Hippopotamus Post

第8章  第5段 It was through this fatal paradox in the nature of things that all these modern adventurers come at last to a sort of tedium and acquiescence. They desired strength; and to them to desire strength was to admire strength; to admire strength was simply to admire the statu quo. They thought that he who wished to be strong ought to respect the strong. They did not realize the obvious verity that he who wishes to be strong must despise the strong. They sought to be everything, to have the whole force of the cosmos behind them, to have an energy that would drive the stars. But they did not realize the two great facts—first, that in the attempt to be everything the first and most difficult step is to be something; second, that the moment a man is something, he is essentially defying everything. The lower animals, say the men of science, fought their way up with a blind selfishness. If this be so, the only real moral of it is that our unselfishness, if it is to triumph, must be eq...

第8章 第3段 Some hold that such papers as these are scarcely the proper objects of so serious a consideration; but that can scarcely be maintained from a political or ethical point of view. In this problem of the mildness and tameness of the Harmsworth mind there is mirrored the outlines of a much larger problem which is akin to it. 有人認為實在無須嚴肅看待這類新聞報導，但從政治或道德的角度來看，這觀點很難站得住腳。哈姆斯沃斯這派人心智溫文馴良的問題，其實顯示出一個類似，但更為嚴重的問題。 第4段 The Harmsworthian journalist begins with a worship of success and violence, and ends in sheer timidity and mediocrity. But he is not alone in this, nor does he come by this fate merely because he happens personally to be stupid. Every man, however brave, who begins by worshipping violence, must end in mere timidity. Every man, however wise, who begins by worshipping success, must end in mere mediocrity. This strange and paradoxical fate is involved, not in the individual, but in the philosophy, in the point of view. It is not the folly of the man which brings about this necessar...

上次寫下關於加爾文基督教要義的閱讀心得已經是一年前的事了... 一年來閱讀的進展雖未停滯，但相當緩慢(比翻譯Chesterton的Heretics還慢...)，不過緩慢從來不是大問題，真正的問題是，讀了卻好像未曾讀過一樣.... 隨著年齡增長愈來愈覺得閱讀有時就像在跑馬拉松，需要堅定的意志力，需要不斷磨練...，雖說如此，閱讀基督教要義不是「練功」，不是為了增加知識。 年輕時，閱讀這種很難充滿樂趣的大部頭神學書籍，常出於一種自以為是的心態，希望自己能比別人多讀一本書，但如今...隨著生命流逝，閱讀這類書籍則常是在想「若現在不讀，或許再也沒有機會了...」。 閱讀筆記的意義相似。「現在不寫，或許沒有機會了...」 ---- 兩三週前即想寫下這段筆記，但每每想起...好像覺得偏離日常的動腦行程會導致頭痛一般，於是就又回到固定的作息(就是開始看非常無聊的mixed model介紹，不斷修改建構、建構修改模型)。 「再不寫，就沒機會了...」 ---- 幾週前，早晨閱讀到加爾文基督教的第參卷第二章論信心。 （你沒看錯，這本書我讀了一年多目前只到四百多頁...） 我不知道大家看到這標題的感受如何，我是相當想睡，「信心」對基督徒而言是一個古老的主題，從不陌生... 我就帶著這樣自以為的態度開始閱讀。請不要誤會，我絕對相信加爾文寫的每字每句都鏗鏘有力(雖然我只看了四百多頁，但加爾文是一個怎樣的人，在這四百頁中相當清楚...XDD  他絕不浪費大家時間)。 其實對信心的定義與討論可以從好多層次與角度下手，但加爾文的起手式，他拆解信心這個龐大議題的切入論述，卻超乎我的想像。 他在「論信心：定義及特性」中，一開始即強調，信心為對神在基督裡的旨意的認識。 這也就是說，不認識基督，就不可能對神有信心（「 信心單單仰望神，這實在是千真萬確的；但是我們還應該再加上：信心也承認神所差來的耶穌基督 」--引自<基督教要義>，第417頁）。 也意味著，「理性的認識」是信心的一個重要元素，藉此區分出盲信與信心。（「 全然無知，僅僅盲目地順服教會，難道就是信心嗎？信心不在於無知，乃在於認識：不僅認識神，還要認識神的旨意。我們得救，不是因為我們時刻準備承認教會的每一個教條為真理，或是因為把探求和確定真理的事情交給教會；而是認識到，藉著基督所成就的和好，神成為我們慈悲垂愛的父....[中...