淺論奧康的思想及其對基督教神學發展的影響

William Ockham and His Impact on Christian Theology

蘇遠泰(SO Yuen-tai)

《道風：基督教文化評論》 16期 (2002/01) Pp. 137-161+322-323

並列摘要

William of Ockham (1285-1347), a famous philosopher and Christian theologian in the mediaeval period, was one of the founders of the school of thought called Nominalists. Ockham rejected the realistic interpretation of universal concepts and argued that a universal was not a substance existing outside the mind. Ockham claimed that only individual things existed and they were directly apprehended by the mind. Ockham's razor is the principle of economy to eliminate the notion of the existence of universals. In this paper, the author will firstly discuss the theological side of Ockham's contribution. Ockham tried to eliminate anything that limited God's omnipotence and freedom. After introducing the two concepts concerning the power of God, i.e. potentia absoluta and potentia ordinata, discussion will be focused on the question concerning how Ockham used them to assert God's omnipotence and free will, while retaining the order of the universe. The author will then analyze the philosophical issues of Ockham's nominalism. The impact of nominalism on soteriology and ecclesiology will then be discussed. Lastly, the author proposes to use the relational identity instead of the material identity to reformulate the construction of universal concepts. A universal exists not only in mind, but also lacks clear boundary with other universals. The author suggests that applying both fuzzy logic and the Buddhist concept that works with ＂A＂ and ＂Not-A＂ in nominalist hypothesis may challenge the development of Christian theology in the future.