早期两河流域的宗教与社会——对雅各布森研究的检索与反思

宗教的起源和发展一直是古史研究的重要课题之一。北京师范大学历史学院的古史研究者对古代的宗教与社会问题进行了长期探索,这里发表的五篇文章分别表达了研究者在这个问题上的见解:刘家和认为,比较研究还应继续做同中察异的工作,就宗教与历史之关系而言,中国的三代与古代希腊、罗马本来各不相同;但不论前者的邦国,还是后者的城邦,都有自己的守护之神,这点又是相同的;可是在此之上,前者还有天或皇天上帝,后者则无,原因之一是由于前者在地上有最高的天下共主,而后者则无。杨共乐认为,敬重神灵,墨守礼仪,以敬神束缚民众,以礼仪统一思想,是罗马早期宗教具有的明显的目的性;敬仰民族神明,宽容外邦神灵,又使罗马的宗教传统具有鲜明的独特性和开放性;早期罗马的宗教传统是多神崇拜但有秩序,宽容外神但有原则,主要表现在新的外神从未渗透到罗马旧有宗教的核心,后者一直保持着主导地位。刘林海指出,基督教最初并非罗马的唯一选择,其优势是在历史过程中逐步确立的;罗马传统宗教自我更新的失败则把基督教推向了国教的地位。蒋重跃对《新约》的道德金规则与《论语》的忠恕思想做了比较研究,认为两者都主张博爱。但《新约》的金规则只有肯定式的表达,因为基督教的博爱来自上帝,上帝是无限的,上帝的爱也要无限地向外推出去;《论语》的忠恕思想则既有肯定式,也有否定式的表达,由于儒家的博爱来自人自身,人是有限的,所以人类之爱既可向外推出去,又要向内加以限制。这是二者最根本的差异。王献华在分析雅各布森的相关作品的基础上认为,对早期两河流域宗教的研究和对早期两河流域社会与文化的历史研究必须是合二为一的学术进程;在早期两河流域宗教研究中,神灵史的路径可以认为是下一阶段的学术方向。

Researchers from School of History and Culture, Beijing Normal University have done long -time studies on the ancient religion and society. Liu Jia -he thinks in the field of comparative studies the differences and similarities should be told so that a helix process may be finished. The similarity is that China and ancient Greece and Rome have their own gods of protection, but the difference is that China has its own heaven because there is a common ruler on the earth, an important characteristic different from Western countries. Yang Gong -le thinks that the early religion in Roman Empire has its purpose, namely, revering the national deities and tolerating foreign deities that have the nature of opening up. Although there are many gods, they are all in order. Hu Lin - hal gives many thoughts of why Christianity has become a state - level religion. The reason for it is that the self - regenerative failure of the traditional Roman religion gives Christianity a golden opportunity. Jiang Chong -yue gives comparative studies on the golden principles of morality from The New Testament and the thoughts of loyalty and forgiveness from The Analects. God is unlimited and its love is also promoted outside unlimitedly while the Confucian love comes from man, so this love is either promoted outside or limited inside. In his analysis of works by Thorkild Jacobsen, Wang Xian - hua thinks that studies on religion and studies on history and culture in the early regions of the two rivers should be a two -in -one process. Studies on the history of deities should be the next stage.