彼得·拉莫和循道宗的命名:拉莫式布道术以降的中世纪科学

Peter Ramus and the Naming of Methodism:Medieval Science through Ramist Homiletic

"方法"与约翰·卫斯理所创建的新教教派"循道宗"(Meth-odism)之间的联系一直都是个谜题,甚至卫斯理本人也不清楚。卫斯理错误地认为这个词来自于早期的医学团体,指的是那些在日常生活中严格遵循规律的人。事实上,这个词最初指的是彼得·拉莫的方法,属于纯粹的逻辑学,并能够应用于所有学科。拉莫推动了18世纪的"方法崇拜",但很多布道者仅仅是"口头尊崇"拉莫主义方法,以至于18世纪晚期的人不能理解"循道宗"的确切含义。笔者认为卫斯理虽然不知道这个词的来源,但远比其自以为的更接近"循道宗"的最初含义,因为其著作反映了拉莫的深远影响。

The term“method,”as it was used to identify members of the Methodist denomination of the Protestant Church founded by John Wesley,has always been something of a mystery,even to Wesley himself.Wesley believed by mistake that the term from an earlier group of physicians had always been used to refer to people whose daily lives were very routine.In fact,the term experienced a shift in meaning;it originally referred to the approach of Peter Ramus,in which method is attached to the realm of pure logic and applied to all the different disciplines.While the eighteenth century had seen the phenomenon“cult of method”developed by Ramus,there were more preachers who only gave“lip service”to Ramist method so that people in the late eighteenth century could not understand the specific meaning of Methodism.The author concludes that Wesley really was closer to the earlier definition of Methodism than he realized in spite of his confusion about the origin of the term,for his own work revealed Ramus'lasting influence.