我們榮美的上帝Our Beautiful God
作者: R.C. Sproul 譯者: Maria Marta
聖經常常提到美事, 我總覺得有趣。 事實上，假若你花時間查考每一句提及美（beauty）的經文，或者經文彙編中提及的美事（the beautiful），你都會發現美這個字經常以這種或那種形式出現在聖經的書頁中，尤其在舊約。歷代志上十六章29節是我們讀到美的地方之一：「要將耶和華的名所當得的榮耀歸給他，拿供物來奉到他面前，當以聖潔的裝飾敬拜耶和華」（或譯：「在耶和華聖潔的光輝中敬拜他」《詩廿九2；圣經新譯本》）。 這節經文將上帝的聖潔、榮耀與莊嚴美观的概念柔合一起（譯註：祭司也必須穿上華麗聖服從事崇祀，因為真敬拜是一件聖事，也是一件美事）。 我們蒙召來到上帝面前敬拜祂的榮美-----即祂的榮耀與聖潔。
另一些經文也談到上帝的榮美。「有一件事，我曾求耶和華，我仍要尋求，就是一生一世住在耶和華的殿中，瞻仰他的榮美，在他的殿裡求問。」 （詩廿七4） 在詩篇廿九篇，大衛呼籲我們要在上主聖潔的光輝中敬拜祂。 在這兩個地方，上主（或祂屬性的重要方面）被稱為「榮美」。
當今的文化，無論在世俗社區還是在教會，上帝榮美的觀念恐怕已非比今昔。 我曾多次說過，聖經關注基督徒生活的三個維度：真、善、美。 但我們往往傾向於從三而一的美德中切除美的部份。有些基督徒將他們對上帝事情的關注，簡單減至在倫理領域，或關於我們正義或好行的討論的範圍之內。 而另一些人則太注重純正教義，以致犧牲行為或犧牲聖潔，以真理取代其位置。很少，但至少在許多更正教圈子裏，我們會找到對榮美的關注。
這個現象也反映出一種失衡狀況，因為聖經注重的是真、善、美。聖經告訴我們，上帝是一切善的基礎或泉源。萬善都在祂的屬性裡找到它們的定義。 歸根結底，上帝的屬性是善的準繩。 與此同時，聖經也說上帝是一切真理的作者、源頭、與根基。聖經以相同的方式，相同的維度，講述上帝的榮美。祂的聖言告訴我們，一切美的事都在上帝的屬性中找到它們的源頭和根基。 所以，上帝是真的最極規範；善的最極規範；美的最極規範。
在世俗文化中，在教會裏，我們生活在一個關乎美的危機時期。 我一直聽到來自基督教藝術家-----音樂家、雕塑家、畫家、建築師、作家、戲劇家，和其他人的感受------他們感到被基督教團體隔絕了。 他們告訴我，他們被視為賤民，因為他們的職業被認為是世俗的，不值得基督徒獻身從事。這是我們的現狀的不幸寫照，特別當我們回顧教會歷史，看到基督教教會在音樂、藝術、與文學領域興起的巨人的時候。除了在基督教歷史，你還能在哪個地方找到彌爾頓（Milton）、漢德爾（Handel）、巴赫（Bach）、莎士比亞（Shakespeare）等這些偉大的藝術先驅？
如果你要去巴黎的盧浮宮或阿姆斯特丹的國家博物館瀏覽藝術史，你會發現以宗教導向，特別是以基督教導向的藝術占據著主導地位。自從上帝的子民在社會存在以來，藝術一直倍受關注。舉例說來，在舊約，我們看到首批聖靈充滿的人是藝人和巧匠，他們蒙上帝揀選去準備會幕的各種物件。這就是上帝的默示-------這些巧匠受上帝聖靈默示。聖靈默示他們為會幕及其擺設進行工藝制作，為帳篷金工鑄造，為亞倫制作聖衣和外袍-------都是為榮耀與榮美而制造。在舊約，上帝不僅關注使用藝術家建造祂的聖所，而且還賜予這些藝術家聖靈的能力，以確保他們的工作符合祂設立的美的標準。
與此同時，我們也看到舊約嚴禁濫用藝術。十誡的一誡甚至禁止制作雕刻的形象，因為雕刻的形象會變為實踐偶像崇拜的一部分，因此舊約聖經有一道將籬笆，將藝術的使用範圍圍上。有一些藝術形式蒙上帝賜福，但也有另外一些藝術形式不蒙上帝賜福。
人不能從聖經的書頁得出簡單的結論：所有藝術都是好藝術，或所有藝術都是壞藝術，這門藝術一直是合法的，或那門藝術一直是非法的。但我們卻能明白上帝將藝術及藝術所傳達的信息視為重要，而將藝術應用於祂的帳幕，應用於美（聖）事-----人們聚會敬拜祂，就足以看出祂對藝術的重視。美對上帝很重要，因為祂是榮美的，所以美對祂的子民也同樣重要。基督徒藝術家應受鼓勵創作美的藝術，基督徒應受鼓勵欣賞真、善的同時，也欣賞美，因為上帝本身是榮美的。
本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌。
Our
Beautiful God
FROM
R.C. Sproul
I’ve
always found it interesting that the Bible often makes reference to the
beautiful. In fact, if you took the time to look up every reference to “beauty”
or every reference to “the beautiful” in a concordance, you would see that the
word beauty in one form or another occurs frequently in the pages of sacred
Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament. First Chronicles 16:29 is one of
the places where we read of beauty: “Give to the Lord the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness!” (NKJV). This passage conjoins the holiness and glory of God with
respect to the idea of beauty. We are called to come into the presence of God
and to worship what is beautiful about Him—His glory and holiness.
Other
texts also talk about God’s beauty. “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that
will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Ps.
27:4). In Psalm 29, David calls upon us to worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness. In both places, the Lord (or significant aspects of His character)
are called “beautiful.”
I’m
afraid that the idea of the beauty of God has been all but eclipsed in our
contemporary culture, both in the secular community and in the church as well.
I’ve said many times that there are three dimensions of the Christian life that
the Scriptures are concerned about—the good, the true, and the beautiful. Yet
we tend to cut off the third from the other two. Some Christians reduce their
concern for the things of God purely to the ethical realm, to a discussion of
righteousness or of goodness with respect to our behavior. Others are so
concerned about purity of doctrine that they’re preoccupied with truth at the
expense of behavior or at the expense of the holy. Rarely, at least in many
Protestant circles, do we find a focus on the beautiful.
This
reflects a striking imbalance given that the Bible is concerned with goodness,
truth, and beauty. God, Scripture tells us, is the ground or fountain of all
goodness. All goodness finds its definition in His character. In the final
analysis, God’s character is the measure of goodness. At the same time, the
Scriptures speak about God as the author, source, and foundation of all truth.
In the same way and in the same dimension, the Scriptures speak about the
beauty of God. His Word tells us that all things beautiful find their source
and foundation in the character of God Himself. So, God is ultimately the norm
of the good, the norm of the true, and the norm of the beautiful.
We
live in a time of crisis in the secular culture and in the church with regard
to the beautiful. I hear all the time from Christian artists—musicians,
sculptors, painters, architects, writers, dramatists, and others—that they feel
cut off from the Christian community. They tell me that they are treated as
pariahs because their vocation is considered worldly and unworthy of Christian
devotion. That’s a sad commentary on our state of affairs, particularly when we
look at the history of the church and we see that the Christian church has
produced some of the greatest giants in music, in art, and in literature. Where
else but in Christian history do you find a Milton, a Handel, a Bach, or a Shakespeare—men
who have been pioneers of greatness in the arts?
If
you were to go to the Louvre in Paris or to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and
peruse the history of art, you would see that it’s dominated by a religious
orientation, and specifically, a Christian orientation. Ever since the people
of God have existed in community, art has been a significant concern. When we
go to the Old Testament, for example, we see there that the first people filled
with the Holy Ghost were the artisans and craftsman that God selected to
prepare the objects for the tabernacle. That’s divine inspiration—these artists
were inspired by God the Holy Spirit. He inspired them for their craftsmanship
of the tabernacle and its furniture, for the metalworking in the tent, and for
the making of the gowns and robes for Aaron—which were to be made for glory and
for beauty. God was concerned not only to use artists in the building of His
sanctuary in the Old Testament, but also to endow those very artists with the
power of His Holy Spirit to ensure that what they were doing met with the
standards of beauty He set.
At
the same time, we also see in the Old Testament strong prohibitions against the
misuse of art. One of the Ten Commandments even prohibits the making of graven
images that become part of the practice of idolatry, and so there is a hedge
put around the use of art in the Old Testament. Though there were some forms of
art that received the blessing of God, there were other forms of art that did
not receive the blessing of God.
One
cannot come away from the pages of Scripture with a simplistic conclusion that
all art is good art or that all art is bad art, that art is always lawful or
that art is always unlawful. What we can come away with is the understanding
that God saw art and what it communicates as being important enough to include
in His tabernacle—to include the beautiful where people would meet to worship
Him. Beauty is important to God because He is beautiful, and so what is
beautiful must be of importance to His people as well. Christian artists should
be encouraged to create beautiful art, and Christian people should be
encouraged to appreciate the beautiful alongside the true and the good, for the
Lord Himself is beautiful.
This
post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.
