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Why They Came: Mixed Motives 到美洲大陆的各种动机 Various desires motivated the Europeans to came to the New World, beginning with Columbus. We may categorize these simply as a search for gold, glory, and God. 自从哥伦布发现美洲新大陆后，各种动机促使欧洲人来此。我们可以简单地将这些动机分为:淘金，追求个人名声，以及追求神。 Columbus 哥伦布 Columbus wrote, "It was the Lord who put it into my mind... the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies... The fact that the Gospel must still be preached to so many lands in such a short time - this is what convinces me." Some historians believe that his passion for glory and lust for gold marred the success of his discovery of the West Indies and South America. Certainly, his cruel treatment of the natives demonstrates that he shared the current European view that the peoples of the world could be exploited. 哥伦布写道:「是神将这件事放在我脑海里…就是可以从这里航行到印度群岛…福音仍必须要在这么短的时间内传到这么多的地方，这就是教我信服的。」一些历史学家相信，哥伦布追求名声的欲望和他对财富的贪婪，使得他发现西印度群岛及南美的成就蒙上阴影。的确，他对当地土著的残暴行为，印证了他具有那个时代的欧洲人的世界观，就是其它的民族是可以被剥削利用的。 The Book of Prophecies (published after his second voyage), however, reveals his wide reading of the Bible and his deep commitment to the spread of its message to the peoples of the New world. His journal states that he considered "gold" essential to his evangelistic journeys. At the very least, we must say that his understanding of the Gospel and his practice of it fell far short of that of, for example, the later Pilgrims. At worst, some have accused him of terrible hypocrisy. Both views of this great explorer have truth. 然而，在哥伦布第二次航行之后所写的"预言书"中，透露出对圣经广博的研读，以及他极欲将福音传播给新大陆上的民族的决心。他的航行记录中说他认为"财富"是他传播福音的航程中不可或缺的。最起码，我们必须指出他虽然对传福音有兴趣，他对福音的了解和体现，却远不及后来的基督徒如新教徒(Pilgrims)。而对他最严厉的批评，则是有些人认为他根本是虚伪的基督徒。对伟大的探险家哥伦布的信仰这种正反两面的看法，都是有事实根据的。 To put the conquest of Latin America by Roman Catholics from Spain and Portugal into a larger perspective, let us quote the words of Steven Keillor: 为了对西班牙及葡萄牙的罗马天主教徒征服拉丁美洲有更广泛的认识，我们可以引用司提反.凯勒(Steven Keillor)所写道: [God] used them to accomplish his purposes... but did not excuse their actions. Columbus's view of biblical prophecy does not justify his actions toward the Taino but neither do his actions make biblical prophecies erroneous. One can have truth and still rebel against it.... So， [Columbus's] voyages advanced God's long-range goals and yet were profoundly ungodly. That is so because of a deeper paradox: the Christianity carried by Europeans to the new World was divinely revealed truth， yet those who carried it were in serious rebellion against it. 「神使用这些人来完成祂的旨意…但神并没有原谅这些人的行为。哥伦布对圣经预言的错误看法导致他对待泰诺(Taino)族人的不合理行为，而他的行为并非证明圣经预言是错误的。人们可能知道真理却仍然违背真理…所以，哥伦布的航行使神的终极计画向前迈进，但他航行过程中的行为却是非常不合乎神的教导的。这源自于一个看似荒谬，却其实合乎真理的现象:这些欧洲人所带到美州新大陆的基督教是神所启示的真理，但是这批人根本上是违背这个真理的。」 The last sentence in that paragraph could serve as part of the message of this book. Christians in America have both succeeded and failed in obedience to their Lord. The truth they have believed, however, shows their failure to be proof that we are all sinners in need of God's grace. 上一段引言的最后一句话正是本书所要传达的部份讯息。美国的基督徒在顺服他们的神这件事上，有成功也有失败，然而，他们所信奉的真理显明了一件事，就是他们的失败验证了我们都是需要神的恩典的罪人。 The Virginia Colonists 在维吉尼亚州(Virginia)的殖民者 In 1607, settlers landed at Jamestown (now in Virginia) to found the first successful English colony in North America. We know their motives from their actions: Seeking instant wealth from the discovery of gold, the relatively well-born colonists at first refused to work in the fields. The considered manual labor beneath their dignity. After they found out how to grow tobacco (and, later, cotton), they acquired Black slaves to endure the heat and humidity to raise this profitable cash crop. To be sure, they believed that slave labor alone could make such labor-intensive agriculture cost-effective. Nevertheless, a proud plantation-based plutocracy soon arose along the rivers from which they shipped their tobacco to England. To this day, pride and greed prevent the elite of eastern Virginia from relinquishing their dependence on the noxious weed that kills untold millions of people each year. 主后一六零七年，殖民者在维吉尼亚州的詹姆士镇(Jamestown)开辟了北美洲最早的英语殖民地。从他们的行为我们可以明了他们的动机.寻找黄金以立即致富。这些贵族殖民者起初是不肯务农的，因为这些粗重的工作与他们的身份不相称。当他们发现如何种植烟草(及后来的棉花)之后，他们使用黑奴在农场上忍受酷热与潮湿为他们种植这些经济作物。毫无疑问的，他们相信只要使用这些奴隶就可以使这项劳力密集农业具有高投资报酬率。很快地，一个因烟草业致富的骄傲族群，沿着运烟草往英国的河畔建立了起来。时至今日，这些骄傲而贪婪的维吉尼亚东部社会与经济菁英，仍然不肯放弃种植烟草这种每年残害千百万人的作物。 On the other hand, some sincere Christians came with them and had some influence on the others. As soon as they landed, Captain John Smith raised a wooden cross on the shore at Cape Henry. The Reverend Robert Hunt led the people in prayer to God for thanksgiving for their safe passage and in recommitment to His purposes for them in the New World. It is true that European colonists used the cross as a symbol of conquest around the world, but I believe in this case the cross also represented a commitment to basic Christianity. 另一方面,一些虔诚的基督徒也随着这批殖民者过来并对他们有些影响。当他们一登陆，约翰.史密斯上尉(Captain John Smith)就在亨利角(Cape Henry) 立起一个木头十字架，牧师罗伯.韩特(Robert Hunt)带领群众祷告，感谢神带领他们平安抵达并重伸他们在新世界为神工作的承诺。尽管殖民者往往使用十字架作为征服世界各地的象征，我相信在这件事上十字架也代表了对基督教基本精神的承诺。 The Virginia Charter of 1606 states that they came to spread "the Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God." In 1619 their leaders passed laws requiring church attendance and the first American day of Thanksgiving was celebrated in the same year. Public statements and legal ordinances do not necessarily issue from sincere motives, but they do reflect a mindset and a worldview. The English colonists adhered to the Christian worldview. 一六零六年的维吉尼亚州殖民特许状中声明他们到新大陆是为了传播基督教信仰给那些生活在黑暗中对神的真理和敬拜毫无所知的民族。在一六一九年，他们的领袖通过法律规定人们上教堂，同一年他们庆祝美国第一个感恩节。公开的声明及法律的规定并不一定表示他们有纯正的出发点，却忠实反映出当时的想法和世界观。这些英国的殖民者赞同于基督教的世界观。 The Pilgrims 新教徒 (The Pilgrims) The next year, Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock (now Massachusetts). They had planned to settle in Virginia. but their unscrupulous ship captain had misled them. As a result, they were forced to found an independent colony. Some Christians see God at work in this. For one thing, they were able to put into practice their ideas about Christian community. For another, they landed in a place where the natives were friendly. Further evidence of God's providential care includes the coming of Squanto, an Indian who taught them life-saving skills and introduced them to other Indians who would form a treaty of friendship with them, thus preserving them from attack and possible extinction. 第二年(一六二零年)，一群新教徒在浦利毛斯岩(位于今天的麻色诸塞州)登陆。他们原本打算在维吉尼亚居住，但是他们不诚实的船长误导他们到麻州去。于是，他们被迫建立另一个独立的殖民地。一些基督徒(现在和以前)把这件事看作是神的工。譬如，这群新教徒得以将他们的基督教社区的想法付诸行动。又如，他们登陆之地的原住民很友善。另一项神带领保守的证据，则是一个叫史刚图(Squanto)的印地安人的出现，他教导他们生存技能，并把他们介绍给其它印地安部落。这些印地安部落与他们建立很好的友谊，保护他们免于遭受攻击和可能的灭绝。 The Pilgrims were Separatists. That is, they had left the Church of England. Unlike the Puritans, they had no hope of reforming England's established church. They refused to participate in its worship and thus suffered fierce persecution in England. Finally, several hundred of them fled to Holland, where they enjoyed religious freedom. After several years there, however, they discovered that their children were learning Dutch instead of English; worse, they were learning the pagan ways of Dutch youth. They also saw that they could not organize their life together on the basis of God's Word. They resolved, therefore, to seek a home in the New World. 这批新教徒是所谓的分离主义者，意即他们脱离了英国国教(所以称为新教徒)。不像清教徒，他们对改造英国国教不抱希望，他们拒绝参加英国国教的崇拜，因而遭到严厉的迫害。最后他们当中数百人逃到荷兰，在荷兰享受到宗教自由。但是几年后他们发现他们的孩子只说荷语不说英语，更遭的是这些孩子从荷兰青少年那儿学习异教行为。他们也看到无法根据神的话在荷兰建立他们的生活，于是他们决定到新世界找一个家。 Of all those who arrived in America from Europe, the Pilgrims perhaps had the purest motives. Caring not only for their own purity but for the salvation of the Native Americans, they resolved to spread the gospel to the Indians by all possible means. Accustomed to hard work and suffering, they were not seeking an easy life. They were sturdy middle-class folk and did not dream of riches. They were not criminals running away from the law, except insofar as they were fleeing religious persecution. They stated their goals clearly in many public documents. In summary, they wanted to establish a society that would reflect God's will in all aspects of life. They wished, in a word, to glorify God. 在所有来到美国的欧洲人中，这群新教徒的动机大概是最纯正的。由于他们不仅在乎自己信仰的虔诚，也在乎美洲原住民的救赎，他们决心用各种方式传福音给印地安人。他们早已习惯劳苦与辛勤工作，所以他们并不追求舒适的生活。他们是坚强的中产阶级，并不梦想财富。他们不是逃避法律的罪犯，充其量只是躲避宗教迫害，他们在许多公开文件中清楚地声明他们的目标。总而言之，他们想要建立一个在生活各方面都能反映出神的旨意的社会。简要的说，他们希望荣耀神。 We do not have space to recount their inspiring history, which other books record in detail. Suffice it to say that these hardy people founded a colony that set a high standard for all who were to come and provided a foundation for America's early culture. 我们没有足够的空间回顾他们发人深省的历史，其它一些书中有详细的记载。在此我们指出这群勤奋的人建立了一个殖民地，为后继者立定了一个高标准，也为美国早期文化奠立了基础，这样的评语也就足够了。 The Puritans (And Other Early Colonists) 清教徒 (及其它早期殖民地) The Puritans who followed them came in much greater numbers - twenty thousand between 1628 and 1638. Like the Pilgrims, they were also Calvinists. Unlike the Pilgrims, they had tried to reform (purify) the Church of England and then all of England according to their interpretation of God's Word (thus their name, Puritans). They had failed in their attempt and so sought to try again in America. Like the Pilgrims, they were mostly middle-class folk, although some high-born gentlemen joined them. They were solid merchants, farmers, and craftsmen. Also like the Pilgrims, they possessed a very high level of education and mental sophistication. Their pastors could read several languages and were the intellectual leaders of society, preaching long sermons that plumbed the depths of Christian theology and applied the Bible to all of life. 清教徒继新教徒之后来到北美，其人数远比新教徒多，在一六二八年到一六三八年间共有两万人。他们如同新教徒一样是属于加尔文教派。不同于新教徒的是，他们曾经根据他们对神的话的了解来试图改造(清净)英国教会及整个英国，所以被称为清教徒。他们在英国的尝试失败了，所以寻求在北美洲再试一次。这些清教徒和新教徒一样是属于中产阶级，虽然其中也有一些贵族。他们是很好的商人，农人，及工艺匠。他们也像新教徒拥有良好的教育和思想。他们的牧师通晓好几种语言，也是有智能和见识的社会领袖，可以传讲极具神学深度的长篇大道，也可以把圣经应用生活的每一方面。 Perhaps more than any other group in Christian history, the Puritans (and Pilgrims) believed that God's Word could shed light on practically all questions that face us in our daily living. In the Bible they found principles of conduct for individuals, families, and entire communities. We shall examine some of these principles later. In the Old Testament they saw a form of government that, with modifications, could be copied in modern times. That is why they opposed the absolute monarchy of the Jacobean kings in England. 也许在基督教历史上，没有任何团体像清教徒(和Pilgrims)一样，那么相信神的话可以实际的应用在我们每天生活所面临的问题。他们在圣经里找到个人，家庭，及整个社区的行事准则。我们稍后会看看他们这些准则的一部分。在旧约圣经中他们见到了一种只要稍加更改，就可以适用在当代的政府形态，这也就是为什么他们反对英国詹姆士王朝(1601-1623)的集权统治。 Later writers have maliciously slandered the Puritans. As one who has read some of their writings, I find some modern criticism to be biased and ignorant, the result more of prejudice than of accurate knowledge. 后来的许多书的作者恶意地毁谤清教徒。我读过他们所写的一些资料，发现一些我们这时代对清教徒的批评偏颇而无知，他们的结论基于偏见多过于正确的知识。 - Recreation 娱乐 For example, they are pictured as grim and solemn, with no interest in joy or pleasure. It is true that they tried to obey the Biblical commands to be sober and upright. They wore plain dress and avoided vanity in speech and recreation. Their worldly contemporaries in England, who sought happiness in sexual immorality and foolish diversions, misunderstood and maligned the Puritans, as the Apostle Peter had predicted long ago when he said, "We have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles (this is, non-believers) - when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you." The Puritans believed in a final judgment and lived accordingly. They sought joy in other ways: Reading, music, hard work, family life. 例如说，他们被视为冷酷而严肃，对欢乐和享受没有兴趣。没错，他们试着遵照圣经的教导以保持良善与正直，他们穿朴素的衣服，避免浪费时间在闲谈和娱乐上。与他们同时代的英国人则耽溺于性滥交和其它愚昧的活动上，对清教徒误解并加以打压。就如使徒彼得老早就预言的:「我们过去已经浪费够多的岁月在外邦人(非基督徒)爱做的事情上了，就是那些充满淫乱邪念、醉酒、作乐、狂欢，和令人憎恨的偶像的事情。如今我们回头了，他们却因我们不与他们同流合污而感到奇怪，甚而毁谤我们。」清教徒相信最后的审判，因此谨守他们的生活。事实上他们透过其它的方式追求乐趣，例如阅读、音乐、勤奋工作、家庭生活等。 - Family 家庭 The Puritan family, also maligned by ignorant moderns, stands as a model. Puritans believed that the family was the central unit of society, the microcosm of both church and state. The father ruled supreme, to be sure, but he did so under the authority of God's Word. Preachers exhorted husbands to love their wives tenderly, as Christ loves the church. They taught fathers to care for their children and bring them up to know and obey God. Thus, the patriarchal system was based upon love, not force. Men knew that they were answerable to God who would judge them for any act of unkindness. The Puritans accepted the Bible's teaching about the goodness of sex within marriage. When I was first married, I remember reading a pamphlet that had been reproduced from an early Puritan tract about marriage. Called "Advice to husbands," the essay urged, among other things, that husbands allow their wives to be playful with them, lest they be tempted to play somewhere else. They must have had frequent intercourse, for they brought many little Puritans into the world! 清教徒的家庭是模范家庭，却也不幸被无知的现代人所曲解。清教徒相信家庭是社会的中心单位，是教会和国家的缩影。肯定的，父亲是一家之主，但是他的管理是在神的话的权威之下。牧师宣扬丈夫要温柔地爱妻子，如同基督爱教会。他们教导父亲要养育孩子，使孩子认识神也遵从神。所以他们的父系社会是基于爱，而不是力量。男人知道他们任何不慈爱的行为都将被神所审判。清教徒接受圣经所教导「婚姻内的性是美好的」。我刚结婚的时候，记得读到一本翻印自早期清教徒婚姻手册的小册子。册中有篇文章叫「给丈夫的忠告」，鼓励丈夫要与妻子同乐(而不要只是工作)，否则他们会被引诱与其它人同乐。他们必定常享闺房之乐，因为他们把很多的小清教徒带到这世界。 Puritan women expected to submit to their husbands and to focus on homemaking as their career. They seldom considered themselves inferior, second-class citizens, however, because their position in society received the honor it deserved. After reviewing the evidence, one modern scholar has noted the absence of most of the problems which afflict today's American wives, such as low self esteem and lack of romantic love in marriage. Everyone expected them to understand and reflect upon the complex sermons in church on Sunday and to teach their children to know and love God and their fellow man. Men realized that their wives were equal to them in God's eyes and were careful not to disrespect them or ignore the tremendous contribution women made to society by their godly example and wise teaching in the home. Several Puritan women, like Anne Bradstreet, distinguished themselves as writers. 清教徒妇女期望能顺服自己的丈夫并专注于家务上。然而，她们很少认为自己是低下的次等公民，因为她们的社会地位使她们获得应有的尊重。一位现代学者在回顾这段历史时，注意到当时的妇女并没有今日美国妻子面临的大部分问题，诸如缺乏自尊心和婚姻中没有浪漫的爱等。所有的人都期盼清教徒妇女了解并响应教会里星期日深奥的讲道，教导她们的孩子认识神，爱神也爱其它的人。男人明白他们的妻子在神的面前是与他们平等的，他们谨慎地避免轻视她们，或忽视她们爱神的模范以及在家给孩子们的智能教导对社会的重大贡献。几位清教徒妇女，如安巴蕾史翠(Anne Bradstreet)，是以作家的身份出名。 Puritans spent a great deal of time with their children, knowing that God had commanded them to love, pity, and care for the little ones entrusted to their care. At the same time, guided by the Bible's teaching, parents expected, and received, obedience with a cheerful attitude. The State supported parental authority by allowing for severe penalties to be inflicted upon rebellious children. For example, tailors could not make clothes for children contrary to the wishes of their parents and young people needed their parents' permission to marry. On the other hand, parents could not "deny any child timely or convenient marriage." The law also called for punishment of parents who mistreated their children. 清教徒花许多时间和子女在一起，因为他们知道神吩咐他们关爱、怜悯、看顾这些需要他们照顾的孩子。同时，父母也根据圣经的教导，期望和获得孩子满心欢喜地的顺从。政府支持父母的权威，允许他们对顽劣的孩子施行严厉的处罚。举例说，裁缝师不可以做衣服给违背父母心意的小孩，年轻男女需要经过父母同意才能结婚。另一方面，父母却不得延迟适婚子女的婚姻，或阻止任何合适的结婚，法律也对不善待孩子的父母加以处罚。 The Puritans avoided many heartaches that plague us today by working hard, staying out of debt, and remaining faithful within marriage. They would not tolerate lying or stealing in their communities, nor would they allow blasphemy against God. The society they established was remarkable for its low crime rate, increasing prosperity, and world-class educational standards. 清教徒没有许多困扰现代人的文明病，因为他们辛勤工作，不欠债，并且忠实于婚姻。他们不容忍社区中有说谎和偷窃的行为，也不允许亵渎神。他们所建立的社会显著的地方是低犯罪率、经济繁荣、以及世界级的教育水准。 - Education 教育 Believing that we must love God with all our minds, the Puritans placed heavy emphasis upon education. First and foremost, children must be taught enough to read and understand God's Word, so that they may serve him and avoid the temptations of Satan. Education's second goal: To equip young people to work. 清教徒相信我们必须尽心尽意的爱神，所以他们极为注重教育。第一要务，孩子们必须要被教导如何研读及了解神的话，以使他们服事神并避免撒旦的引诱。教育的第二个目的:使年轻人具有工作的技能。 Character formation formed an essential component of schooling, with severe punishment meted out for idleness. They established public schools where boys learned Hebrew, Greek, Latin, history, literature, mathematics, science, and political economics. They founded Harvard College soon after coming to America, partly in order to equip men to preach the kind of learned sermons to which they had grown accustomed, but also to train grammar school teachers, magistrates, and doctors. Their aim: To create and train an entire civilization. 人格形成是学校教育主要的一环，用严格的处罚使孩子们不致荒废时间做无意义的事。他们设立了公立学校让男孩子学希伯来文、希腊文、拉丁文、历史、文学、数学、科学、和政治经济学。他们在到达美洲不久就创立了哈佛学院(哈佛大学的前身)，部分原因是装备传道人以传讲他们习以为常的深奥圣经道理，另一方面也是训练初等学校的老师、法律官员、以及医师。他们的目标是创造及训练整个文明。 Puritan parents taught their children how to read, write, compute, manage a household and make a living. By the time most children left home, they were ready to make a contribution in the world. Above all, however, Puritans sought to inculcate godly and loving character traits in their children. 清教徒父母教育他们的孩子如何阅读、写作、数学运算、管理家务、和维持生计。在大部份的孩子离开家生活之前，他们已经准备好为世界作贡献。然而，父母最重要的是寻求把爱神和爱人的品行放在孩子的心中。 The laws increasingly compelled Puritan parents to do what they had been all along: Provide basic education in the Bible, good character, and elementary skills of reading, writing, and working at some trade. Families who would not thus educate their children would be fined. If they persistently failed in their responsibilities, the town might take their child and apprentice him to another family. Those families who could not educate their children could send them to a public school. 法律乐发地要求清教徒父母对子女做他们常久以来一直在做的事:提供对圣经和良好品行的基本教育，以及在阅读、写作、维生方面的基本技能。没有做到这些要求的家庭会被罚款，对于一再不履行对孩子教育义务的父母，镇上可能带走他们的孩子交给别的家庭抚养，那些无法教育自己孩子的家庭可以把子女送到公立学校去。 As time went on, state compulsion became less and less common in all the colonies. The idea that parents retained both the responsibility and the right to bring up and educate their own children took hold and intrusion by the state into family life declined. A decrease in the power of the Puritans and a loss of religious conviction deprived the state of the original motive for public schools: religious education. At the same time, interference by the state in family life had shown itself to be a dangerous power and the people gradually rejected that concept. 时间久了之后，政府对家庭教育的强制执行在各殖民地越来越不普遍。对于政府有权干涉父母抚养及教育自己子女的义务与权利的观念逐渐淡化，清教徒权力的减少和宗教信仰的失落使得政府失去了当初创立公立学校的动机，也就是宗教的教育。同时，政府对家庭生活的干涉往往表现出一种危险的权力，人们渐渐地抗拒这种观念。 Settlers in other colonies shared the same basic ideals as the Puritans, although they did not always establish publicly-funded schools. In the colonies where the Anglican church held sway, home education, supplemented by tutoring by the local clergy, educated the youth for service in society. In addition to Greek, Latin, the Bible, and literature, children of planters were also taught agriculture and architecture. Anglicans believed that education was a matter for the family and the church, not the state. Consequently, only those whose parents could afford it received higher instruction 其它殖民地的居民与清教徒具有共同的基本理念，虽然他们并非都设立公立学校。在英国国教控制的殖民地，家庭教育教导年轻一代为社会服务的能力，而神职人员也在家庭教育不足的地方提供帮助，除了希腊文、拉丁文、圣经、文学之外，孩子们也学习农业与建筑。英国国教徒相信教育是家庭和教会的事，不是政府所管的。结果是，只有那些父母付得起学费的人得以接受高等的教育。 - Work 工作 We have said that the Puritans believed in hard work. In fact, what has been called "the Protestant work ethic" reigned throughout early America, since, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, three-fourths of the colonists identified with major aspects of the Puritans' Calvinistic beliefs (described briefly below). The ancient Greeks and Romans hated work, considering manual labor fit only for slaves. The Jews, however, believed that work was ordained by God, who had commanded, "Six days you shall work." After all, God had commanded Adam and Eve to work before they fell into sin; their disobedience brought weariness and frustration to work, but did not rob it of its meaning or dignity. 我们提到过清教徒相信要认真工作，事实上，所谓的「基督徒工作伦理」支配着早期美国殖民地，这可以从在独立宣言时代有四分之三的殖民者认同清教徒的想法看出来，我在下面会简单描述这些清教徒的加尔文派理念。古希腊人和古罗马人讨厌工作，认为那是只有奴隶做的。犹太人却认为工作是神所命令的，因为神的诫命说:「六天中你们要工作」。毕竟，即使在亚当和夏娃犯罪之前，神已经吩咐他们要工作，他们不顺服神为他们带来了工作上的劳累和沮丧，但并未使工作失去原本的意义或或尊严。 Thus, Jewish rabbis (religious teachers) accepted no pay for their labors in the synagogue; they earned their living at a trade. The early Christians, following Jesus' example as a carpenter, teacher, and healer, worked hard. The Apostle Paul, a former rabbi, worked with his own hands as a tentmaker and exhorted others to work "heartily, as to the Lord." He enunciated the principle, "If anyone will not (that is, is unwilling to) work, neither shall he eat." He further specified that we should seek to work with our hands. 犹太人的拉比(宗教教师)在会堂的工作是不接受酬劳的，他们靠交易维生。早期的基督徒效法耶稣基督为木匠、教师、医病者的榜样辛勤工作。使徒保罗原本是个拉比，他也工作亲手做帐篷，并劝勉他人发自内心的为神而工作。他声明的原则是:「如果一个人不工作(亦即不愿意工作)，那他就不应该吃饭。」他更进一步指出我们要寻求使用我们双手的工作。 In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church began to pervert the clear meaning of the Bible by teaching that there were two orders of work, sacred and secular. The priests, nuns, and other "religious" people did the "sacred" work, while everyone else - the "laymen" - engaged in "secular" (worldly) labor. The higher classes shunned manual labor (except for fighting), leaving that to the peasants and the artisans. 在中世纪，罗马天主教会开始曲解圣经对工作的清楚意义，他们教导有两种层次的工作:神圣的和世俗的。教士、修女、和其它「宗教」人员做「神圣的」工作，其它的人，所谓的「凡夫俗子」，则做「世俗的」工作。较高阶层的「世俗的」人(如王公贵族等)也远离用手的劳力(除了战斗以外)，将劳力的工作留给农人和工匠。 When the Reformation came, Martin Luther and the other Reformers recovered the Biblical view of work. They abolished the sacred/secular dichotomy, proclaiming that all true believers are "priests" and that all legitimate labor is holy in God's eyes. Luther wrote: "In God's sight, (the works of 'religious' people) are in no way superior to the works of a farmer laboring in the field, or of a woman looking after her home." The Reformers encouraged people to leave the monasteries and engage in profitable labor. They taught that each person has a "calling" from God, a vocation that enabled us to cooperate with God in his grand design of ruling the universe. They urged believers to earn more than they needed in order to have surplus to give to the poor. Overturning the notion that the profit motive was evil, they approved of trade and business, as long as they were honest. 宗教改革的时候，马丁路德和其它的改教者恢复了对工作的圣经看法。他们废除了「神圣-世俗」的二分法，宣称「信徒即祭司」，「所有正当的劳力在神的眼中都是神圣的」。马丁路德写道:「在神看来，(神职人员的工作)完全不比农夫在田里的工作或妇女在照顾家务来得更重要。」改教者鼓励人们离开修道院并从事具有效益的劳力。他们宣扬每个人都被神所呼召，使得我们与神同工管理祂所造的壮丽的宇宙。他们力劝信徒赚多于所需的钱以便有余分给穷人。他们推翻了「营利的动机是邪恶的」想法，赞成贸易和商业﹐只要这些行为是本于诚实的。 As Colson and Eckerd note, "A new breed of workers was born. Out of religious conviction these men and women sought excellence and shunned idleness, vanity, and waste as deadly sins." That teaching unleashed unparalleled prosperity in the Northern European countries where Protestantism flourished. In England, as elsewhere, the Reformation spread most rapidly among the middle and lower classes. Thus, the Pilgrims and Puritans who landed in the New World, unlike the self-styled aristocrats who colonized Virginia, believed in the dignity, even sanctity, of hard work. 如同寇森(Colson)和艾克德(Eckerd)所写道:「一个新的工作族群诞生了，这些男女出自于宗教信仰追求卓越而避免怠惰、闲晃、浪费等致死的罪。」这样的教导引发了欧洲北部基督教改革宗盛行的国家无与伦比的繁荣。在英国，改革宗一如在其它国家，在中下阶层的传播最为迅速。因此，登陆新世界新教徒和清教徒不同于那些自命高尚的维吉尼亚殖民地贵族，他们相信辛勤工作是有尊严的，甚至是神圣的。 Many of them did not primarily seek wealth, but usefulness to God. Nor did they think that prosperity necessarily indicated God's favor. They knew that an abundance of earthly goods could in fact come as a temptation from Satan. Instead, they saw work as a form of stewardship towards God; the primary rewards were spiritual and moral. They followed the advice of English Puritan Richard Baxter: "Choose that employment or calling in which you may be most serviceable to God... Choose not that in which you may be most rich or honorable in the world; but that in which you may do the most good, and best escape sinning." 他们当中许多人主要不是追求致富，而是使钱财为神所用。他们也不认为富有就表示合神的心意。他们了解许多世上的财物可能事实上来自撒旦的引诱。相反地，他们将工作看作是为神管理事务，所获得的酬劳则是属灵上和道德上的。他们遵从英国清教徒理查巴克司特(RichardBaxter)的忠告:「要选择那种你可以最能服事神的工作或呼召…不要选择那种你可以成为世上最富有或最有荣耀的工作，而要选择那种你可以做得最好，而且是不犯罪的事。」 We need to realize, however, that these ideals motivated only the most sincere. Other Puritans, like professing Christians throughout the ages, did fall into the temptation to seek worldly prosperity more than God's kingdom. A paradoxial result of their adherence to Biblical principles of work was that they prospered greatly. As a consequence, they fell into the temptations predicted by Jesus and Paul when they warned against the deceitfulness of riches. 然而，我们要了解这些理想只能鼓励那些最认真的信徒，其它的清教徒就如每个时代挂名的基督徒，落入了诱惑当中而追求名利胜于追求神的国度。他们遵行圣经的工作原则产生了一个似非而是的结果，他们极为成功富裕。接着他们就陷入了诱惑中，这些诱惑正是耶稣和保罗警告财富的陷阱时所预言的。 - Compassion for the Poor 对穷人的怜悯 The welfare state is a modern phenomenon. Until recently, no one thought that the government should care for the poor. The Bible teaches that children should take care of their aged parents, especially widows. Throughout the Scriptures, the duty of each person to give to the poor receives repeated emphasis: In one way or another, God's people are commanded to remember the poor, be gracious to the poor, give to the poor, and not oppress the poor, at least seventy-five times. Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians to care for their poorer brethren in Judea because Christ, "though He was rich, yet became poor." 社会福利是现代文明的产物，长久以来没有人想到过政府应该照顾穷人。圣经教导子女应照顾年老的父母，尤其是寡妇。圣经在许多地方中一再强调每个人奉献给穷人的责任:至少在七十五段章节中神吩咐祂的儿女用各种方式记得穷人，怜悯穷人，施予穷人，勿欺压穷人。保罗提醒哥林多教会的信徒要为基督的缘故照顾他们在犹大的弟兄，因为「祂本来富足，却为你们成了贫穷。」 On the other hand, the Bible makes no distinction between rich and poor; magistrates were not to be partial to the poor. Furthermore, because of the sinfulness of man, wealth will always be unequally distributed, so that "the poor will never cease to be in your midst." Although oppression and robbery cause poverty, so do sloth and foolishness: "Do not love sleep, lest you become poor;" "He who loves pleasure will become a poor man." 另一方面，圣经对穷人和富人并未加以区别;法律官员不应对穷人另眼相看。况且，由于人都有罪性，财富永远都无法平均分配，所以「常有穷人与你们同在」。尽管逼迫和掠夺会造成贫穷，懒惰和愚昧也同样会造成贫穷，「不要贪睡，免致贫穷」「爱宴乐的，必致穷乏」。 No one thought of eradicating poverty; everyone, however, had to do his best to alleviate the distress of the poor. Early Americans extended hospitality to those in distress. Sometimes the Town Council would reimburse them for their expenses. Right up into the early nineteenth century, preachers of all denominations often exhorted their hearers - who included almost everyone in the community - to extend a helping hand to the poor. They urged people to take care of the poor next to them, those whom they knew best. First, family, then neighbors, were given aid. 没有人认为贫穷可以完全根除，然而每个人都要尽其所能的纾解穷人的困境。早期的美国人将他们的殷懃照顾延伸到有困难的人身上，有时候镇上委员会也贴补照顾穷人所使用的花费。十九世纪初之时，所有教派的牧师都经常鼓励会众(也就包括了社区里几乎每一个人)给予穷人援手。牧师劝勉每一个人照顾身边的穷人，也就是他们最熟悉的穷人。他们把帮助先给家里的人，然后是邻居。 On the other hand, no able-bodied man who refused to work would be given help; nor would anyone who was considered "profane, dissolute, or openly scandalous" in his lifestyle. Furthermore, believing that the poor, being sinful, would rather receive charity than work, early American leaders urged people to find jobs for the poor rather than encourage them not to work. "Find 'em work; set 'em to work; keep 'em to work." urged Cotton Mather. To make finding a job easier, "charity schools" were established to provide education for the children of the poor, both black and white. To reduce chronic dependence on the community, laws held families responsible for their members; those who did not care for needy relatives received heavy fines. Instead of cash, the poor were provided with food, coal, and materials for making goods to sell. Even widows were given linen to make clothing at home for sale in the market. 另一方面，他们不会帮助任何一个身体健康却拒绝工作的人，也不会帮助那些被认为过着「亵渎、放荡、可耻」的生活的人。而且，早期美国领袖相信，既然穷人也是罪人，他们有可能情愿领取救济而不工作，领袖们遂鼓励人们为穷人找工作，而不是让穷人依靠救济。CottonMather呼吁道:「替穷人找工作，送他们去工作，要他们持续工作。」为了使找工作容易一些，他们办了「慈善学校」提供教育给白人和黑人的穷人小孩。为了减少穷人对社会的长期依赖，法律规定家庭有义务照顾家中成员，那些没有照顾有需要的亲属的家庭会被罚重款。他们给予穷人的并非现金，而是食物、煤、以及可以做东西来卖的材料。即使寡妇也是拿纺纱做衣服到市场上去卖。 Orphans received care in homes begun by private societies and then supported by the state. Since women did not work outside the home, they had time for volunteer work. They formed numerous Ladies Charitable societies to aid the poor, widows, orphans, and those suffering from unavoidable tragedies. This tradition of volunteer help by women and, later, men, became a hallmark of American society. We can explain volunteerism as the result of social pressure and recognition; we need to admit, however, that for many, faith in God formed one primary motive. 孤儿被放在家庭里照顾，这些家庭原先是私人社团支持的，后来改由政府支持。由于妇女不外出工作，她们就有时间做义工。她们组织了许多妇女慈善社团来帮助穷人、寡妇、孤儿、以及那些遭遇不幸悲剧的人。这个由妇女发起，之后有男性参与的义工传统已成了美国社会的标记。我们可以用社会压力和社会认同来解释志愿服务，但我们也必须承认，对许多人来说，对神的信仰构成一个主要的动机。 Two types of aid met two different types of need: Catastrophes, such as floods or accidents, brought sudden destitution; victims would receive help in nearby homes. Chronic poverty resulting from alcoholism or a "disorderly" lifestyle led one to a "workhouse." These houses enforced strict rules, including incentives to work, penalties for laziness, prohibition of the use of alcohol, observance of the Sabbath for rest and worship, and penalties for those who left the house. Calvinists knew that poverty often results from folly, so they urged the poor to study God's Word and learn wisdom so that they could climb out of their condition. 两种不同的帮助用以符合两种不同的需要。第一种是灾难如水灾或意外事件，使人在一时之间陷入穷困，受难者可以就近得到帮助;第二种是酗酒或不当生活方式导致的长期贫穷，其人就会被送到「工作所」。这些地方有很严格的规定，包括奖励工作，责罚怠惰，禁止饮酒，遵守安息日的休息与崇拜，以及处罚那些离开该所的人。加尔文教派的人知道贫穷往往是由于愚妄，因此他们呼吁穷人研读神的话并学习智能，以脱离穷困的处境。 - Theology 神学 What did the Puritans believe. 清教徒相信什么. "Puritanism... is the key which unlocks the meaning of colonial history as a whole." The Puritans were Calvinists. That is, they believed that the Bible contained God's authoritative revelation of truth, truth that applied to all realms of human life. They held that God rules as Sovereign Lord of the entire universe, which he created. He directs the affairs of men and nations, crafting all human action to achieve his goal, which is to glorify himself in the gracious salvation of many repentant sinners and the righteous judgment of unrepentant sinners. History finds its center and focal point in Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Jewish Messiah and the Savior of all, both Jews and non-Jews, who believe in him. Man exists, they taught, not for his own gratification or glory, but "to glorify God and enjoy him forever." 「清教徒主义…是解开整个美国殖民历史的意义的钥匙。」清教徒是属于加尔文教派，也就是说，他们相信圣经包含神对真理的权威性启示，这真理涵盖了人类生活的各方面。他们坚信神是至高至善之君，治理祂所创造的宇宙，管理人类及万邦的事务，指导所有人们的行为以达成祂荣耀自己的名的计画。这计画是要以恩典救赎悔改的罪人，以公义审判不悔改的罪人。历史的中心与焦点在于拿撒勒人耶稣，就是被应许的犹太弥赛亚(救世主)，也是所有相信祂的犹太人和非犹太人的救主。他们教导「人的存在并非为了自己的喜乐或荣耀」，而是「永远荣耀神并享受与神同在」。 As we have said, they found principles of government in the Bible, principles that they applied to their common life. As later developed in America, these guiding ideas were few but profound: 如我们前面提过的，清教徒在圣经里找到政府的准则，也找到日常生活的原则。在后来美国的发展过程中，这些指导性的概念虽然为数不多却影响深远。 - As Creator and Sovereign Ruler of the universe, God alone deserves absolute trust and allegiance. - 神是造物主和至高无上之君，祂本身就配得我们无保留的信靠与忠实。 - God has revealed his will for mankind in the Bible, which teaches us what to believe and what to do. Specific commands include the Ten Commandments, which remain binding upon us today. These forbid trusting in or worshiping any other "god"; making any idol; using God's name carelessly; working on the Sabbath Day; dishonoring our parents (and others in authority); murder; adultery; theft; lying; covetousness. Other commands in the Bible flow from these basic principles and give specific guidelines for rulers. - 神已经在圣经里启示了祂对人类的期望，藉此教导我们相信什么及做什么事。特别的诫命包括十诫，直到今天仍与我们息息相关。十诫规定禁止信仰或敬拜其它的「神」，不可造偶像，不可滥用神的名，不可在安息日工作，不可侮辱父母(及其它具有权威者)，不可杀人，不可犯奸淫，不可偷盗，不可说谎，不可贪婪。圣经中其它诫命由十诫延伸出来，给地上的统治者明确的指示。 - As the first three commandments imply, conscience must be followed by each individual. - 如同头三条诫命所意味的，每个人都要本着良心行事为人。 - The uniqueness of God as Lord of the universe also means that civil magistrates exercise delegated authority; they must conform themselves to God's will. They are answerable to God, not to the people in their charge. 神为宇宙独一的主宰也意味着政府的法律官员是被委派执行法律，他们必须顺从神的旨意。他们是对神负责任，而不是对他们所管理的人负责。 - The primacy of the family in society shows up in the commands to honor parents and to avoid all illicit sexual activity. - 诫命中把家庭摆在社会中的首位以荣耀父母并避免任何不道德的性行为。 - The sanctity of human life finds expression in the command not to murder. Man, created in the image of God, has inestimable value. - 人类生命的尊严在「不可杀人」的诫命中可以找到，人是按照神的形象所造的，具有无比的价值。 - As the Eighth Commandment states, the right of private property must be strictly protected. - 不可窃盗的诫命指出了个人的财产权必须要受到严格的保护。 - Written law takes precedence over the opinions of men, as the existence of a written revelation of God's will implies. Their society was one of laws, not men. Magistrates were to administer the law, not create it. God's law reigned supreme. In that sense, the Puritans wanted to establish a theocracy. The civil rulers would create conditions favorable to the proclamation of the Word of God by preachers. The Church would not rule in the civil arena, but would influence laws through the teaching of the lawmakers. The list of capital crimes in the Massachusetts Bay Colony conforms closely to the penalties found in the Old Testament. - 神启示自己的旨意让人记载于圣经中，意味着圣经的律法优先于人的意见。清教徒的社会是本于律法的，不是本于人的。法律官员的责任是执行律法，不是制定律法。 神的律法是最高的统治，从这个角度来看，清教徒想要建立一个类似神权政体。政府的统治者会制造有利于传道人宣扬神的话语的机会，教会并不管理民众的行政和法律事务，但会透过对立法人员的讲道教导来影响法律。麻色诸塞湾殖民地( Massachusetts Bay Colony)的死刑罪条例接近于旧约圣经中的刑罚。 - Man's sinful nature makes these laws necessary. Puritans believed that, although created good by God, man had fallen into sin. They had no illusions about the perfectibility of human nature in this life. They thus did not expect a perfect society, either - or should not have. 人类的罪性使得这些律法有存在的必要，清教徒相信人类虽然在被神所创造的时候是好的，之后却堕落在罪恶里。他们不妄想人性在今生会有完美，所以他们也不期盼一个完美的社会。他们的想法是对的，可惜的是，他们没有完全按照他们的想法去行，仍然试图建造一个完美的社会，我将在以后加以说明。 - As a consequence of their belief in the sinfulness of man, the Puritans held that Christ's redeeming grace alone could save men from their sins. They stressed the sovereign work of God in salvation but also exhorted men to repent and believe in Christ for forgiveness and new life. They knew, moreover, that no government could "save" society or the individuals in it. Only God, working by his Holy Spirit, could change individuals as they trusted in Christ for forgiveness of sins. They believed in limited government, therefore, not the politically all-powerful state of modern times with its pretensions of being able to solve man's problems. Governments were to restrain man's sin and make it possible to proclaim and obey God's Word; they were not to attempt to displace God. 由于清教徒相信人类的罪性，他们坚信唯有基督的救赎可以救人脱离罪恶。他们强调神救赎的主权，但也劝诫人们悔改及相信基督以获得饶恕和新生命。除此之外，他们也明白没有一个政府可以「拯救」社会或其中的个人，只有在人相信基督，罪得赦免的时候，神可以藉由圣灵改变一个人。他们因此相信政府的能力应该受限制，而不主张一个可以解决所有人的问题的现代全能政府。政府的工作是制止人们犯罪并制造机会宣扬和遵守神的话语，而不是企图取代神。 - Representative government appeared early in the history of Israel, as distinct from the totalitarian governments all around them. The Puritans believed that citizens had the responsibility and right to choose their own magistrates. Their idea of representative government differed radically from later theories, however. Governments derived their authority from God, not from the people. God could rule through either a monarchy or an aristocracy, but had not chosen to rule through direct democracy. Only as people and rulers alike submitted to God's laws as revealed in Scripture could men enjoy true liberty. Democracy, they reasoned, had two fundamental flaws: 1. It derived from humanism, not the Bible, and thus represented a rival to God's sovereignty. Democracy assumes that authority comes from the people, defined as a bare majority; further, it assumes that the people can, at any time in history, understand justice and bring it about in society. But "the people" can be easily swayed by demagogues (as their knowledge of Greek and Roman history taught the early political theorists); unscrupulous men can bend the majority of ignorant masses to their will and deprive many of justice. 2. Thus, majority rule threatened the very civil rights it claimed to promote, for it allowed the will of the majority to trample upon the rights of the minority and paved the way for a few to rule the masses. 代议政府在早期以色列历史中就出现了，与当时周围各国的极权政府形成强烈的对比。清教徒相信人民有权利与义务选举他们的政府官员，然而他们对代议政府的概念根本上不同于后来的代议政府理论。他们认为政府的权柄来自于神，而非来自于人民。神可能透过君主政体或贵族政体来统治，却从未选择透过直接民主来统治。唯有当人民和治理者都顺服神用圣经所启示的律法时，人类才有可能享受真正的自由。 清教徒论证民主有两个根本的缺点:第一，民主是源自于人文主义而非圣经，因此代表了对神的主权的挑战。民主认定权力来自于人民，也就是勉强的过半数，民主也认定人民有能力在历史上任何时刻明白公平正义并施行于社会当中。但是「群众」可能很容易被煽动家所左右(正如美国早期政治理论家从希腊和罗马历史中所获取的教训)，无节操的人可以操纵无知的多数人以达成其目的并剥夺许多人的公正。第二，因此「多数决定法则」事实上威胁着它宣称要提倡的民权，因为它允许多数人的意愿践踏少数人权利，并促成极少数人统治所有人的结果。 - Individual responsibility is assumed in all of God's revelation. Each person will stand before the judgment seat of God to answer for his conduct. Individualism as now understand by Americans, however, would not have been welcome in Puritan society. Each person was to live not for himself but for God and for those around him. Personal sacrifice for the good of others must mark the lives of those redeemed by God's grace. We must not imagine, however, they accepted socialism, which coerces individual submission to the state. They relied on voluntary efforts, motivated by a love for God, to bring prosperity and justice to the entire community. Thus, they opposed laissez-faire economic theory, which calls for selling at the highest possible price and buying at the lowest possible price. They believed that prices should be just, determined by love, not greed. They did not, therefore, subscribe to the theory that sinful men expressing their greed in a totally "free" environment would promote justice and true prosperity, as Adam Smith taught. Government, they thought, must restrain the greed of man, even though it could not eradicate it from the human heart. In other words, they were neither pure capitalists nor socialists. 个人的义务被认定存在于神所有的启示中，每个人都要根据自己的行为在神的审判座前接受审判。现在美国人所理解的个人主义在清教徒社会中并不会受欢迎，因为他们认为每个人并不是为自己而活，乃是为神和其它人而活。个人为他人益处所作的牺牲正是那些神的恩典所救赎的生命的标记。然而，我们不要以为清教徒接受那种强迫个人顺服国家的社会主义，他们所倚靠的是以爱神为动机的志愿工作，将繁荣与公义带给整个社会。 因此，他们反对自由放任主义的经济理论，也就是以最低价买进货品，以最高价卖出的理论。他们相信价格应该公平，用爱心而非贪心决定价格。所以他们不遵循亚当斯密的经济理论，该理论指出当有罪性的人类在一个完全「自由」的环境下表现他们的贪欲时，将可以提升公平性并获致真正的繁荣。清教徒认为政府必须限制人民的贪婪，即使政府无法根绝人们心中的贪念。换言之，他们既非纯粹资本主义者，也非纯粹社会主义者。 - As we saw when we examined the Puritan view of work, since God created the material world, it is good. We should be responsible stewards of our bodies and of the world around us, which we are entitled to enjoy as a gift from God. If motivated by love for God and man, work might be a form of worship. Science, the arts, agriculture, industry - all could be pursued with vigor, as long as men sought to glorify God and benefit others by their efforts. We have given this summary of Puritan theology not only because of its influence in early New England, but because ideas like this permeated America for more than a hundred years. Outside of Massachusetts, other colonies did not have a Puritan majority enforcing their views on society through laws, but the clergy and people held a basically Calvinistic outlook on life for several generations. They may have disagreed with the distinctive points of Calvinism - namely, the absolute sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners - but they would have agreed with the basic outline of Christian faith and its implications which I have given in the pages above. The Great Awakening brought a greater sense of these Puritan convictions to the southern colonies than had existed before, so that the Puritan consensus became almost universal in the colonies before the War for Independence. The framers of the Constitution embodied some features of Puritan theology in that document, as we shall see. 既然神创造了物质世界，我们可以评论清教徒的工作观念是正确的。我们应该尽职照顾好我们的身体和周遭的世界，因为这些是神给我们的礼物让我们享用的。如果是出自于对神和其它人的爱，工作就可以是一种敬拜。科学、艺术、农业、工业…所有的工作都可以充满活力，只要人们追求以他们的工作来荣耀神及造就他人。 我们在此摘要清教徒的神学，不仅是因为他们对早期新英格兰的影响，也因为与他们的想法类似的观念普及于整个美国超过一百多年。在麻州以外的殖民地并没有占多数的清教徒来透过法律推行他们的社会观念，但牧师和民众仍维持着基本的加尔文派生活见解达好几个世代。他们也许不同意加尔文派的独特观点，亦即神拯救罪人的绝对主权，但他们同意基督徒信仰的基本纲领以及我在前几页所提到的应用。 「大复兴」运动(注:十八世纪初美国的宗教复兴运动)将更多清教徒的信仰带到南方的殖民地，因此在独立战争前，一致性的清教徒思想遍布基乎所有的殖民地。美国宪法的架构体现了一些清教徒神学的特征，我们将在以下讨论到。 - Civil Rights 民权 Puritans believed that they knew best how to serve God and did not allow much dissent about matters pertaining to religion. For example, when Roger Williams challenged both the theology of the church and the practice of taking land from Indians without payment, he was expelled. That is considered a blemish on their record by Americans today, but at least they were serious about their faith and knew the consequences of the spread of false beliefs. We may disagree with their remedy while admiring their insight into the power of ideas. Given their assumptions about government - that it was a sacred contract between believers and their God - their insistence upon orthodoxy and sincere faith as a qualification for voters and magistrates makes sense. Only those who understood God's laws and submitted to them would be able to maintain the human side of the covenant with God. 清教徒相信他们清楚地知道如何服事神，所以他们不怎么容许对宗教事务的不同意见。譬如说，当罗杰威廉斯(Roger Williams)质疑教会的神学以及夺取印地安人土地的行为时，他 被驱逐出教会。现在的美国人把这件事看作清教徒历史上的一个污点，但是至少它反映出清教徒对他们的信仰是认真的，并且知道散布假信仰的后果。当我们一方面欣赏他们能洞察到思想的力量，另一方面我们可以不同意他们采取的对策。基于他们对政府的假设─亦即政府是信徒与神之间的神圣契约，我们就可以理解为何他们坚持投票者与执法人员都具备正教信仰和真诚的信奉。只有那些了解并遵从神的律法的人有能力达成与神的圣约中人的责任。 Furthermore, we need to know just how patient the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were towards Williams. When he arrived, he immediately began to stir up trouble by calling the King a liar, declaring the charter of the colony invalid, and criticizing all who differed with him. He suffered expulsion from the colony only after many warnings and requests that he temper his speech. Although his religious views differed from those of the Puritan leaders, they ordered him to leave Massachusetts primarily because of his political opinions, especially his attacks upon the King, which threatened the existence of the colony. Williams then founded Rhode Island as a haven for religious toleration. He discovered to his dismay, however, that those who congregated in that colony tended to take his earlier statements at face value and to resist all governmental authority. In other words, his anarchistic words later undermined his own rule of the new colony. Rhode Island quickly came to resemble a modern secular state with no uniting convictions. At the end of his life Williams regretted the intemperance and folly of his youth. 另外，我们也必须要知道麻州湾殖民地的领袖们对罗杰威廉斯是如何的有耐性。当他一抵达麻州，就开始制造麻烦。他称呼英国国王是骗子，宣称殖民地的特许状无效，并批评所有与他意见不同的人。他多次被警告和要求减少批评，之后才因不合作而被驱逐出殖民地。虽然他与清教徒领袖们的宗教观点不相同，他们命令他离开麻州主要却是因为他的政治立场，尤其是他对英国国王的攻击威胁到殖民地的生存。罗杰威廉斯之后建立罗得岛殖民地成为宗教兼容的天堂，他却失望地发现聚集在该地的人倾向于只是接受他先前言论的表面意义而抵抗所有的政府权威。换句话说，他的无政府主义言论后来摧毁了他自己对新殖民地的治理，罗得岛殖民地很快地组织了一个没有统一信仰的世俗政府。在罗杰威廉斯晚年的时候，他对于自己年轻时的不节制和愚昧行为感到懊悔。 The Salem Witch Trials have left another spot on the record of the Puritans. Contrary to popular belief, however, these trials were not typical of Puritan life. The entire affair lasted less than a year (1692) and involved no more than 100 people, 23 of whom died as a result. 「沙仑镇巫术审判」(Salem Witch Trials)给清教徒留下了另一个污点。然而，与一般所相信 的看法相反的，这些审判并非清教徒的典型生活。整个事件进行不到一年(1692)而且牵涉不超过一百人，其中二十三个人被处死。 To understand this sad episode, we need to know several facts: 为了了解这个不幸的事件，我们需要知道一些事实： - Occult activity is prohibited in the Bible, on which the Puritans based their laws. According to the Bible and Massachusetts law at that time, persons known to be witches deserve death. Why. Because, if there is only one God, and if he directs human events and graciously reveals his will to those who seek him, then to try any other way to know or control the future amounts to idolatry. 清教徒法律所依据的是圣经，而圣经中禁止巫术活动。根据圣经和麻州当时的法律，当女巫的人应该被判死刑。为什么？因为如果神是独一无二的，而祂引导人类历史并出于恩典将祂的旨意启示给寻求祂的人，那么尝试用任何其它方式知道或控制未来就构成偶像崇拜。 - Furthermore, fortune-telling and witchcraft have often led to harmful behavior. At the time. for example, dozens of reliable witnesses watched in horror as victims of curses suffered from what can only be called supernaturally-induced pain, scalding, burns, terrors, convulsions, and the like. The phenomena seem strange to moderns, but residents of Haiti and Africa know the power of Voodoo-like witchcraft. Magistrates, knowing of such suffering, had a duty to find and eliminate the cause. 况且，算命和巫术经常导致伤害的行为。例如说，当时许多可靠的见证人惊骇地目睹了被诅咒的受害人遭受折磨，这些折磨只能被称为是超自然现象，包括疼痛、烫伤、闹饮、恐惧、痉挛等等。这些现象在现代人看来似乎是奇怪的，但海地和非洲的居民却知道这种类似于巫毒教的巫术的力量。执法人员知道这些害人的事，他们有责任去找出原因并除掉祸害。 - The ministers of New England disapproved of the trials because the judges were accepting accusations without sufficient evidence. The leading pastor, Cotton Mather, represented the other ministers when he wrote an open denunciation of the proceedings. 新英格兰的牧师反对审判，因为法官接受没有足够证据的控告。牧师领导人 Cotton Mather 代表其它的牧师公开发表了对进行审判的书面批评。 - Because of pressure from these ministers, the new Governor, General William Phips, called a halt to the trials. 由于受到这些牧师的压力，新的州长威廉飞普士将军( General William Phips)命令停止审判。 - Three years later, Samuel Sewall, of the judges at the trials, publicly confessed his sin, as did twelve men who had served on juries: They all knew that their haste and credulity had caused needless innocent deaths. 三年之后，该案的法官撒母耳西华(Samuel Swall)和陪审团的十二个成员公开地认罪 ，他们承认他们的草率和轻信造成了无辜者不该有的死亡。 Thus, the trials did not result from Puritan religion; they proceeded for a while despite protests from leading pastors. 因此，这些审判并非肇因于清教徒的宗教；尽管教会领袖们的抗议，审判仍然持续了好一阵子。 Summary 总结 How then do we evaluate the Puritan attempt to create a "theocracy" - a government seeking to enforce God's laws, as understood by the leaders of a particular religious denomination. Frankly, I find this question to involve complex issues which defy easy solution. 我们如何评价清教徒对创造一个「神的政府」的尝试.这个政府追求的是如何去实行某一个宗教派别的领袖所理解的神的律法.老实说,我发现这个问题太复杂而无法用一个简单的方式来回答. On the one hand, 一方面, - The belief that we know the truth leads to pride and can result in intolerance. 我们以为自己知道真理的信念会使我们骄傲而导致排他 - Intolerance can lead to discrimination and tyranny. 排他又将导致歧视和独断 - Christians differ with each other about the proper interpretation of the Bible. To empower one type of Christianity and disenfranchise others seems to deny the godliness or intelligence of other believers. 基督徒之间对圣经的正确解释有不同的看法，采取一个教派的看法而摒除其它宗派似乎否定了其它基督徒对神的虔诚或他们的聪明才智。 - Favoring one denomination over others produces resentment; it can also lead to complacency in the "favored" ones, causing them to rely on governmental coercion rather than love and truth to spread their beliefs. 偏袒某一教派将会造成愤慨，也会导致该教派的自满，造成他们倚靠政治压迫而非爱和真理来传播他们的信仰。 - Religious intolerance tends to corrupt those in power, for they assume that they know more than they really do. 宗教上的排他容易使那些掌权的腐败，因为他们以为他们知道的多于他们真正知道的。 - History is littered with tyranny and corruption when a particular "orthodoxy" receives state sanction: Russia, Roman Catholic nations, modern Islamic countries, Buddhist Nepal, Tibet, and Thailand, Communist nations, and even, to some degree, Confucian "orthodoxy" in imperial China - all provide evidence of the danger of wedding "church" and state. 历史上，当某一个「正统派」宗教掌握政治裁判的权力之后，就充满了暴政与腐败。例如俄罗斯、罗马天主教国家、现代伊斯兰教国家、佛教尼泊尔、西藏、泰国、共产国家、甚至儒家「正统」下的帝制中国(在某种程度上)，都显示出政教合一的危险性。 - These reasons, and many others, convinced almost all colonists later to allow religious toleration and to drive more of a wedge between the church and the government. 这些原因和其它一些原因，使得几乎所有殖民者后来认可宗教上的宽容，并在教会和政府之间画上界限。 On the other hand: 另一方面: - Almost all the colonies had an established religion, which was some form of Christianity. The southern colonies, for example, for a long time used tax monies for the support the Church of England; they sometimes even required attendance at church services. "Established" churches existed even after the Constitution was adopted. 几乎所有的殖民地都有一个被认定的宗教，也就是某一个基督教宗派。例如南方的殖民地很长的一段时间用税金来支持英国国教，他们有时甚至强迫人们上教堂。「被认定」的教会直到美国宪法实施后在大部分的州还依然存在。 - All colonies required belief in the Triune God for office-holding. The colonists believed that someone who denied the existence and sovereignty of God would not fear him and would thus not seek to promote virtue and justice. 所有的殖民地都要求唯有相信三位一体之神的人方可任公职。他们相信否定神的存在与主权的人不会敬畏祂，也因此不会寻求美德和公义的提升。 - Almost all Americans - even non-orthodox ones like Thomas Jefferson - considered the ethical teachings of the Bible to be valid for all time. They accepted the idea that civil laws ought to reflect Biblical law as much as possible. 几乎所有的美国人，即使是那些非正统教派的人如汤姆逊杰佛森 (Thomas Jefferson ) ，认为圣经的道德教导是任何时代都正确的。他们接受一个想法，就是法律应当尽可能地对应圣经的律法。 - Those who reject this position today have nothing better to offer. Every law embodies an assumption about truth and justice. There is no such thing as a neutral state or a neutral law. In fact, the ethical teachings of the Bible have impressed millions of people around the world and throughout the centuries and have at various times been codified in the laws of many European nations, beginning with the Roman Empire. 今天那些反对这种立场的人没有办法提出更好的标准。每一条法律都有关于真理与公正的假设，没有所谓的中性状态或中性法。事实上，多少个世纪以来圣经的道德教导打动了世界上千百万的人，从罗马帝国开始，在不同的时候将这些教导编入许多欧洲国家的法典之中。 - The modern secular state draws its inspiration from atheist humanism and finds its roots in the French Revolution, which issued in slaughter and tyranny and spawned such offspring as Fascism and Communism, with the consequent deaths of millions and the deprivation of civil rights of more. 现代的世俗国家由无神论的人文主义中攫取灵感，并植根于法国大革命。法国大革命导致屠杀与专制暴政，并孕育出法西斯主义和共产主义，结果是造成千万人的死亡以及更多人的民权被剥夺。 - Abandonment of Biblical law as the basis for civil law in America in this century has brought the entire nation to a state of moral and even legal crisis, as, Justice Robert Bork has detailed in The Tempting of America. How could this tension be resolved. As we shall soon see, the several provisions of the Constitution, especially the First Amendment, represent a grand experiment, almost unique in world history. 本世纪里美国扬弃了以圣经的律法作为人民法律的基础，其作法已经使整个国家处于道德甚至法律的危机之中，如同法官罗伯布克(Robert Bork)在「美国所面临的诱惑」(The Tempting of America)一书中所详细描述的。 这样的危机该如何化解？我们很快就会看到，美国宪法中的几条提案，特别是第一修正案，代表了一个伟大的实验，几乎是世界历史上绝无仅有的。 - Race Relations 种族关系 Native Americans: 美国原住民 The Pilgrims entered into a treaty of friendship with the local Indians, a treaty both sides kept for fifty years. The Puritans, however, began to anger the natives when they seized land. Roger Williams objected that the Indians deserved payment, but the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony disagreed. Many now believe that they were guilty of theft. Despite valiant attempts by some to take the Gospel to Indians, most colonists treated them badly. As more and more Europeans landed, the Native Americans had either to retreat from their ancestral lands or fight battles that they almost always lost. The growth of the United States took place at the cost of exploitation, treachery, and genocide. 新教徒与当地的印第安人订立了双方保持了五十年的友谊条约，然而清教徒因取得土地而触怒印第安人。罗杰威廉斯为此抗议，认为印第安人应该得到报酬，但麻州湾殖民地的领袖们不同意。现在许多人认为清教徒在这件事上犯了偷窃的罪。虽然有一些人勇敢地尝试把福音传给印第安人，大部分殖民者对印第安人很不好。随着越来越多欧洲人登陆美国，印第安人只好撤离他们祖先居住之地，或是打他们几乎总是输的仗。美国的拓展其实是建立在剥削利用、背叛承诺、和集体屠杀之上的。 Black Africans: 非洲裔美国人 Africans had long carried on a slave trade. Muslim conquerors worked through black middlemen to sell slaves; various black tribes sold their enemies into slavery. Thus, we can say that "European merchants did not initiate, but rather, exploited, an existing slave trade and made it incomparably worse." 非洲人长久以来就有奴隶交易。伊斯兰教征服者透过黑人经纪人贩卖奴隶；一些黑人部落将他们的敌人卖为奴隶。所以我们可以说，「欧洲商人并非草创奴隶交易的人，然而他们却扩展了既有的奴隶买卖并使得它糟糕到了极点。」 Soon after Europeans began to colonize North America, greedy merchants brought African slaves to do the hard work. Lazy English "gentlemen" in Virginia discovered that the blacks could stand the heat, humidity, and back-breaking toil required to raise tobacco and other crops. A slave economy gradually developed, one which finally seemed essential for the life of the southern colonies. Anglican ministers occasionally opposed slavery, but backed down when "gentlemen" who financed the church forbade them to interfere. 欧洲人开始到北美殖民不久，贪婪的商人把非洲奴隶带来做劳苦的工作。在维吉尼亚的懒惰的英国「绅士」们发觉黑人可以忍受炎热、潮湿、和腰酸背痛的苦工，以种植烟草和其它作物。一个奴工经济逐渐形成了，最后发展成几乎是南方殖民地生活所不可或缺的要素。英国国教的牧师有时候反对奴隶制度，但是当身为教会财主的「绅士」们禁止牧师干预时，他们就退缩了。 In later chapters we shall trace the conflict between Christian conscience - most Americans gradually came to believe that slavery was wrong - and the economic and political complexities involved in abolishing slavery. The story does not make happy reading. 以后的几章中我们将追溯「基督教良心(大部分美国人逐渐相信奴隶制度是错误的)」与「废除奴隶制度所牵涉的经济及政治的复杂性」之间的冲突。 Comparison with China 与中国的比较 When we consider the basic ideology of traditional Chinese society -Confucianism - and the reigning ideas of modern Chinese society - secular humanism - we can understand why China and America have such different forms of government. 当我们思考传统中国社会的基本意识型态─儒家，以及现代中国社会的治理观念─世俗人文主义，我们就可以理解为什么中国和美国会在政府型态上有如此的差异。 Early Americans believed that man was created in the image of God, and thus must be respected. Without such a concept, Chinese have often tended to show lack of respect for human life and freedom. Furthermore, the Christian view that man is also fallen and thus tends towards evil contrast with the Chinese concept of man as basically good. Thus, Chinese social theory provides for rule by "just" men - the Emperor, Confucian magistrates, the Communist Party - who can be trusted to do what is right. History has demonstrated the error of this optimistic evaluation of man's character. 早期美国人相信人是按照神的形象造的，所以必须要被尊重。中国人不具有这个观念，往往容易不尊重人的生命和自由。除此之外，基督教认为人是堕落的，因此会倾向于罪恶，这观念与中国人认为人性本善的观念是相对立的。因此，中国的社会理论是提供给「公正的」人治理，就是那些被信任做正确事的人─皇帝、儒家官员、共产党。历史验证了这种对人性的乐观评价之错误。 The doctrine of man's sin led Americans to form a government with very limited powers; the opposite ideology created the all-powerful Chinese central government. 人有罪性的教义使美国人组织一个权力很有限的政府；人性本善的意识使中国人组织一个具有所有权力的中央政府。 On the family level, the Christian teaching about the family contrasts in some ways with that of traditional Chinese customs: In particular, women have always been more highly valued in American culture because of the influence of the Bible. 在家庭的层面，基督教对家庭的教导在某些方面与传统中国习俗形成对比：特别是，妇女的价值在美国文化里一直都比较高，这是由于圣经的影响。 Conclusion: 结论: By the end of the seventeenth century, hardy English settlers had established permanent colonies along the Atlantic seaboard. Although their motives combined a lust for greed and glory, some of them also sought to please God. The influence of Christianity upon the founding of America was deep and wide, so much so that we cannot comprehend American history without taking the Christian faith of the early Americans into account. 十七世纪结束之前，刻苦耐劳的英国殖民者在美国的大西洋岸建立了永久殖民地。虽然他们的动机参杂了求取名利，当中的一些人也还是追求取悦神。基督教对美国创建的影响既深且广，其程度使得我们在理解美国历史时，不能不将早期美国人的基督教信仰列入考虑之中。 For further reflection:进一步的响应: 1. What other differences can we discern between early American and Chinese societies. 我们还能区别哪些美国早期社会与传统中国社会的差异？ 2. How do the motives of the first settlers in America compare and contrast with those of Chinese immigrants to this country. 美国最早的移民的动机和中国到美国来的移民的动机如何比较与对照？ . Excerpted from his Book of Prophecies, as quoted in Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell, America's Providential History (Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 1989), 45. . Keillor, Steven K., This Rebellious House (Downers Grove: inter-Varsity Press, 1996), 37. . Beliles and Mcdowell, op. cit., 81-81. . As we have noted already, public statements often convey what the writers think "ought to happen" rather than what they actually intend. Other evidence would confirm that the Pilgrims and many of the Puritans, however, actually believed what they wrote. . 1 Peter 4:3-4 彼得一书四章3~4节 . John W. Whitehead and Alexis Irene Crow, Home Education: Rights and Reasons (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1993) provides well-referenced information about the Puritan and early American family in chapters eight and nine. 在第八章和第九章中提供许多关于清教徒与早期美国家庭的参考资料 . Weldon M. Hardenbrook, Missing From Action: Vanishing Manhood in America (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1987) 34-37. .See, for example, Karen Guffey, "Anne Bradstreet: Puritan Poet," in Mark Sidwell, ed., Scenes From American Church History (Greenville, South Carolina: Bob Jones University Press:1991) 13-16. . "Children, obey your parents": Ephesians 6:1 「你们作儿女的，要在主里听从父母」以弗所书六章1节 . The Book of the General Lawes and Liberties of the Inhabitants of Massachusetts (Cambridge, 1648), p. A-2, as cited in Whitehead, HERAR, p. 183. . Helpful information about early American education can be found in John W. Whitehead and Alexis Irene Crow, Home Education: Rights and Reasons (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1993), chapters 3, 5, and 8. 该书中有关于美国教育的有用资料 .Exodus 20:9 出埃及记二十章9节 . Genesis 2:15; 3:17-19 创世纪二章15节；创世纪三章17~19节 . Acts 20:34-35; Colossians 3:23 (see also Ephesians 6:5-10) 使徒行传二十章34-35节；哥罗西书三章23节 . 2 Thessalonians 3:10 帖撒罗尼迦前书三章10节 . 1 Thessalonians 4:11 帖撒罗尼迦前书四章1节 . Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity, as quoted in Chuck Colson & Jack Eckerd, Why America Doesn't Work (Dallas: Word, 1991), 36. The next paragraphs come largely from this excellent book. 以下的几个段落大部分出自于这本书 . Ibid. 37. . Ibid., 38 . Mark 4:19; 1Timothy 6 马可福音四章19节；提摩太前书六章 . 1 Timothy 5:3-8 提摩太前书五章3-8节 . See, for example, Deuteronomy 15:7, 11; Psalm 72:13; Proverbs 14:21; Isaiah 58:7; Ezekiel 16:49; Luke 14:21; 18:22. 申命记十五章7节；诗篇七十二章13节；箴言十四章21节；以赛亚书五十八章7节；以西结书十六章49节；路加福音十四章21节，十八章22节 . 2 Corinthians 8:9 哥林多后书八章9节 . See, for example, Exodus 23:3; Leviticus 19:15 出埃及记二十三章3节；利未记十九章15节 . Deuteronomy 15:11; John 12:8 申命记十五章11节；约翰福音十二章8节 . Proverbs 20:13; 21:17 箴言二十章13节；二十一章17节 . Marvin Olasky, The tragedy of American Compassion (Washington: Henry Regnery, 1992), 7 The following paragraphs will include a discussion of American compassion up into the early nineteenth century, since the Puritan views of work influenced American society long after Puritanism as a governing system disappeared. 接下来几段包括了讨论直到十九世纪初美国社会对穷人的同情心，因为在新教徒社会制度消失了很久之后，清教徒的工作观仍一直影响着美国社会。 . Ibid., 7-8 . Ibid., 7 . Quoted in Olasky, 9 . On Puritan theology, see especially C. Gregg Singer, A Theological Interpretation of American History (Nutley, New Jersey: The Craig Press, 1969), 10-21. . Singer, op cit., p.7. . Keillor, 67-69 . Critical information about Williams, gleaned from original sources, can be found in America: The First 350 Years (Forest, MS:Covenant Publications, ), 24-27. . Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:31; 20:6,27; 1 Samuel 28:3,9 出埃及记二十二章18节；利未记十九章31节；利未记二十章6节，27节；撒母耳记上二十八章3节，9节 . I am indebted, once again, to the original research found in America: The First 350 Years, 28-34. Quotations from those living at the time of the trials convinced me that what I read in history books gave a misleading impression. . Robert H. Bork, The Tempting of America (New York: The Free Press, A Division of Macmillan, Inc, 1990) . Keillor, 47. . Keillor, 49-52
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