认识现代神学_34_新福音主义:其信息(续);新福音主义:其失败
主讲:林慈信牧师_校对:刘加立弟兄_英文:XSS姐妹_中文:姣姐妹
Contemporary World Theology,session 34.认识现代神学第34讲。我们上一次讲到新福音派或者新福音主义有各种的不稳定之处,与基要派或者是新基要派有冲突。同时,他究竟是不是要站的很稳,相信圣经无误,批判现代自由派神学跟巴特的新正统,都很不明朗。所以Dr. Lindsell,Harold Lindsell(哈罗德·林德塞尔),当时的《今日基督教》杂志的主编就看到:圣经观很弱的新福音派,他们的前途是很危险的。
我们现在继续。
Where this shift eventually will lead to is,of course,difficult to say now. 这个的转变最后带我们到怎么一个的结局呢,当然,在目前还是很难说(请注意,这本书是1973年出版的)。But its growing base cannot be denied. 可是,不可否认的是,这种的新福音派,它的群众基础是越来越大。
下面有一段的话来自John Warwick Montgomery,1965年的一篇的文章。“One observes with amazement and with sorrow that in the very orthodox circles where the twentieth-century battle for biblical authority has been most courageously fought,voices are being raised against the inerrancy of Holy Writ. 令人惊讶、也令人悲伤的是下列的观察:就是在二十世纪圣经权威之战打的最猛烈之处那些的勇士的正统信仰的圈子里,现在有声音反对圣经——神的话语的无误性。
Biblical Seminary in New York,an evangelical center where brilliant pioneering techniques of inductive Bible study were developed,纽约圣经神学院以前是一个福音派的神学中心,在那里有非常杰出的归纳式查经法发展出来,saw in 1963,publication of Dewey M. Beegle’s The Inspiration of Scripture,但是在1963年,他们的Dewey M. Beegle(杜威·M·比格尔),B-e-e-g-l-e,出版了一本名为《圣经的默示》的一本书,in which that faculty member—having embraced Neo-Orthodox,dialectic presuppositions as to the nature of truth,在那本书里,这位教授接受了新正统的辩证神学的前提,就是他现在采用一个新的关于真理本质的看法——imposes them on Scripture,现在把这种新正统的真理观用在圣经观上,denies its inerrancy,现在他否认圣经的无误,and makes the incredible claim that evangelicals by a ‘mental readjustment’ can now retain inspiration without inerrancy and thereby rejoin mainline Protestant-ecumenical theology. 他做出一个令人难以置信的宣称,他说福音派只需要一种‘思想上的调整一下’,就可以保留着一个没有无误的默示观,这样就可以再一次的参与基督教的教会合一运动的神学。
North Park Seminary in Chicago,芝加哥的北方公园神学院(我加一个注解,这个是Evangelical Coven Church,一个瑞典的浸信会的神学院),long known for its uncompromising free-church orthodoxy and piety,多年来以不妥协站在一个自由教会的正统信仰和敬虔生活著名的一所的神学院,is now characterized by an anti-inerrancy approach to the Bible,现在他们反对圣经无误,用这种反对无误的方法来解读圣经,that finds Scripture truth-value not in any historical soundness or factual consistency possessed by the Word,but in its ability to trigger spiritual experience. 现在这种的圣经观认为圣经的真理价值不在于它历史上的准确性或者事实上一些的一致性,乃是圣经能够引发出属灵的经验。
Concordia Seminary,St. Louis,a bastion of biblical orthodoxy in the days of Theodore Engelder and W.F. Arndt,路德宗的协和神学院,位于圣路易斯,多年来有Theodore Engelder(西奥多 恩格尔德),E-n-g-e-l-d-e-r,还有Arndt,A-r-n-d-t,这些的教授领导之下,是维护圣经正统信仰的大本营,has in the last decade weakened its stand considerably. 但是在过去十年的立场,就弱化了很多了. . . And in many quarters of the American evangelical scene,在美国福音派大家庭的很多的圈子里,from East coast to West,从东岸到西岸,theologians who should be testifying to Scripture’s total truth are preferring to avoid the word ‘inerrancy,’ 应该对圣经的完全真实性作见证的神学家,现在喜欢避免用‘无误’这个词,are making no efforts to explain apparent discrepancies in the Bible,对于圣经一些的难题,或者是表面上的矛盾,也不再努力去加以解释,and are redefining ‘truth’, 他们对‘真理’现在有着一种新的定义,so that the Scripture can—we are confidently told—retain its absolute revelational veracity without de facto historical accuracy.他们的新的对真理的定义,带来这个的后果,他们很有信心的告诉我们,圣经可以保留着他的绝对的启示性和真理性,但是并不一定有着历史记载的准确性。”
19章结束。
第20章,Chapter XX Neo-Evangelicalism—Its Failure 新福音主义—其失败
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Neo-evangelicalism,as a mood,a temper,is not strictly an English-language phenomenon. 作为一种的气质,一种的氛围,新福音主义不仅仅是英语世界的现象。Life in the area of the “younger churches” has been touched by the same subjectivism of neo-orthodoxy,在所谓比较年轻的教会,或者说第三世界的教会,也受到新正统神学这种主观主义的影响,and the same vagaries and gaudy extremes of neo-fundamentalism that prompted the rise of neo-evangelicalism on the American continent and in Europe. 同样的,也受到一种含糊又极端的新基要派的影响,后者是激发出美国跟欧洲的新福音派运动的。And so,one can hear in these places also,所以在这些第三世界的教会,我们也听到一些的声音,the same calls for purification of evangelical thinking that we have come to call,rightly or wrongly,“neo-evangelicalism.” 那些声音就呼吁福音派人士炼净他们的思想,这个的呼吁我们称之为“新福音主义”。
As in America and Europe,many of the world’s evangelicals are sickened by the fear that fundamentalism is no longer a world-changing faith but a world-escaping fear. 在世界上,很多的福音派人士,不论在美洲或者是欧洲,非常的惧怕,担心着基要派不再是一个改变世界的信仰,乃是逃避世界一种的恐惧心态。They are saddened by the lack of orthodox scholarship in academic circles. 他们看到,在学术世界里太少纯正信仰的学者,他们感觉到非常的悲哀。There is fear that one of the reasons for a crippled evangelical literature movement may be conservative anti-intellectualism. 他们恐怕,为什么福音派没有一种的著作运动呢?其中一个原因是福音派的保守和反理性主义。
There is fear that one of the reasons for a lack of a dedicated,respected body of scholars is evangelical neglect of Christianity’s relationship to society and culture. 他们也恐怕福音派忽略了基督教与社会文化之间的关系,因此就缺乏一班分别出来,专注学术的,受人尊重的一班的学者。So the call issues for an indigeneous theology. 所以第三世界的教会就呼吁要有本土神学的兴起。Along with these fears,there is also the desire to recapture denominational leadership,除了上面所讲的担心以外,这些第三世界的福音派人士也希望重新的掌握到不同宗派的领导的位置,rather than abandon these denominations to the forces of contemporary liberalism. 他们不愿意看到自己放弃这些的宗派让当代的自由派神学操纵。
The world evangelical courts opportunities to eater into written and oral dialogue with neo-orthodox theologians,这些全球的福音派人士很渴望争取机会与新正统神学家有书面上或者口头上的对话,remembering the dangers to the purity of their testimony,他们记得这样子会很危险,可能让他们的见证失去它的纯正性,but remembering also the challenge of an opportunity for their testimony.但是同时记得这个是个挑战,是个机会,让他们可以为自己的信仰作见证的。
In this same spirit,本着这种的精神,the world evangelical acknowledges his neglect of society,全球的福音派人士,很多现在承认他忽略了社会,and now seeks to find ways to make Christianity “in the third world” the mainspring of social reforms,现在试图“在第三世界”使基督教成为社会改革的大本营,that it has been in some countries and that it ought to be in others. 他们认为社会改革应该在这些的国家是如此的,就是说基督教应该是起领导的作用的。Though these men do not openly use the word “neo-evangelical” ,虽然这些的人士并不公开的用“新福音派”这个名词自居(it seems to be a very new word in our world vocabulary,在今天的世界,这个词好像很陌生),much of their emphases can be called “neo-evangelical” in tone.他们所强调的很多的因素都可以被称为“新福音派”。
What shall we say about this tone? 我们对这个气质应有怎么样的回应呢?It is condemned wholesale by Carl McIntire and other neo-fundamentalists. McIntire,M-c-I-n-t-i-r-e,和其他的新基要派人士,是全盘推翻、批评新福音主义的。The neo-evangelical is often labelled as coming close to being “a half-hearted heretic,” 他们往往给新福音派这样子一个标签,说他们差不多是一个“不诚意的异端”,and the movement is condemned as “born of compromise,nurtured on pride of intellect,growing on the appeasement of evil,and doomed by the judgment of God’s word.” 他们认为新福音派运动是“从妥协而生,由理性的傲慢滋长,借着与邪恶奉承而成长,最后它的结局必然是有上帝的话语的审判”的。Others,like Robert Lightner of Dallas Theological Seminary,are far more gracious though still critical in spirit. 其他人士,例如达拉斯神学院的Robert Lightner,L-i-g-h-t-n-e-r,讲话比较礼貌,可是他的精神仍然是批判的。
A warning against the dangers of easy generalization may be especially apt in discussing this issue. 当我们讨论新福音主义的时候,我们应该注意这种的警告,就是说不要过分的、笼统的做结论,这个警告是很重要的。Lightner,an informed critic of neo-evangelicalism,writes these wise words. Lightner是一个,不是盲目的,是经过深思熟虑的一个新福音派的批判者。他这样写到,下面是他的话:“Since such a wide range of divergence exists within neo-evangelicalism,新福音派运动既然包含了这么分歧的不同的人士跟观点,it would be unwise to attempt to speak for them all. 对他们笼统的来评估是不智慧的。Some who are pleased to be designated ‘neo-evangelicals’ have more affinity to either neo-liberalism,neo-orthodoxy or fundamentalism than others. 有一些很愿意自称为‘新福音派’的,他们比较靠近新自由派,或者比较靠近新正统,或者比较靠近基要派。
Some are to the right of center and others to the extreme left of center.有一些人士比较右派,有一些比较极端的左派(左派就是自由派,右派就是保守基要派的意思,这是我的注解)” Lightner wrote those remarks as a preface to his treatment of certain weak views of Scripture within the neo-evangelical circle. Lightner这些的话是为他的书作序的,他的书就是要处理新福音派圈子里面妥协的、软弱的圣经观。He adds,他继续说,“These views are not shared by all,but they are shared by too many.他说不是每个人都有这种弱的圣经观,但是有太多人士持这种观点了。” Lightner’s commentary seems especially pertinent in view of the neo-fundamentalist’s tendency to see everything as black or white,既然新基要派人士往往把事情都是看为黑白的,那么Lightner的注解是特别的合适的,and to fear any new theological developments as suspicious drifts toward unbelief. 同时,新基要派人士会担心任何的新的神学上的发展都有可能往不信的神学立场方面发展。
In connection with this,and in view of the wide divergences within “neo-evangelicalism,” 基于这些的观察,既然‘新福音派’里面有各种不同分歧的观点,the wisest thing may be to admit that “neo-evangelicalism” is not so much a movement as a mood,可能最智慧的是承认新福音主义不是一个运动,是一种的气质,a temperament more than a theology,不是一套的神学,a disposition more than a theological position. 不像一个神学立场,比较像一种的思考的姿态。As even some neo-evangelicals admit,the term is a misnomer and somewhat misleading. 甚至乎有一些的新福音派人士承认这个名词是用错了,甚至乎是误导的。
Its very vagueness invites denunciations from those who often call it “a subtle retreat to a compromised fundamentalism.” 因为这个词非常的含糊,因此有一些批评新福音派人士的人,他们就说新福音派是“很微妙的退缩到一个妥协的基要主义”的一个的运动。The term had some usefulness in the 1940’s and 1950’s,早在1940年代跟50年代,新福音派主义这个词是有用的,to describe the “fundamentalist renaissance” of that time. 用来描述当时的一种的基要派的文艺复兴。However,there have been continued changes since those days,可是,自从1940跟50年代,有着太多的转变了,and the word may not be fully descriptive of some of the new twists and turns in the world right of the theological center. 那现在,在神学的,特别是右边,就是说比较保守的基要派或者福音派,现在用新福音派来描述他们已经不恰当了。
In any case,无论如何,one cannot simply condemn completely much of what the movement has stood for in the past. 总之,我们不能够完全否认过去这个新福音派运动的立场。For example,the influence of classic Calvinism on many of the early leaders played a large part in some of the emphases of “neo-evangelicalism.” 例如,在早期的“新福音派运动”里,经典的加尔文主义的影响是非常的重要的。
我们下次开始。就是我们来讲早期的新福音派运动,特别是40跟50年代的时候,加尔文主义者们影响当时的第一波的新福音派主义的领袖们。
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