《罪魁蒙恩记》:精神自传、经验与班扬的个人主义

Grace Abounding: Spiritual Autobiography, Experience, and Bunyan’s Individualism

清教精神自传在继承奥古斯丁《忏悔录》的内省模式的同时,也吸纳了英国17世纪的经验主义成分。清教经验包括身体经验(恩典的外在标志)和精神经验(恩典的内在标志)。在精神自传《罪魁蒙恩记》中,班扬试图通过将《圣经》和信仰置于个人经验之下的方式来彰显个人的主体性。但是,这种尝试在以《圣经》为中心的清教观念中是无法接受的。因此,班扬惶惶不可终日,只好重新屈从于《圣经》的权威,没能形成现代个人主义所必需的自主性。基于个人经验和《圣经》,班扬批评了浮嚣派的反律法倾向,同时又批评了贵格派将个人经验置于《圣经》之上的教义。相较之下,班扬对《圣经》表现出的是一种叛逆式的顺从,他的个人主义也只是《圣经》束缚意义上的个人主义。

The Puritan spiritual autobiographies,following the inward reflection of Augustine’s Confession,absorbed English Empiricism in the 17th century.The Puritan experience includes physical experience,i.e.,outer signs of grace,and spiritual experience,i.e.,inner signs of grace.In his spiritual autobiography,Grace Abounding,John Bunyan tries to reveal his subjectivity by framing the Bible and his faith through his experience.However,this attempt is unacceptable in puritanism with the Bible as the ultimate authority.Bunyan,therefore,is so frightened that he finally gives up this attempt,and returns to his submission to the Bible,and fails to achieve the indispensable subjectivity,which is essential to modern individualism.Based upon his experience and the Bible,Bunyan criticizes the antinomian inclination of the Ranters,and the Quakers’doctrine which attaches more importance to experience than the Bible.Bunyan’s is a rebellious submission to the Bible,and his is not the modern individualism in the real sense.