世俗化(secularism)主要有两个方向。第一是祛基督论的社会福音和政治神学;第二是祛教会论的个人主义和灵恩运动。这个过程不是一天发生的。早期基督教对社会事务的关切是宗教改革的一部分。如John Howard的监狱改革、Robert Raikes的主日学校、William Wilberforce的废奴运动与圣经公会,1844年开始成立的基督教青年会(Young Men's Christian Association,简称YMCA),1865年成立的救世军(The Salvation Army;脱离循道会)等。而世俗化可以说从罗马帝国的国教化以及教皇制就开始了。清教徒将信仰变成了市民文学和政治哲学,或新教伦理与资本主义精神。另一方面,出于对教会卷入政治的反感和抗议,更出于骄傲和贪心,一些基督徒用避世的方式将基督教异教化,这实际上是另外一种世俗化。越是灵修化,越是世俗化。从中可以看见修道誓愿与灵恩运动之间的连接。晚近的世俗化则与理性主义的兴起有关,在恐惧和贪欲的驱使之下,神学开始与哲学和异教苟合,于是有了圣经批判和自由派神学,以及独一神学的泛滥成灾,还有各种现代异端的诞生(耶和华见证人、摩门教、安息日会、基督教科学会等)。现代社会,基督教在欧洲的衰落和基督教世界的世俗化是两个不容否认的事实。在这个过程中,世界的中国化进一 步让资本和政治上升为宗教,这是世俗化运动中最为极端的事件。
3、福音的全球化
教会改革最大的贡献是推动了福音的全球化。天主教和基督教几乎同时从西方出发,沿着地理大发现的路线,将福音送入地极。其中1934年 威克里夫圣经翻译协会成立是一个重要事件。据说至2012年11月,该组织已经将圣经或圣经的一部分翻译成全球的6877种语言。一些重要的宣教士取代教皇、主教和牧师成为教会明星,如进入印度的威廉·克理(William Carey,1761年8月17日-1834年6月9日;近代宣教士之父)、进入缅甸的艾多奈拉姆·耶德逊(Adoniram Judson,1788年8月9日-1850年4月12日)、进入中国的马礼逊(Robert Morrison,1782年1月5日-1834年8月1日)和戴德生(James Hudson Taylor,1832年5月21日-1905年6月3日)、进入非洲的戴维·利文斯通(David Livingstone;1813年3月19日-1873年5月1日)等。后期有所谓各种形式的普世教会运动(ecumenism),如1946年美国加拿大校联团契、1966柏林世界福音会议、洛桑世界福音宣教大会、世界福音宣教大会等。
福音全球化的叙事一直有两大命缺陷。第一是忽视天主教方面的传教事工。第二是过度夸大了宣教士的贡献以及成果,而忽视了在本地教会坚守的牧者。更为重要的是,500年宣教神学一个致命的弱点是致力于所谓抢救灵魂而忽视教会的建设。于是我们看见这样一个悖论:福音全球化和教会世俗化同步发展,互相促进。我认为2004年公布的这个统计是可疑的:21亿基督徒(世界人口63亿);教堂334万间;天主教11亿;东正教2.1亿;基督教7.8亿。而回教徒13亿、印度教徒9亿、佛教徒3.6亿、无教徒8.5亿、中国民间宗教2.2亿、犹太教,0.15亿。基督徒占人口总数的33%,占据40%的地方;还有27%的未得之地。朋友们,这完全不是事实。受浸只是成为基督徒的开始,没有任何人可以说是终身基督徒。特别是没有正统教会正常生活的人,还不是完整的基督徒。基督徒是一个过程中实现的身份,而这个过程只能是在教会中完成的。但世俗化实际上摧毁了教会,也等于摧毁了全球化的成果。
中国基督徒是这个过程的受益者,也是受害者。直到今天,中国教会整体上仍然是一个传说。不过我们今天重点放在500年世界教会简史方面,500年中国教会简史是下个主日的论题。但是我们已经是这个历史的一部分了。亲爱的弟兄姐妹,在我撰写协同书第二课讲章的时候,我开始感谢2017年早春我遭遇的一切,无论是在秦国的遭际,还是在路德教会的遭际,都是福音全球化进程的一部分。这些经历的结局大致如是:昨天类似约拿在鱼腹中,如今站在干地上,也站在高地上,看尼尼微使命,比约拿更为清澈。我们从500年前路德的经历中可以汲取面对任何罗马权势的力量;同时,我们也当从500年来的教会简史中警惕激进主义的劫持。我们看见,在主流教派中,上帝论(三位一体和基督二性)上基本上没有分歧;而分歧主要集中在圣礼和圣道两个方面。在圣礼方面,战争围绕圣餐论展开;在圣道方面,战争围绕救恩论(信义论、郁金香、合作论、灵恩论等等)展开。两方面的分别归根结底在于圣经神学:无视圣经和过度解释。无视圣经的灵是所有异教思想的精神,就是用肉身成道取代道成肉身,用个人冥想取代外在圣道。而圣经过度解释的灵,是希腊的理性主义。因此现在神学仍然面临着从异教冥想和希腊哲学归回希伯来神学的变革。圣经是可以解释的,也需要证道和解释,但基督徒要小心教义和宗派的试探。摩西面对会幕设计只是顺服,没有过度质疑和解释;保罗面对救恩论不断放弃希腊人的智慧和言辞争辩,呼吁教会只是仰望基督并祂的死而复活(十字架)。这是我们的道路:远离教会政治、返回圣经,建立教会。
你还有疑惑吗?“18耶稣进前来,对他们说,天上,地下所有的权柄,都赐给我了。19所以你们要去,使万民作我的门徒,奉父子圣灵的名,给他们施洗。(或作给他们施洗归于父子圣灵的名)20凡我所吩咐你们的,都教训他们遵守,我就常与你们同在,直到世界的末了”(马太福音28:18-20)。阿门。
任不寐,2017年3月19日
附录:
The Execution of Michael Servetus & My Primary Deal-Breaker with Calvinism
June 15, 2015 by Dr. Benjamin L. Corey
When I’ve written about Calvinism I’ve not infrequently heard “that’s just a caricature of Calvinism,” or that I don’t understand what Calvinism actually teaches (neither of which are true). While it’s true some of my critiques may not apply to some modern American Calvinists (who in all honesty, probably shouldn’t call themselves Calvinists), when I talk about Calvinism I’m talking about the theology of John Calvin himself.
I think the irony that often occurs isn’t that I don’t understand Calvinism, but that many modern Calvinists have never actually read what John Calvin taught. Calvinist writer and pastor Tim Callies completely agrees:
“Many, and no doubt most Calvinists have never read a word of John Calvin. Instead they reluctantly call themselves Calvinists because they feel John Calvin was gifted by God to understand and interpret the Scriptures and that he restored to the church doctrine that had been lost for hundreds of years.”
Perhaps one of the chief issues in modern Calvinism is that many don’t understand what their founder taught, or how he lived. I honestly don’t understand how one could be a Calvinist without first reading Calvin himself; I certainly wouldn’t want to be a Christian without reading what Christ said, or part of any other movement following the teachings of a person without actually reading the teachings of that person.
When reading Calvin there’s no shortage of problematic stuff one will find, as Zack Hunt articulately wrote about recently. From teaching that God not only picks who will go to heaven but also picks who will go to hell (before they’re even born!) and that God is the agent who ordains every act of evil in the world, there’s plenty of things to find in Calvin (aka, actual Calvinism) to be reprehensible. I concur with Hunt when he writes that a God who creates people for the purpose of torturing them (Institutes, 3.21.5), and who ordains all evil acts (1.17.5) is certainly a monster.
However, Calvin’s theology isn’t the primary deal-breaker for me. My primary point of departure from Calvinism is looking at how Calvin lived, and being able to see that he didn’t grasp (or was just completely unwilling to obey) one of the most basic things Jesus taught: enemy love. And this brings us to the execution of Michael Servetus– my primary “do not pass go” moment with Calvin.
Michael Servetus (1511-1553) was a theological enemy of Calvin and the two had mutual disdain for the other (Servetus thought Calvin was obnoxious and in return, Calvin felt Servetus was pompous). Servetus rejected orthodox Christianity (issues such as the trinity), holding what would correctly be called heretical views. In those days heretics were executed, and at one point Servetus was arrested- but released for lack of evidence. Soon after, he was re-arrested by the Catholic church and convicted of a capital offense– thanks to John Calvin, who sent some of Servetus heretical writings to the authorities. However, Servetus escaped from prison and was free to write again.
Calvin had previously vowed that if it were at all possible, he’d have Servetus killed, but his escape from prison thwarted those hopes. It wouldn’t be long however before Calvin could fulfill the vow he made against Servetus in 1546:
“Servetus wrote to me a short time ago, and sent a huge volume of his dreamings and pompous triflings with his letter. I was to find among them wonderful things, and such as I had never before seen; and if I wished, he would himself come. But I am by no means inclined to be responsible for him; and if he come, I will never allow him, supposing my influence worth anything, to depart alive.” [1]
As much as I dislike Calvin, Servetus was either an idiot or had a death wish, because instead of fleeing to safety he showed up at church one night in Geneva to hear Calvin preach (he’s certainly guilty of antagonizing Calvin). Calvin of course, didn’t miss the opportunity and had his friend Nicholas de la Fontaine arrest Servetus on 40 capital charges of heresy. During the trial, Calvin wrote that he hoped the verdict would come back as death[2], and it did. Servetus was ultimately burned at the stake– atop a pyre of his own books and green wood to draw out his death– which reportedly took 30 minutes.
And thus, John Calvin was responsible for having his enemy killed.
Now, both sides tend to overplay their hand on the death of Servetus. Those who stand against Calvin will often call it murder, and those strongly in the Calvin camp will try to explain it away as just the “culture of the time.” (Aren’t we supposed to stand against evil in culture?) Certainly this was not murder in the sense that Calvin walked up and personally killed Servetus– but he did collaborate with the local government to have him killed on two occasions. Also, it is true that Calvin tried to get Servetus to repent of his theology and when that didn’t work, he sought to have him beheaded instead of burned alive. However, I find the Calvinist tendency to play the “he tried to have him beheaded as an act of mercy” card a bit disingenuous, as if beheading an enemy is somehow morally superior to burning one.
In addition, Calvin wasn’t simply an innocent bystander in a violent culture– he was actually one of the folks promoting it. Calvin once wrote that those who objected to killing heretics were just as guilty as the heretics themselves:
“Whoever shall maintain that wrong is done to heretics and blasphemers in punishing them makes himself an accomplice in their crime and guilty as they are…” [3]
So, not only does he argue killing theological enemies to be good, but Calvin argued that one was not even morally free to oppose it. Furthermore, Calvin argued that the blood of no one– not even a person’s own family should be spared:
“… we spare not kin, nor blood of any, and forget all humanity when the matter is to combat for His glory.” [4]
Got that? We must not spare our own families of bloodshed– in fact, we must “forget all humanity” when doing combat for God’s glory.
(And don’t even get me going on the fact that Calvin was somewhat famous for his abusive speech toward others— aka, the sin of reviling as condemned by Paul.)
Calvinism is, by definition, the teachings of John Calvin– a man whose actions show me either (a) he didn’t understand Jesus or (b) he didn’t want to obey Jesus. Why in the world would I want to build the totality of my Christian theology on a foundation erected by such a person? If Calvin didn’t understand something so basic as torturing and killing people is something a Jesus follower probably shouldn’t do, I have zero confidence that he ever understood the more complex theological issues.
And this is my primary deal breaker: before any discussion on sovereignty, evil, or predestination, I am unable to move past the fact that Calvinism is a theological system designed by someone who had no moral or theological objections to brutally killing those who disagreed with him.
…
[1] Henry, Paul. The Life and Times of John Calvin, Vol II. Whittaker & Co, London. Pg. 181
[2] Calvin to William Farel, August 20, 1553, Bonnet, Jules (1820–1892) Letters of John Calvin, Carlisle, Penn: Banner of Truth Trust, 1980, pp. 158–159. ISBN 0-85151-323-9.
[3] Marshall, John (2006). John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture. Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 325. ISBN 0-521-65114-X.
[4] ibid.