godless. We can see both approaches in countless movements that are always deeply religious or spiritual in their basic motive—even when the proletariat replaces God. Raze this world to its foundations and build a new civilization from scratch. History is moving toward an endpoint, either of apocalyptic disaster or utopia, and we are going to be agents of this providential destiny. As Karl Löwith explains, the modern doctrine of progress is Christian eschatology secularized. The climax of history is to be found not at the end of history but in the middle—not by Christ’s return but by our collective striving.

我们也在各种形式的福音派基督徒与政治的接触过程中看到了诺斯底主义的两种形式。在20世纪上半叶,基要保守派倾向于将自己从这个不信上帝的世界中分离出来,但在20世纪80年代,他们开始参与政治活动。然而,他们的基本态度仍然不变:一如既往地敌视文化、科学、艺术、特别是日益增多的诺斯底左派“精英”,就好像摩尼教(Manichean)将光明与黑暗分庭抗礼,那圣徒和堕落之人,自由革命的代言人与邪恶势力的同谋之间,也是如此。但是,如果“自主”的理念——即作为个体对自我拥有绝对主权——是现代世俗主义的核心,那么它的血统可以很容易地追溯到文艺复兴时期的占星师(Renaissance magus)和激进的新教徒,他们被内在自我的概念塑造成神圣的闪光。
We also see the two approaches of the Gnostic in various forms of evangelical engagement with politics. For the first half of the twentieth century, fundamentalists tended to separate themselves from the godless world but then became politically engaged in the 1980s. Their basic attitude toward the world, however, remained constant: a relatively hostile view of culture, science, the arts, and especially of “elites” who increasingly were themselves Gnostics of the Left—the same Manichean divide between light and darkness, the saints and the reprobate, agents of revolutionary freedom versus coconspirators with the forces of evil. But if the idea of autonomy—the self as sovereign—is at the heart of modern secularism, then its genealogy can be easily traced back to the Renaissance magus and the Radical Protestants who were shaped by that concept of the inner self as a spark of the divine.

如果我的论文是正确的话,并且我们现今的世代,也并不像是莱辛(Lessing,德国批评家)所说的“人类教育”理念所主张的:平和的理性战胜了假定性的启示,科学战胜了迷信,世俗化的和平胜过了宗教的暴力,那么实际上它是一个激进的基督教神秘主义的世俗化版本。事实上,莱辛自己也曾说过,约阿希姆对圣灵时代的憧憬并没有错,只是时机不成熟,只是需要等到启蒙运动的到来。
If my thesis is anywhere close to being right, then the story of our modern age is not so much Lessing’s idea of “the education of the human race” and the gradual triumph of reason over presumed revelation, science over superstition, and secular peace over religious violence, as it is a secularized version of Radical Christian mysticism. In fact, Lessing himself said that Joachim of Fiore’s visions of an Age of the Spirit were not wrong, only premature, awaiting the arrival of the Enlightenment.

让我们把它从形而上学的层面带到我们大多数基督徒每天生活的地方。一个最受欢迎的基督教书籍和传教士的粗略目录讲述了这个故事。比起神自己和祂创造、护理、救赎、称义、成圣、荣耀、身体复活的工作,更注重自主的自我内在的能力,许多灵修书籍是“心灵鸡汤”。许多信徒认为,花时间与神单独祷告,聆听“祂今天对我说了什么”,比去教堂与其他罪人聚会,聆听上帝的话语,接受上帝的圣礼更重要。我们是在屈服于内心的声音而不是外在的。当我们可以从内心寻找答案的时候,为什么要和其他人一起遵循困难的讨论、叙述、教义和命令呢?
Let’s bring this out of the clouds and down to where most of us live every day as Christians. A cursory inventory of the most popular Christian books and preachers tells the tale. Focusing more on inner empowerment for the autonomous self than on God himself and his work of creation, providence, redemption, justification, sanctification, glorification, and the resurrection of the body, much of the spiritual diet is “chicken soup for the soul.”  Many believers consider spending time alone with God in prayer, listening for “what he is saying to me today,” as more important than going to church to gather with other sinners and hear God’s word proclaimed and receive his sacraments. We are on our home ground doing it ourselves rather than submitting to something external to our inner voice. Why try to follow difficult arguments, narratives, doctrines, and commands together with other people when we can basically look within to find the answers?

随着基督教的发展转移到南半球一些形式比他们更自由的北部对手更忠诚。非洲的圣公会教徒常常困扰,想知道他们与美国圣公会有什么可能的精神联系。然而,美国人的“狂热主义”继续以奋兴主义、五旬节派和“成功神学”的极端形式如野火般蔓延。保守的新教徒已经非常善于快速辨别自由主义,但是我们不太善于识别更多的原教旨主义的诺斯底派狂热主义(fundamentalist varieties of Gnostic enthusiasm),即使我们正完全被这样的环境包围。
As the growth of Christianity shifts to the Global South, some forms are more faithful than their more liberal northern counterparts. Anglicans in Africa often scratch their heads, wondering what possible spiritual connection they have with the Episcopal Church in the United States. And yet American “enthusiasm” continues to spread like wildfire in extreme forms of revivalism, Pentecostalism, and the “prosperity gospel.” Conservative Protestants have become quite adept at detecting liberalism miles away. But we’re not very good at recognizing more fundamentalist varieties of Gnostic enthusiasm, even when we are swimming in it.

那么在宗教改革运动500周年之际我们究竟在庆祝什么呢我们所喜悦的是教会教义和敬拜的改革从以人为中心的宗教转向以三位一体的神和祂在基督里的救恩福音为中心的信仰吗还是我们实际上在庆祝激进的狂热主义因为我们的文化把它错误地定义位宗教改革把它视为个体自主、个人主义、自由意志、内在经验和内在理性?
So what exactly are we celebrating in this year of the Reformation’s five hundredth anniversary? Are we rejoicing in the reformation of the church’s doctrine and worship, away from human-centered religion to a faith centered on the Triune God and the gospel of his saving grace in Christ alone, received through faith alone, communicated through the word and the sacraments alone? Or are we celebrating the Radical enthusiasm that our culture mistakes as the Reformation: the autonomous self, individualism, free will, and inner experience and reason?

今年许多人都在争论宗教改革是否已经结束,而我的想法是:它真的开始了吗?是的,一开始,福音有一个奇妙的恢复,我们完全依赖神和祂在耶稣基督里的恩典。在世界许多地方,人们仍然强烈地感受到这种复苏的影响。但在现代文化中,主流的宗教改革在左、右两派的狂热分子面前已然节节败退。既然我们已经尝试了“激进的”新教好几个世纪,那么庆祝宗教改革最好的方式就是给它一个再次被听到的机会。
While many people are debating this year whether the Reformation is over, my thought is this: Did it really ever get off the ground? Yes, at first, there was a marvelous recovery of the gospel and a sense that we are utterly dependent on God and his grace in Jesus Christ. In many parts of the world, the effects of that recovery are still being powerfully felt. But in modern culture generally, the magisterial Reformation lost ground to the enthusiasts of the Left and the Right. Now that we have tried Radical Protestantism for several centuries, the best way of celebrating the Reformation would be to give it a chance again to be heard.

Michael S. Horton is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California in Escondido.
迈克尔·霍顿 是加州威斯敏斯特神学院(Westminster Seminary California in Escondido)的系统神学和护教学教授。

2019-11-03


宗教改革為什麼是必要的?WhyWas the Reformation Necessary?


教會需要不斷的改革。即使在新約聖經中,我們也看到耶穌在譴責彼得,保羅在糾正哥林多人。由於基督徒永遠是罪人,教會就不斷需要改革。然而,對我們來說,問題在於:何時是絕對需要改革的時候?
The church is always in need of reform. Even in the New Testament, we see Jesus rebuking Peter, and we see Paul correcting the Corinthians. Since Christians are always sinners, the church will always need reform. The question for us, however, is when does the need become an absolute necessity?

十六世紀的偉大改教家們認為,當時的改革是緊迫的、必要的。在為教會進行改革時,他們拒絕了兩個極端。一方面,他們拒絕那些堅持認為教會基本健全,不需要從根本進行變革的人。另一方面,他們拒絕那些自以為可以在每個細節上創造出完美教會的人。教會需要根本的改革,但它也必須不斷地自我歸正。改教家是從他們對聖經的研究得出了這些結論。
The great Reformers of the sixteenth century concluded that reform was urgent and necessary in their day. In pursuing reform for the church, they rejected two extremes. On the one hand, they rejected those who insisted that the church was essentially sound and needed no fundamental changes. On the other hand, they rejected those who believed that they could create a perfect church in every detail. The church needed fundamental reform, but it would also always need to be reforming itself. The Reformers reached these conclusions from their study of the Bible.

1543年,斯特拉斯堡的改革家馬丁•布瑟(Martin Bucer)要求約翰•加爾文(John Calvin)為宗教改革撰寫一份辯護文,以便在1544年在斯拜爾(Speyer)舉行的帝國會議中呈現給皇帝查理五世。布瑟知道羅馬天主教皇帝被一些政客所包圍,他們不斷詆毀改革教會的努力,他相信加爾文是最有能力捍衛更正教事業的牧師。
In 1543, the Reformer of Strasbourg, Martin Bucer, asked John Calvin to write a defense of the Reformation for presentation to Emperor Charles V at the imperial diet set to meet at Speyer in 1544. Bucer knew that the Roman Catholic emperor was surrounded by counselors who were maligning reform efforts in the church, and he believed that Calvin was the most capable minister to defend the Protestant cause.

加爾文接受了這個挑戰,並撰寫了他最佳的作品之一:〈改革教會的必要性〉(The Necessity of Reforming the Church)。這篇重要的論文並沒有說服皇帝,但它已被許多人視為有史以來說明改革宗理想的最佳說帖。
Calvin rose to the challenge and wrote one of his best works, “The Necessity of Reforming the Church.” This substantial treatise did not convince the emperor, but it has come to be regarded by many as the best presentation of the Reformed cause ever written.

加爾文首先觀察到,每個人都認為教會有「無數的、嚴重的毛病」。加爾文認為事情如此嚴重,以至於基督徒無法忍受「更久的拖延」或等待「緩慢的補救措施」來改革教會。他拒絕這個論點,說改教家犯了「魯莽和邪惡的創新」的罪。相反,他堅持認為「上帝興起了路德和其他人」,以保護「敬虔的真理」。加爾文看到基督教的基礎受到了威脅,唯有聖經真理才能更新教會。
Calvin begins by observing that everyone agreed that the church had “diseases both numerous and grievous.” Calvin argues that matters were so serious that Christians could not abide a “longer delay” for reform or wait for “slow remedies.” He rejects the contention that the Reformers were guilty of “rash and impious innovation.” Rather, he insists that “God raised up Luther and others” to preserve “the truth of our religion.” Calvin saw that the foundations of Christianity were threatened and that only biblical truth would renew the church.

加爾文著眼於教會生活中需要改革的四個重要領域。這些領域構成了他所謂的「教會的靈魂和身體」。教會的靈魂是由「對上帝的純淨和正當的敬拜」和「人的救贖」所組成。而教會的身體是由「聖禮」和「教會治理」所組成。對加爾文來說,這幾件事是宗教改革辯論的核心。它們對教會的生活至關重要,也只能根據聖經的教導才能正確理解。
Calvin looks at four great areas in the life of the church that needed reform. These areas form what he calls the soul and the body of the church. The soul of the church is composed of the “pure and legitimate worship of God” and “the salvation of men.” The body of the church is composed of the “use of the sacraments” and “the government of the church.” For Calvin, these matters were at the heart of the Reformation debates. They are essential to the life of the church and can only be rightly understood in light of the teaching of the Scriptures.

我們可能感到驚訝的是,加爾文把「如何敬拜上帝」作為宗教改革的首要問題,但這是他一貫堅持的主題。早些時候,他寫信給紅衣主教沙度裏多(Sadoleto):「沒有什麼比荒謬的崇拜對我們的得救更為有害的。」崇拜是我們與上帝會面的地方,這樣的會面必須按照上帝的標準來進行。我們的崇拜形式會表明,我們是否真正接受上帝的話語作為我們的權威並順服它。自己創造的崇拜,既是一種靠行為稱義的形式,也是偶像崇拜的表現。
We might be surprised that Calvin placed the worship of God as the first of the Reformation issues, but this was a consistent theme of his. Earlier, he had written to Cardinal Sadoleto: “There is nothing more perilous to our salvation than a preposterous and perverse worship of God.” Worship is where we meet with God, and that meeting must be conducted by God’s standards. Our worship shows whether we truly accept God’s Word as our authority and submit to it. Self-created worship is both a form of works-righteousness and an expression of idolatry.

接下來,加爾文轉向我們通常認為的,宗教改革最重要的議題,即稱義的教義:
Next, Calvin turned to what we often think of as the greatest issue of the Reformation, namely, the doctrine of justification:

「我們堅持認為,無論我們如何描述一個人的行為,他在上帝面前被視為義人,都只是基於白白的憐憫;因為上帝在不看重人的行為的情況下,藉著將基督的義歸算給人,就在基督裏白白地納認他,把他當成屬自己的百姓。我們稱之為信心的義,也就是說,一個人對一切行為失去了信心,確信他蒙上帝接納的唯一理由就是自己所缺乏的義,並且是從基督借來的。世界總是受到誤導而誤入歧途之處(因這個錯誤幾乎盛行在每個時代在),在於想像:人無論有多少缺陷,仍然在某種程度上可以藉著行為得到上帝的恩寵。」
We maintain, that of what description so ever any man’s works may be, he is regarded as righteous before God, simply on the footing of gratuitous mercy; because God, without any respect to works, freely adopts him in Christ, by imputing the righteousness of Christ to him, as if it were his own. This we call the righteousness of faith, viz., when a man, made void and empty of all confidence of works, feels convinced that the only ground of his acceptance with God is a righteousness which is wanting to himself, and is borrowed from Christ. The point on which the world always goes astray, (for this error has prevailed in almost every age,) is in imagining that man, however partially defective he may be, still in some degree merits the favor of God by works.

這兩樣構成教會靈魂的基本事宜是由教會身體所支持的:聖禮和教會治理。聖禮必須恢復到聖經所規定的純淨而單純的意義和用法。教會治理必須拒絕所有違背神的話、捆綁基督徒良心的暴政。
These foundational matters that form the soul of the church are supported by the body of the church: the sacraments and the government of the church. The sacraments must be restored to the pure and simple meaning and use given in the Bible. The government of the church must reject all tyranny that binds the consciences of Christians contrary to the Word of God.

當我們看到今日的教會時,我們很可能會得出結論:在加爾文關注的許多領域上,教會仍然需要進行宗教改革——誠然,這是必要的。只有上帝的聖道和聖靈才能改變教會。但我們應該忠心地禱告和工作,懇求主讓這種改革在我們這個時代就降臨。
As we look at the church in our day, we may well conclude that reformation is needed—indeed, is necessary—in many of the areas about which Calvin was so concerned. Only the Word and Spirit of God will ultimately reform the church. But we should pray and work faithfully that such reform will come in our time.