灵验与虔敬:信仰的一体两面

Miraculous Effect and Devoutness:Two Sides of Religious Beliefs

在信仰叙述中时常被强调的灵验是信仰真理与日常经验之间的中间地带,它既可以从信仰的视角进行讨论和分析;也可以被纳入日常经验体系中进行理解。在现代知识标准和验证性模式的支配下,灵验的内涵及其内在理路被套上了知识性的底色。超越力量的存在成为一个知识性的假设,灵验成了这一假设的经验性证据。这样的理解是偏离信仰的特性的,对于信仰者而言,超越力量的存在不是一个有待论证的假设,而是所有认识和理解的出发点。灵验是一种正确的、见证超越力量的方式,虔敬的态度与灵验的呈现是信仰世界的两个环节。通过澄清现代知识标准及日常性预设与信仰的理路之间的根本差异,就可以避免对信仰的误解,从而回归信仰的本然。

Miraculous effect(灵验),namely the manifestation of sacredness in belief narrative,is the very thing that bridges up religious beliefs and daily experiences.The analysis of miraculous effect could start from the perspectives of both religious beliefs and daily experiences in the assumption-verifying mode.If miraculous effect was explored in the assumption-verifying mode,the authentic connotation would be misled into the modern scientific norm.The existence of supernatural power and its functioning would be regarded as an assumption pending for empirical vindication,and miraculous effect would become an evidence that could confirm the tentative assumption of supernatural power.However,to the believers,the supernatural world is the precondition of all religious practices and the starting-point of their understanding of all phenomena.Miraculous effect is NOT the result of certain mechanism of knowledge,but the proper way to manifest both the supernatural world and the authentic world.The world of belief is composed of devoutness and miraculous manifestation.Devoutness is the pivotal factor to interpret the miraculous effect within the internal structure of beliefs.This paper is intended to clarify the tendency to misinterpret the miraculous effect in the shadow of modern mode of knowledge production and lead the understanding of the manifestation of sacredness into the original context of beliefs and the view of believers.