趙紫宸的《聖保羅傳》寫於1944年11月,是日本佔領華北後期所完成的一部傳記體神學作品。與另一部文學傳記《耶穌傳》相比,趙氏認為這是一部用歷史的方法和科學的態度,記敘保羅生平並注釋保羅書信的歷史著作;其目的在於使讀者能夠有系統地了解《使徒行傳》和《保羅書信》中的保羅及其思想。全書分為五卷十七章介紹保羅一生的傳道活動和體現於書信中神學主張。 不同於一般傳記側重人物的刻畫,《聖保羅傳》亦承載著趙紫宸40年代的神學思想。本文在簡單梳理趙氏的生平概略後,分別以三個段落探討《聖保羅傳》的敘事主旨與脈絡、本色化寫作風格,以及內中蘊含的拯救論課題。 除了分析敘事,第一章也探討趙氏如何將其獨創敘述史實之十二大原則,以及詮釋保羅思想之十種法規,靈活地應用於寫作中。其次,就文字本色化而言,《聖保羅傳》可說相當成功,因此第二章將重點放在分析《聖保羅傳》的文體形式與敘事模式上。復次,就神學角度言之,趙氏藉由詮釋保羅書信,闡發自己的神學觀點;他將保羅最重要的神學概念「因信稱義」(原為拉丁語Sola fide)改譯為「以信為直」。因此第三章側重探討趙氏拯救論思想的轉折,以及在「以信為直」的基礎上所發展的本色化拯救論觀點。
Completed in November 1944, T. C. Chao’s book, The Life of St. Paul, is a theological writing with biographical genre, which was written during the years while North China was occupied by Japan. Compared to another literary biography, The Life of Jesus, T. C. Chao thought this book chronicles the life of Paul and explains Pauline Epistles by using historical methods and scientific attitude. His purpose is to enable the readers to understand Paul’s life and thoughts in Acts and Pauline Epistles systematically. The book is divided into five volumes with seventeen chapters to introduce Paul’s missions and theological assertions. Unlike common biographies which focus on portraying the characters, The Life of St. Paul contains T. C. Chao’s theology in the 1940s. In addition to briefly introducing T. C. Chao’s life, this paper discusses the work from three aspects——narrative thrust and context, the writing style of indigenization, and the soteriology. In addition to analyzing the narration, the first chapter explores how T. C. Chao flexibly applies the twelve principles of describing historical facts and the ten rules of explaining Pauline Epistles. Secondly, because The Life of St. Paul adopts indigenization very successfully, the second chapter focuses on analyzing its literary forms and narrative modes. Thirdly, in the theological point of view, T. C. Chao expounds his theology by interpreting Pauline Epistles. For example, he translates “justification by faith (Sola fide in Latin)”, the most important theological concept in Pauline Epistles, into “integrity by faith”. Therefore, the third chapter focuses on the transition of T. C. Chao’s soteriology, and the indigenous soteriology that bases on “integrity by faith”.