Christian Faith Encounters New Age Faith in The Celestine Vision: A Brief Comparison between Two Types of Theology of Energy

基督信仰遇到天國預像：兩種氣神學的比較

鄭維亮(John Wai-Leung Cheng)

《新世紀宗教研究》 9卷1期 (2010/09) Pp. 77-114

摘要

近二十年才崛起的「氣神學」，是一以「氣」為範疇來表達其世界觀的嶄新神學。因此對有近四千年「氣文化」的黃帝子孫來說，「氣神學」應是格外地生動精彩。是以本文嘗試比較最近出現的兩種「氣神學」：第一種是屬於傳統基督宗教或天主教，以作者的著作為代表的「氣神學」；第二種是屬於「新時代運動」(New Age movement)，由詹士．雷德菲特(James Redfield)的著作代表之。
雖然這兩種「氣神學」有相同的地方，但亦有不同之處。對作者來說，最大的差異是雷德菲特的「氣神學」是一種充滿著普遍真理、半真理、基督宗教異端，甚至基督宗教真理的神學理論。因此，有必要破繭抽絲地分辨出此兩種「氣神學」的同異之處，這是本文的特點。此外由於此兩種「氣神學」是最近才問世的新神學，在此希望藉由本文的「比較」，引起一般關心近代神學發展的人士之興趣，尤其是沐浴在「氣範疇」幾千年兩岸四地的華人。

關鍵字

傳統基督信仰 ； 新時代運動 ； 天國預像 ； 比較 ； 氣神學

並列摘要

Appearing only within the last two decades, Theology of Energy is a new theology which attempts to express its theological worldview (Weltanschauung) in terms of various energy terms. This is particularly exciting to the Chinese people having been brought up in an almost 4000-year-old dynamic culture of qi or energy. Accordingly, this paper is a brief comparison between two types of Theology of Energy. The first type of Theology of Energy belongs to traditional Christianity or Catholic faith put together by the present author, and the other type belongs to the popular New Age movement established by James Redfield.
Despite the similarities between the two versions of Theology of Energy, the most different aspect to the present author is that Redfield's Theology of Energy is a mixed bag of universal truths, half-truths, Christian heresies, and even Christian truths. It is, hence, the intention of the author to carefully point out the similarities and differences in this encounter with Redfield's celestine vision which typically describes the New Age's vision of Heaven and the way to realize it. As both types of Theology of Energy belong to this new century, this comparison may be quite interesting to those concerned with such a new development of theology addressing its worldview in terms of energy or qi, i.e., the most common cultural paradigm in the whole Chinese civilization.

並列關鍵字

Traditional Christian faith ； New Age movement ； the celestine vision ； comparison ； theology of energy

參考文獻

(1994).Catechism of the Catholic Church.Ottawa:Publications Service, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

(1993).A Handbook of Theology of Energy.Lewiston, New York:The Edwin Mellen Press.

(1995).A Handbook of Theology of Energy.Toronto:Theology of Energy Research Education.

John-Paul II, Pope (1998). “Fides et Ratio: Faith and Reason”, Encyclical Letter of John Paul II on the Relationship between Faith and Reason. http://www.vatican.va/holy_faith/john_pa...p-ii_enc_15101998_fideset- ratioenshtml Accessed on December 1, 2009.

Redfield, James (1998). James Redfield's site: www.celestinevision.com/insights.html (accessed on February 28, 2010.)