彌爾頓、清教思想與自由意志

本文主要探討彌爾頓的清教思想如何在其作品中呈現出來，特別是關於善惡之間的糾葛以及自由意志的問題。不論是使用任何文體（史詩、悲歌、或是政論文章），或是處理不同的主題，彌爾頓都曾直接點出或間接透露出一個重要的觀念：善與惡之問有某種程度的依存關係。而從這個命題出發，我們可以獲致另外一個結論：在彌爾頓的作品中，抉擇的行爲與外在的試探構成了共生的關係。也就是說，如果沒有面對任何真實的試探，任何的選擇行爲都是殘缺不完整的。本文另一重點則專注彌爾頓在《失樂園》中對自由意志所抱持的態度傳統上，一般學者認爲在這個問題上彌爾頓採取亞米紐的神學見解。也就是說，彌爾頓對自由意志的態度與當時的清教徒大不相同。這樣的觀點事實上有所缺憾而不夠周全。本文將試圖說明彌爾頓對自由意志的態度可視爲喀爾文神學與亞米紐主義的綜合體，而與奧古斯丁的說法較爲契合。

關鍵字

彌爾頓；清教思想；自由意志；奧古斯丁；亞米紐主義

並列摘要

This work is devoted to scrutinizing Puritan elements, especially those concerning free will and the intertwisting between good and evil, in Milton. One focus of this essay is therefore to demonstrate in what way Milton, whether directly or indirectly, deals with these issues in different works. Though Milton is generally considered as sharing the belief in many orthodox Puritan doctrines with other contemporary Puritans, he, according to many studies, denies the Puritan idea of predestination and follows Arminius in his open and strenuous advocacy of free will. This assessment of Milton cannot be regarded as completely wrong, but it needs some modification. Thus, another objective of this work is to argue that Milton's attitude toward ”free will” can be viewed as a concoction of Arminianism and Puritanism.