诺曼·梅勒的存在主义宗教玄学及其文学表征与道德意义

上帝和人是诺曼·梅勒的核心关注。梅勒不仅在非小说作品中直接谈论他对上帝和人的本质及其存在状态的思考和认识,而且在小说中通过人物对上帝的评论、人物之间以及人物与自身之间的冲突和战争体现他的思考和认识。他从存在主义角度思考上帝和人的本质及其存在状态,认为上帝既非全知全能又非全善,既非绝对完美又非永恒不变,上帝与魔鬼的战争使人存在于善与恶之中,既善又恶。他对上帝和人的存在主义认识是纯个人的宗教玄学,但绝非纯宗教行为,而是对人类社会和历史以及人性的辩证认识和深刻反思,体现了他对人类生存状态、命运与前途的关注和担忧,具有重要的道德意义。

God and man are central concerns of Norman Mailer, whose contemplation and recognition of the nature and the condition of existence of God and man are not only expressed directly in his nonfiction works but also embodied in his novels by the comments of the characters on God and the conflicts and wars between and within the characters. Mailer contemplated the nature and the condition of existence of God and man from an existentialist perspective, believing that God is neither all-knowing, all-powerful or all- good, nor absolutely perfect or constantly unchangeable, and that His constant war with the Devil makes man exist between Good and Evil and therefore both good and evil. His existentialist recognition of God and man is a kind of personal religious metaphysics, but it is by no means a fully religious behavior but a dialectical recognition and profound rethinking of human society and history and human nature, showing his great concern and worry about human condition, fate and future, and therefore is of great moral significance.