基督徒的認知失調

我有幾本看了好多年一直看不完的書，J. I. Packer 的Puritan Portraits是其中一本。（久到我都想不起來剛開始讀是什麼時候，但絕對是疫情之前XDD）。

這本書很薄，不像《基督教要義 》，無法推說是因為太厚所以遲遲沒看完，也不像Chesterton的 The Everlasting Man (書沒問題，是我有閱讀障礙，無法想像有看完的那天)。J. I. Packer 的Puritans Portraits超薄超好讀。

Packer在這本書中介紹了許多清教徒的作品，從大家比較熟悉的歐文(John Owen，不是Kyrie Iriving)、本任約翰(John Bunyan)，到我不認識的Thomas Boston。

Packer對這些清教徒書籍的介紹不是簡單的摘要，而是企圖藉由引導讀者認識這些清教徒的洞見來反思自己的處境。

不多廢話，這篇網誌完全只是為了介紹今天看到的其中一段話。

這段話來自Packer對Boston的著作--"The Crook in the Lot" 的介紹。

以下為中文翻譯（AI協助+人工修改版）。英文原文(包含較長段落)在最底下。

「心理學家和哲學家發現，人們的腦海中常常存在著互相矛盾的想法、慾望、價值觀、期望和目標，而且往往意識不到這些矛盾。他們稱這種狀況為認知失調。從牧養的角度來看，這個洞見很重要，因為我們在所有信徒身上都能看到信心與不信、智慧與愚昧、屬靈的遠見與短視混雜在一起，這無疑導致基督徒的心思中出現認知失調，導致他們在對上帝的認識上一再產生自相矛盾與不一致。現狀也的確如此，牧者們不得不經常察覺並糾正這類錯誤。

現在，在今日福音派新教徒中廣泛存在著一種特殊形式的認知失調（有趣的是，在天主教徒和東正教信徒中卻看不到這種現象），具體如下。

沒有人質疑基督要求祂的跟隨者要捨己，也就是要將他們所珍惜的一切個人希望和夢想都交給上帝，並接受即使這些願望無法實現，這也是祂計劃的一部分，同時要背起他們的十字架，也就是願意成為被社會唾棄的人，如同與耶穌一同成為被定罪之人，扛著處死自己的刑具走向指定的地方。我們的主明確清楚告訴我們：作門徒非一路平順，有痛苦也有喜樂。沒有基督徒會質疑上述這點。

但同時，我們這個時代以舒適為導向的物質主義主張，認為無痛苦、無煩惱的生活幾乎是人權。在這種背景下，許多認為自己相信的人，說服自己認為：因為他們是上帝的兒女，所以永遠免於困難，不像其他人一樣會遭遇打擊，而是走在一條毫無痛苦的人生道路上，享受各樣美好的供應，好似在郵輪上度假一般。

這種心態最粗淺直接的表現就是某些電視佈道家所傳的成功神學；更深層、更複雜的表現則出現在當創傷來臨時 - 無論是喪親之痛、背叛、不治之症、事業崩潰等等 ，這時他們會痛苦哭問：「上帝怎麼能讓這事發生在我身上？」。此外，這也表現在一種神學理論上：宣稱上帝本想阻止這些事情但祂做不到，因為祂的主權是有限的。

這就是我們遇到的認知失調，深深植根在人們心中。這種認為壞事會被擋在外面，只有好事才會臨到我們的幻想，在今時今日很難消除....」

"That brings us to my second question. Has this book a message for today? The answer, I believe, is yes, most certainly; but it is a message that moderns are likely to find very hard to hear. Why? Let me explain.

Psychologists and philosophers have noticed that it is common for people to have in their minds incompatible lines of thought, desire, valuation, expectation and purpose, and to be unaware of the incompatibility. They call this condition cognitive dissonance. Pastorally, the insight is important, for the mixture of faith and unbelief, wisdom and foolishness, spiritual discernment and spiritual myopia, that we find in all believers in this world, virtually guarantees that there will be cognitive dissonance in Christian minds - self-contradiction and incoherence, that is - over and over again with regard to the things of God. So it proves to be, and pastors are constantly having to detect and correct mistakes of this kind.

Now, one particular form of cognitive dissonance that is widespread today among evangelical Protestants (interestingly, you do not find it among Roman Catholics and Orthodox) is as follows. Nobody questions that Christ tells His followers to deny themselves - that is, to give to God all the personal hopes and dreams they have cherished, and accept that non-fulfilment of these may be part of His plan - and to take up their cross - that is, be willing to become discredited outcasts, like the condemned men whose ranks Jesus was to join who were made to carry the means of their crucifixion to the place appointed for it. This is a clear, sober warning from our Lord that discipleship will have its downs as well as its ups, its distresses as well as its delights, and no Christian challenges it. But at the same time the comfort-oriented materialism of our age urges that painless, trouble-free living is virtually a human right, and against this background many who believe they believe let themselves think that because they are God's children they will always be shielded from major troubles, such as strike other people, and will be led through life on a pain-free path, with all pleasant things provided, as would happen on a cruise. The brash and simplistic expression of this syndrome is found in the health and wealth gospel of some televangelists; the more reflective and sophisticated expression of it appears in the pained question, voiced when trauma comes - bereavement, betrayal, incurable disease, business collapse, or whatever - 'How could God let this happen to me?' and it further appears in the theological theories that say God would have stopped it if He could, but He couldn't, because His sovereignty is limited. Here we meet cognitive dissonance, anchored deep in people's hearts. The fantasy of nasty things kept at bay and only nice things meant for us here and now dies hard, and where it has not yet died Boston's realism, bracing, clarifying and stabilizing as it is, will not be received.

But be that as it may, the pure biblical wisdom of The Crook in the Lot is badly needed by many of us, and so I am delighted that it is being made available again in this handy form. And I hope that what I have written here will help a new generation to read it with understanding and gratitude to God. For truly, as Americans love to say, this is where it's at." -- J. I. Packer, Puritan Portraits, 111-113.