良心、信仰和律法:基督教良心观解析

Conscience,Faith and the Law: On the Christian Concept of Conscience

基督教的良心观受希腊-罗马的斯多亚学派的影响,主张良心好似内在的审判官,判断每个人的意念和行为的是与非。人应该顺着良心做事。良心是一种内生的道德情感。当一个人做了道德上应该做的事情时感到愉悦和安宁,当他做了道德上不应做的事情时则感到内疚和痛苦。然而,在涉及良心的来源问题时,基督教与斯多亚学派的观点是不同的。斯多亚学派认为良心来自人的自然本性,道德律的依据是自然法。虽然斯多亚学派主张天和自然是有神性的,自然的秩序是神圣的秩序,自然法是神圣的法,但没有把这样的神性与人格的造物主相关联,也不主张神高于自然,超越于自然。基督教认为,人的良心来源于上帝,是上帝赐给人的"礼物",律法归根到底也是来自上帝的诫命。但是,人的良知会因人的私欲而变得软弱,本真的律法会因世俗的陈腐规则变得不本真。基督教面临的问题是如何使得人的良心强健起来,以及如何使得律法去伪存真。为此基督教强调上帝拯救的"外力"和人的"因信称义"。

Christian conception of conscience,influenced by Greco-Roman Stoic school,maintains that the conscience is like an inner judge who judges right or wrong of everyone＇s thought and behavior. People should follow their own conscience to do things. Conscience is a kind of spontaneous moral emotion. When a person does the right thing,he feels joy and peace; when a person does a moral wrong thing,he feels guilty and pain. However,to the origin of conscience,Christianity and Stoicism have different viewpoints. According to Stoicism,conscience comes from human nature,and the moral law is based on natural law. Though heaven and nature are regarded as divine,and the order of heaven and natural law regarded as divine order and law,no such divinity is associated with a personal God as creator,and none of the gods is thought higher than nature or beyond the nature. According to Christianity,conscience and the moral law are in the final analysis from God in so far as they are regarded as the gift and the mandate that God gives people. But human conscience can become weak because of selfish desire,and authentic moral law can become inauthentic because of secular rigid rules. On the problem how to bring up human conscience and how to eliminate the inauthentic and retain the authentic moral law,the Christian emphasizes the transcendent force of God＇s salvation and human＇s ＂justification by faith＂.