聂云台的背耶入佛初探

作为中国近代史上一位重要的实业家，聂云台（1880－1953）在35岁时皈依基督教，据说旨在救国。他的皈依乃是美国传教士骆维廉（William Wirt Lockwood，1877－1936）劝化的结果，而非他后来建构自传时声称的那样只是阅读托尔斯泰著作的结果。皈依后，他对教会贡献良多，且在基督教青年会扮演过积极而又重要的角色。但随着其爱妻于1917年病逝及其生意在1924年的失利，他逐渐疏远教会，并最终在1925年弃耶皈佛，此举充分显示了中国人“惟灵是信”的宗教取向。为了论证其背教的正当性，他出版或发表了不少著作与文章，辟耶扬佛。他对基督教的攻击与对佛教的揄扬显然不是学术意义上的比较宗教研究，但对汉语神学的建构却颇有启发性，其中最重要的一点是如何平衡处理好信仰与功行在个人救赎中的作用。

關鍵字

聂云台；耶儒比较；汉语神学

並列摘要

As an important entrepreneur in the history of modern China, Nie Yuntai (1880- 1953) converted to Christianity when he was 35 years old (in 1915). His conversion, which aimed primarily at national salvation as he recalled, is an achievement of an American missionary William Wirt Lockwood(1877-1936), not the result of reading Tolstoy's writings as Nie himself claimed exclusively when he reconstructed his autobiography after he apostatized his belief of Jesus Christ. He made many contributions to the Church and played a rather active and important role in works of YMCA. But due to his beloved wife's death in 1917 and his failure of business in 1924, he gradually became alienated and even hostile to Christianity. He finally defected from his belief of Christ in 1925 and converted to Buddhism, which reveals, as this article tries to argue, the characteristics of Chinese religious belief, i.e. believing only on the basis of efficaciousness. In order to justify his apostate, he published many articles and books to criticize Christianity and appraised Buddhism. His comparison between Christianity and Buddhism is not one in the sense of academic study. He defined Christianity as the religion of God, the arbitrary and belligerent religion, and Buddhism as the religion of human mind, and inclusive and peaceful religion. He tried to argue that the former is a narrow-mined, superficial, crude religion and the latter a philosophically deep and exquisite one. He looked down upon the doctrine of ＂justification by faith alone＂ as an arbitrary and self-contradictory one, which, in his eyes, neglects the meaning of good works and the subjectivity of human kind in determining human ultimate fate. On the contrary, the teaching that human being can determine his own ultimate fate, which is the production of the fusion of popular Buddhism and Confucianism, satisfies Nie very much. Although Nie's comparison lacks the spirit of contemporary religious dialogue, it is rather instructive to the Sino-Christian theology, since it demonstrates, from a Chinese apostate's mouth, the significance of a delicate balance between faith and works in Christian doctrine.

並列關鍵字

NIE Yuntai ； comparison between Christianity and Buddhism ； Sino-Christian Theology

參考文獻

埃里克·夏普：《比较宗教学史》，吕大吉、何光沪、徐大建译，上海：上海人民出版社，1988 年，4页、335 页、2 页。

Google Scholar

David Redelings’ review of Stephen G. Wilson’s Leaving the Fold: Apostates and Defectors in Antiquity（Mineapolis : Fortress, 2005）, Review of Biblical Literature, 2007, Vol.9, p.290.