刀锋上行走的毛姆与神义论的难题——从韦伯的宗教社会学视角解读拉里的自我完善之路

Maugham on Razor's Edge and The Problem of Theodicy:A Reading of Larry's Self-Perfection Road Through Weber's Sociology of Religion

从《刀锋》主人公拉里对于无辜苦难的困惑出发,以作者毛姆和他所赋予拉里对宗教、哲学和文学作品的阅读体验为研究对象,结合韦伯在《以政治为业》中对神义论的分析,探讨了拉里从西方思想到东方奥义书的精神探索历程。通过比较毛姆和韦伯对无辜苦难的解读,可以看出二者都是在通过比较东西方思想来为无辜苦难寻找合理的解释,而《奥义书》从出世的角度为他们提供了形式上比较完美的答案。但与韦伯所坚信的政治家应该将"信念伦理"与"责任伦理"相结合有所不同,毛姆为拉里提供的是一条普通人的自我完善之路。

This paper analyzes Larry＇s problem of suffering and his spiritual salvation from western thought to Indian＇s Upanishads in Razor＇s Edge. Both Maugham and Larry＇s reading experience of religious, philosophical and literary works were analyzed and compared with Max Weber＇s study on theodicy in Politics as a Vocation. This paper concludes that both Maugham and Weber try to find out the answer to suffering through comparing western and eastern thought, and Indian religion provides them a salvation through disengagement of this world. While Weber believes that a politician should combine both ＂Ethic of ultimate ends＂ and ＂Ethic of responsibility＂, Maugham chooses a self-perfection road for the ordinary man like larry.