VIRTUE AND THE HERMENEUTICS OF CULTURE/Phil Zylla

Phil Zylla

撮要

本文旨在探討文化怎樣影響我們認識教會的門徒訓練工作和道德生活。每一種文化均含有一些深層元素,或妨礙我們檢視教會訓練門徒與建立門徒靈命的核心假設。毋庸置疑,聖經對門徒的召喚,勢必與文化抗衡。可是,我們卻鮮有檢視所建立的真正門徒生命或聖靈所建立的門徒群體,究竟樣貌如何。教牧同工與堂會領袖,往往囿於文化框框而行事,沒有審慎探索文化假設如何建構定模他們看事物的角度。本文作者根據愛德華滋對真正德性的核心理解,來反省這些課題。透過採用有關框架,作者志切揭露我們詮釋道德生活時對文化角色深層假設的一鱗半爪。作者探索建立門徒靈命與訓練門徒的教牧神學反省的意義,以釐清建立道德的基礎、宗教經驗與道德發展的關係、德性生活的社會層次,以及建立門徒靈命的終極境界。

 

ABSTRACT

This paper probes the ways in which culture influences our perceptions of the moral life and the work of discipleship in the church. Each culture has hidden lenses that may prevent us from examining the core assumptions that we carry regarding the nature of discipleship and spiritual formation in the church. It is clear that the biblical call is always counter-cultural. However, less examined are the working assumptions about what the truly formed life or a spiritually-formed community looks like. Pastors and church leaders often work within a cultural framework without exploring carefully how the cultural assumptions are framing their perspective. The paper draws on Jonathan Edwards’ core understanding of true virtue as a basis for reflection on these issues. Using this framework the essay then seeks to expose some of the hidden assumptions about the role of culture in interpreting the moral life. The implications for the pastoral-theological reflection on spiritual formation and discipleship are explored in order to clarify foundations of moral formation, the relationship of religious experience to moral development, the social dimensions of the life of virtue and the ultimate horizon of spiritual formation.

原載於《教牧期刊》第27期及《建道學刊》第34期合刊(2010年7月),頁71-91。