摘錄自邁克何頓（Michael Horton）著，《基督徒的信仰》（麥種，2016），第二章
Chapter
2: The Character of Theology: A Theoretical or a Practical Science?
3)
Hearing is Believing
一場革命隨著宗教改革發生，從新柏拉圖主義強調之眼見的主導地位，回歸到聖經強調的，以語言為媒介的、受造物之現實的存在與知識。布盧門伯格指出，即使連奧古斯丁也將聆聽神說話從屬於默觀異象（contemplative
vision）之下，但路德的《論意志的捆綁》（De servo arbitrio）卻「以耳的隱喻對比眼的隱喻。眼游移、選擇、接觸事物，追求事物；而耳本身是受影響和接受話語的。眼可尋求，耳只能等待。看見安排事物的『位置』；聆聽則被安排。……那作出無條件要求的，在『聆聽』中得到回應。良心有『說話聲』，光沒有。」With the
Reformation came a revolution from the dominance of Neoplatonist vision back to
the biblical emphasis on the existence and knowledge of creaturely reality
mediated by language. Whereas even Augustine subordinated hearing God speak to
contemplative vision, Luther’s De servo arbitrio (On the Bondage of the Will),
Hans Blumenberg observes, “plays metaphors of the ear against those of the eye.
The eye wanders, selects, approaches things, presses after them, while the ear,
for its part, is affected and accosted. The eye can seek, the ear can only
wait. Seeing ‘places’ things; hearing is placed That which demands
unconditionally is encountered in ‘hearing.’ Conscience has a ‘voice,’ not
light.”34
我到目前為止所說的一切——在救贖歷史的這個時代裏，聆聽優先於觀看——都是更正教改教家所強調的。事實上，在這個主題上，路德的觀點十分接近聖經所說的，即神一切作為都是以神的話語為媒介。拜爾（Oswald Bayer）解釋了這觀點：「新造是歸向世界，正如歸向創造主，聆聽神的聲音通過祂所造之物向我們說話、針對我們說話。奧古斯丁說神的聲音吸引我們離開神所造之物，帶領我們進入內在自我，然後走向超越，但這是錯的。」 事實上，制訂威斯敏斯特信仰告白的神學家們指出，神賜福人讀經，但「特別是〔賜福〕傳講神的話」，以此作為一種蒙恩之道，因為藉著這方法，聖靈與封閉自我生命的罪人對質，「驅使他們脫離自我，吸引他們歸向基督」（《威斯敏斯特大要理問答》〔Westminster Larger
Catechism〕，回答155）。神的道呼召我們離開我們的主觀性，令我們變成外來、外向和社會性的受造者，以信心抓緊基督，以愛心抓緊鄰舍。Everything I have
suggested thus far concerning the priority of hearing over seeing in this era
of redemptive history was emphasized by the Protestant Reformers. In fact,
Luther held closely to the biblical motif of all divine actions being mediated
through God’s Word. Oswald Bayer explains this view: “The new creation is a
conversion to the world, as a conversion to the Creator, hearing God’s voice
speaking to us and addressing us through his creatures. Augustine was wrong to
say that his voice draws us away from God’s creatures into the inner self and
then to transcendence.”35In fact, the Westminster divines pointed out that God
blesses the reading “but especially the preaching of the Word” of God as a
means of grace since it is by this means that the Spirit confronts sinners in
their self-enclosed existence, “driving them out of themselves, and drawing
them unto Christ” (Westminster Larger Catechism, Answer 155). This Word calls
us out of our subjectivity and renders us extrinsic, extroverted, and social
creatures who hold fast to Christ in faith and to our neighbors in love.
韋伯（Stephen Webb）甚至主張，宗教改革代表「聲音歷史上的一件大事」，一個「讓道重新發聲」的事件。 集體敬拜主要並不是視覺事件（戲劇表演），填滿超越的主和被帳幕分開的百姓之間的空間距離，而是成了一場口語的事件。神話語的事奉不僅在講道中，也在集體讀經，在禱告和歌唱，在認罪和宣告赦免中發生—誠然，貫穿了從神宣召我們到祝禱的整個崇拜儀式。甚至聖餐也是來自神用口語表達的保證，由整個聖約群體接受，並在歡慶中加以回應。韋伯指出：「這源自於加爾文的信念，就是神的道成就它所命令的。神的道是立約的言說，活潑並充滿生命。即使它是斷斷續續發出，也有能力賜下它所要求的。神的話發令，世界就存在，它並繼續通過由聖靈充滿的教會的言說托住世界。」 中世紀的崇拜使話語隸屬於視覺，但宗教改革（著重對歷史的人文關注，以及用原文解經）追求的是讓人聽見神的聲音。「這不是因需要解釋一個畫面或提出道德論點而產生的嘮叨之言，而是為了藉著聲音傳遞恩典而產生的嘮叨之語。」Stephen Webb goes
so far as to suggest that the Reformation represents “an event within the history of sound,” an event of
“revocalizing the Word.”36 Instead of a chiefly visual event — a theatrical
display—that fills the spatial distance between transcendent Lord and the
people separated by a screen, public worship became a verbal event. This ministry
of the Word occurred not only in the sermon but in the public reading of
Scripture, in the prayers and singing, in confession and absolution — indeed,
throughout the entire liturgy from God’s greeting to the benediction. Even
Communion was a vocal pledge from God which the whole covenant community
received and to which it responded in celebration. “This follows,” notes Webb,
“from Calvin’s belief that God’s Word accomplishes what it commands. It is
covenantal speech, active and full of life. Even in its stuttering, it has the
power to give what it asks. God’s Word called the world into being, and it
continues to uphold the world through the speech of the Spirit-filled
church.”37 Whereas medieval worship subordinated speech to sight, the
Reformation (capitalizing on humanist concern for history and exegesis in the
original languages) sought to expose the people to God’s voice. “This was a
verbosity caused not by the need to explain an image or to make a moral point.
Rather, it was a verbosity intended to convey grace through sound.”38
拜爾指出：「我們西方的哲學傳統，在人類的官能中給了智力最突出的地位。不過，路德說，『人最有力和高貴的工作莫過於言說。』我們首先不是理性的生物；我們主要是說話的生物。」 對路德而言，這並非無關痛癢的一點。「對路德來說，一切都取決於聖經；聆聽、使用和傳講聖經，以它作為福音活潑的說話聲（viva vox evangelii）。」 這與奧古斯丁相反，對奧古斯丁來說，「外在之道是記號（signum），只是將我們指向〔事物本身〕（res）。」 韋伯提醒我們：「對奧古斯丁來說，……我們在賦予神說的話一種外在聲音前，已經內在地聽到了這話語。……因此，信心好像思想一樣，始於心的內室，在發聲之前是安靜的。」 請回想李文森在上面提出的一點（見「以色列啊，你要聽……」部分，108-10頁），對猶太教來說，真理是公開的，從我們以外臨到我們，然後影響我們個人。我們希臘智力傳統的傾向，則是將這動向倒轉過來，以致真理首先是安靜、自主和私下的思想或經驗，然後我們通過言說將它公開表達出來。This is in contrast
to“Our Western
philosophical tradition has given the intellect prominence among our human
faculties,” notes Oswald Bayer. “Luther, however, says that ‘there is no
mightier or nobler work of man than speech.’ We are not rational beings first
of all; we are primarily speaking beings.”39 This is not a slight point for
Luther.40“For Luther everything depends upon the Bible; hearing, using, and
preaching it as the living voice of the gospel (viva vox evangelii).”41
Augustine, for whom “the external Word is a sign (signum) that simply points us
to the [thing itself] (res).”42 Webb reminds us, “For Augustine … the Word that
God speaks is heard internally before we give it an external voice….
Consequently, faith, like thought, begins in the interior recesses of the
heart, where it is silent before it makes a sound.” 43Recall again Levenson’s
point above (see “‘Hear, O Israel,’” pp. 86 — 87) that for Judaism truth is
public, coming to us from outside ourselves, and then affects us personally.
The tendency of our Greek intellectual heritage is to reverse this movement, so
that truth is first a silent, autonomous, and private thought or experience
that we then express publicly through speech.
我們甚至可以在奧古斯丁的一些思想中，發現到從笛卡兒到施萊馬赫的現代知識論和詮釋學的先兆。然而，對改教家而言，這關係是倒過來的：道是神的言說，從外到內，而非從內到外。外在的道靠著聖靈內化在我們心中，卻不失去作為神的聲音那超越的「他性」，而不是內在自我的迴聲。這樣強調外在的道（verbum externum），完全是對應神在基督裡、在我們自己以外（extra nos）對我們的拯救。在個人和群體之內成為可見的一切—悔改、信心、愛心和道德更新的其他方面—都是這種在他們以外的明確宣告的漸進結果。“For Luther
everything depends upon the Bible; hearing, using, and preaching it as the
living voice of the gospel (viva vox evangelii).”41 This is in contrast to
Augustine, for whom “the external Word is a sign (signum) that simply points us
to the [thing itself] (res).”42 Webb reminds us, “For Augustine … the Word that
God speaks is heard internally before we give it an external voice…. Consequently,
faith, like thought, begins in the interior recesses of the heart, where it is
silent before it makes a sound.” 43Recall again Levenson’s point above (see
“‘Hear, O Israel,’” pp. 86 — 87) that for Judaism truth is public, coming to us
from outside ourselves, and then affects us personally. The tendency of our
Greek intellectual heritage is to reverse this movement, so that truth is first
a silent, autonomous, and private thought or experience that we then express
publicly through speech.
改教家視羅馬和激進派更正教人士為「狂熱分子」，因他們傾向讓外在的道從屬於信徒內在的言語（內在之光）。按路德的說法：The Reformers
regarded both Rome and the radical Protestants as “enthusiasts”
because they tended to make the external Word subordinate to the internal word
(inner light) of the believer. According to Luther:
如果你問一位基督徒，他藉以配稱為「基督徒」的行為是甚麼，他能絕對給出的回答，無非就是聆聽神的話，也就是信心。因此，只有耳朵才是基督徒的器官，因他得以稱義，被宣告為基督徒，不是因著任何器官的作為，而是因著信心。If you ask a
Christian what the work is by which he becomes worthy of the name “Christian,” he will be able to give absolutely no other answer
than that it is the hearing of the Word of God, that is, faith. Therefore, the
ears alone are the organs of a Christian man, for he is justified and declared
to be a Christian, not because of the works of any member but because of
faith.”44
因此，講道不是無關重要的媒介，而是在神看來適合傳遞那本身就是拯救信息的消息。神把我們放在領受的一方，人不僅唯獨通過信心得稱為義；信心本身也從聽道而來。Therefore,
preaching is not an indifferent medium but is deemed by God to be suitable to
the delivery of a message that is itself saving news. Putting us on the
receiving end of things, not only does justification come through faith alone;
faith itself comes through hearing.45
雷思（John H. Leith）指出，「正如對路德那樣，對加爾文而言，只有耳朵是基督徒的器官。」 加爾文總結說：「奉神的名傳講福音時，彷彿是神自己親身說話。」 雷思闡釋說：「講道的理據，不在於它對教育或改革的效用。……加爾文敢於說，講道的人就是神的口。」令講道有效的，是神的意圖和作為。神使傳道人的話與那本質——就是基督和祂的一切福益——聯合起來，就像聖禮的物質元素一樣。因此，言語不僅描述救恩，也傳遞救恩。「加爾文論講道之聖禮性質的教義，使他既能將講道理解為完全是人的工作，也能將它理解為神的工作。」“For Calvin as for
Luther,” John H. Leith observes, “‘the ears alone are the organ of the
Christian.’”46 Calvin summarized, “When the Gospel is preached in the name of
God, it is as if God himself spoke in person.”47 Leith elaborates, “The
justification for preaching is not in its effectiveness for education or
reform…. The preacher, Calvin dared to say, was the mouth of God.” It was God’s
intention and action that made it effective. The minister’s words, like the
physical elements of the sacraments, were united to the substance: Christ and
all of his benefits. Therefore, the word not only describes salvation but
conveys it. “Calvin’s sacramental doctrine of preaching enabled him both to understand
preaching as a very human work and to understand it as the work of God.”48?
