作者: John Johnson译者: 诚之
无论什么原因，许多基督徒对思考有某种程度的厌恶。最近我想到这点，因此我们在教会里开发了一个“村落大学”（译者按：John Johnson的教会，名字就叫“村落浸信会”Village Baptist Church）。我们最终作了一个声明，除了敬拜和社群之外，我们需要一个健全的教育事工。我们想要提高门槛，提供各种课程，包括神学、圣经和实用的议题，聘请各种老师，包括在俗大学的科学家，神学院毕业生，医师，护士和商人等。这是早就该作的事。伴随这个挑战而来的，是有人“关心”（在教会圈子里常常会用这个字）说教会要灌输我们知识，向理性主义称臣等等。For whatever
reason, numerous Christians have a certain aversion towards thinking. I was
reminded of this recently in our church, where we have created “Village
University.” We have finally made a
statement that, along with worship and community, we need a robust educational
ministry. We are attempting to raise the
bar, provide classes ranging from theological to biblical to practical issues,
with teachers ranging from scientists at secular universities to seminary
grads, doctors, nurses and businessmen.
It’s long overdue. But with this
challenge has been a “concern” (a word often used in church circles) that the
church is turning intellectual on us, succumbing to rationalism and worse.
事实是，这种不作深度思考的倾向，是我们作为福音派基督徒却无法影响文化的关键性因素。它也成为如Mark Noll所说的，福音派的“丑闻”。偶尔收听基督徒广节目和它所推销的，突出了我有时所担心的——有太多基督徒容易受骗，过于肤浅。它也解释了为什么像派博（John Piper）最近所写的书为什么要提到这点。在他的新书，《思考：心智的生命和神的爱》（Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of
God）中，派博向这些人发出挑战：倾向于被实用主义统治的福音派基督徒，反智主义的敬虔主义者，以及部分怀疑心智的灵恩（原文五旬节）派人士。我仍然记得当我还在神学院就读时，曾遇见一位五旬节派的牧师，他担心我永远无法被圣灵大大地使用——除非我放空头脑，丢掉这些喂养到我的头脑里面的神学“东西”（毕竟，保罗不是说过，神已经叫这世上的智慧变成愚拙了吗？林前1：20）。The reality is, our
tendency to not think so deeply is a key factor in our inability as
evangelicals to impact culture. And it
has become, in Mark Noll’s words, a scandal. An occasional journey into
Christian radio and its advertising underscores what I sometimes fear most—that
too many Christians are gullible and superficial. It helps explain why authors
like John Piper have written recent books to address this. In his book Think: The Life of the Mind and
the Love of God, Piper challenges evangelicals who tend to be ruled by
pragmatism, pietists who glory in their anti-intellectualism, and certain
Pentecostals who are suspicious of the mind, to think. I still remember meeting a Pentecostal
minister during my days as a seminary student, who feared I would never be used
powerfully of the Spirit until I emptied my brain of all of this theological
“stuff” that had been fed into it (after all, wasn’t it Paul who declared that
God has made foolish the wisdom of the world?-I Cor 1:20).
派博如此描述他的书：“恳求基督，在有关头脑和心、思考和感情、理性和信心、神学和敬拜、智力的劳动和爱的事奉的事情上，排斥这种“汉贼不两立”的思维。恳求基督徒把思考视为一种必要的、神所定旨的认识神的途径。”他是对的。有时候，我们会带着这种奇怪的假设，就是内心的信念和学术是彼此对立的。它们不是对立的。派博在描述他自己的经历时说到：Piper describes his book as “a plea to
reject either-or-thinking when it comes to head and heart, thinking and
feeling, reason and faith, theology and doxology, mental labor and the ministry
of love. It is a plea to see thinking
as a necessary, God-ordained means of knowing God.” He is right.
Sometimes, we have this strange assumption that heartfelt belief and
scholarship are contrary to one another.
They are not. Piper, describing
his own journey, notes
我从来没有成为那样的人：发现到当我们更认识神和祂的话的时候，会感到内心的枯干。在我的头脑里放进更多有关神和祂的道路的知识，有如把木柴丢进我敬拜的火炉里。I have never been
one of those who found the heart to shrivel as God and His Word are known
better. Putting more knowledge in my
head about God and His ways was like throwing wood in the furnace of my
worship.
这不是说我们对思考的怀疑是毫无根据的。我参加的学术会议够多了，知道知识有一种自高自大的倾向。我所遇见过的最傲慢的人当中，有些是基督徒学者。缺乏祷告、缺乏圣灵、缺乏顺服的思考，以及对你所要分享的人缺乏热情，足以摧毁知识（林前8：1）。的确有些人会退缩到他们的书中，而把圣灵排除在外。有些人会看重智力的活动，更甚于亲自与神同行。也的确，有些人在追求学习的过程中，离开了神。This is not to say
that a certain suspicion towards thinking is groundless. I have been to enough academic conferences to
know that knowledge does have a tendency to puff up. Some of the most arrogant people I have met
are Christian scholars. Thinking without
prayer, without the Spirit, without obedience, and without a compassion for
those you share it with can destroy (I Cor 8:1). Some do retreat into their
books and crowd out the Spirit. Some do
give more weight to intellectualism than to a personal walk with Christ. And
true, some have, in the pursuit of learning, turned away from God.
我们这些到神学院的人，从一开始就需要起的誓言之一是：不要把圣经变成教科书。我们绝不可害怕真理。真理有自己的立足之地。不能用在里面塞了多少知识来衡量讲道。思考不能用牺牲内心的感受，我们的经验，感情和传递的热情为代价——正如热情的敬拜不能以牺牲思考为代价一样。神呼召我们要尽心，尽“意”（mind）来爱祂（太22：37）。One of the vows a
number of us going to seminary had to make from the start is that the Bible
cannot end up as a textbook. We must
never be afraid of truth. Truth can
stand on its own. Sermons cannot be measured by how much knowledge is crammed
into them. Thinking should not come at
the expense of heartfelt, experiential, emotional, passionate delivery—just as
passionate worship should not come at the expense of thinking. We are all called to love God with all of our
heart and all of our minds (Matt 22:37).
派博以四个恳求来总结，值得我们深思：
1. 让你的思考成为神最终彰显祂的荣耀的伙伴。
2. 在神大能的手中，不断谦卑自己。
3. 承认你对基督绝对的依靠。
4. 把你所有的思考化为爱的行动。
Piper’s
closing fourfold plea is worth pondering:
1.
Make all your thinking a partner in God’s ultimate purpose to magnify His glory
2.
Continually humble yourself under the mighty hand of God
3.
Confess your absolute dependence on Christ
4.
Make all of your thinking an act of love
我盼望，靠着神的恩典，我每周花15-20小时在准备讲章的理由，不是要让我的会众对我的洞见感到印象深刻，而是出于对神的爱和对会众的爱，尽可能深入地思考。如果我们能把这个学院做好，我们就可能装备基督徒，以深思的、具有洞见的，荣耀神的智慧，去和这个混乱的世界交战。I hope, by God’s grace,
the reason I pour 15-20 hours in preparing a sermon each week is not to impress
my congregation with my insights, but to think as deeply as I can out of my
love for God and love for them. If we do
this University right, we just might equip people to engage in this confused
world with thoughtful, insightful, God glorifying wisdom.
ABOUT
JOHN JOHNSON
John
Johnson is the former lead pastor at Village Church in Portland, OR. Presently,
he is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Western Seminary and devoted
to writing.
