燕卜荪与C.S.刘易斯:寻求共同点

William Empson and C.S.Lewis:Seeking Common Ground

文学评论家,尤其是弥尔顿学者,常根据C.S.刘易斯与燕卜荪各自所持的对立的基督教观点,将他们归为截然相反的两类人。尽管刘易斯到30多岁时还是一位无神论者,但他在1930年前后皈依了基督教。相较之下,燕卜荪可以说在成年后经历了信仰转变,从青年时期的无神论者变为日益尖锐的反基督教思想者。这种转变似乎是由他在文学上的反抗所触发的,他反对早期现代文本解读中那些他称作"新基督教主义"的东西。他的批评著作反复地将相信地狱、相信通过基督之死实现赎罪这样的信仰描写得像施虐狂。而对刘易斯来说,正是因为他为基督教神学作理性辩护的作品极受欢迎,他才享有盛誉。了解燕卜荪作品的大众读者寥寥无几,但他在学术界的声望很高,而刘易斯作品的价值在学术界常常不受重视或只被勉强认可。本文论证的是,尽管两人确实差异显著,但作为文学评论家,两人有着比人们通常意识到的更多共同点,这点甚至在基督教神学,尤其是赎罪论上亦如此。

Literary critics,Milton scholars in particular,tend to register C.S.Lewis and William Empson as opposites,primarily on account of their sharply contrasting views about Christianity.Although he had been an atheist into his thirties,Lewis converted to Christianity around 1930.Empson by comparison may be said to have undergone an adult conversion from the mere atheism of his youth to an increasingly strident anti-Christianity,triggered,it seems,by his reaction against what he called“neo-Christianism”in literary interpretation of early modern texts.His critical writings repeatedly describe belief in hell and atonement through Christ’s sacrifice as sadistic.Lewis,for his part,enjoys widespread fame precisely for his highly popular writings in rational defense of Christian theology.Acquaintance with Empson’s writings is negligible among readers at large,but his stock remains high in the academy,which is where the value of Lewis’s work is often discounted or only grudgingly acknowledged.This essay makes the case that despite their indeed striking differences,there is more common ground between them as literary critics than is generally recognized,even when it comes to Christian theology and specifically the doctrine of the atonement.