The Christian Understanding of History

By Kenneth Scott Latourette

Presidential address delivered at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Washington on December 29, 1948. American Historical Review 54: 2 (January 1949): 259-76.

基督徒的历史观

賴德烈

在美国历史协会1948年会上的主席特别报告。

（发表在美国历史回顾 54卷2期）

------------------------------------------------------作者简介-----------------------------------------------------------

赖德烈（Kenneth  Scott  Latourette，1884年8月6日－1968年12月26日），美国东方学家和历史学家， 前耶鲁大学东方系和神学院教授。 他是美国研究中国的先驱之一，受教于卫三畏的儿子卫斐列并以早期中美关系（1784-1844）为研究课题获得博士学位。一生致力于东方史（主要是中国历史）的研究和教会历史的研究和推广。赖德烈是一个虔诚的基督徒。 1910年以传教士的身份到中国传教2年，后因身体的缘故提前回国。 出于中国人给他的良好印象和一个基督徒对中国人这一群未得之民的深切关切，他热爱中国和中国人。在他的基于基督教的历史观里，中国将是神国下一波扩张的目的地。

本文是他在美国历史协会上作为协会主席所作的特别报告。在他的报告里， 他在宏观上强调了基督教对于历史发展的脉冲式的影响， 并例举了基督教对于文化和文明带来的祝福。文章里充满了一个基督徒所有的建立在理性分析的乐观精神： 耶稣及其基督教将在历史中得胜。

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

历史存在模式吗？所有的历史学家都从其研究领域的大量已发生的事件中精选事例。他们是按自己的意愿选择还是按着历史事件的内在规律？如果模式存在的话，它是否能被辨别？历史是有规律可循的吗？如果是，规律是什么？历史是有意义吗，还是简单的毫无意义的杂音和狂暴？历史存在终点并向其运行还是在做无方向的运动？这些问题一直困扰我们这个行当的人。这些问题在各种各样的地区，文化和时代里都不断地被提出并有了许多答案。无论在古老的尼罗河文明和两河文明，在希伯莱-巴勒斯坦，在中国，在印度，在希腊，在罗马，在中世纪的欧洲，或在现代西方，这些问题都直接或间接地提出来和考虑过。

Do patterns exist in history? All historians make selections from the multitude of happenings which constitute the quarry in which they work. Do they do so arbitrarily or in accord with what is inherent in the events? If there are patterns, can they be discerned? Is history governed by laws? If so, what are they? Does history have meaning, or is it simply sound and fury, signifying nothing? Does it have an end toward which it is moving, or is it movement without direction? These are questions which continue to trouble members of our craft. In various lands, cultures, and ages they have been repeatedly raised and many answers have been given. Whether in the ancient civilizations of the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, in Hebrew Palestine, in China, in India, in Greece, in Rome, in the Middle Ages of Europe, or in the modern Occident, explicitly or by implication they have been posed and pondered.

我们不需要穷尽目录就知道决定从过去纷乱的历史记录中做出选择的目的的范围之广，观察这个星球上人类活动轨迹的人用来的研究困扰历史学家的众多事件的相关性的模式的数量之多， 我们认为的决定历史事件的发展和意义（和决定这些事件是否有界定人类生活的意义）的规律的种类之繁。古往今来的许多史官吏们的注意力都集中在那些似乎对群体生活有重大影响的人物—统治者，政治家，艺术家，文学家，学者和宗教领袖。另外（象在早期的中国）历史也源于对某个家族对祖先的崇拜和家族荣誉的维护。也有一部份历史是一些关于公众人物的记忆：他们希望他们的伟大功绩永垂史册----从古代的碑文和历代史记到今天美国总统的积累保存的档案和宗卷，以及从印刷术发明以来不断累积泛滥的个人传记。在选择的原则上，历史事件的许多组合都受到对某个朋友，老师或圣哲的崇敬和爱戴或对某宗教或政治信仰（例如孔子，佛祖，耶稣，和列宁）的长传于世的关心的影响。有些历史学家着眼于某个战争或对一系列战争的描述----伯罗奔尼撒海战，高卢战争, 美国内战以及两次世界大战。许多人专注国体和政治。特别近代有的人把经济因素视为决定性的因素。 也有人试图辨析出一门社会的科学。由于受到过去塑造了西方几代人思维方式的思潮的影响，历史学家也在辩论历史是否是一门科学。无论他们的答案是什么，一般来讲他们是试图把科学方法应用到他们的工作中去。现代历史学家通常相信因果关系—目前的事件和运动主要是有以前的事件和运动决定的。所以有人声称一切都可以以时间序列来演示。也有人声称至少在过去2500年里历史没有呈现如何意义和模式。经常会有像杨朱那样的学说出现，根本不承认主体的存在。那些像印度人一样把世界和人生看成是虚幻的民族自然对历史没有多少尊重甚至根本没有尊重。在每个世纪都有人认为历史是循环的。希腊人是这样认为的，现代佛教徒和许多广受欢迎的西方作家也认为如此。而其他人认为进步是明显可辨的，无论是缓慢的运动，脉动或辩证的过程。有人非常激情地确信这个过程会导致一个理想的社会，人类所有的问题都得以解决。另外的人，尽管也相信进步，并不认为人类会永远脱离争斗。这些仅仅是历史学家试图记录或理解过去历史的许多态度中的有数的几个。其他的将会在更全面的分析综合里涉及到。

We need no full catalogue to recall how various have been the purposes which have governed selection from the fragmentary records of the past, how numerous have been the patterns which observers of man's course on this planet have seen as giving coherence to the many incidents which are the crude stuff with which historians deal, how diverse have been the laws which have been said to mold the course of events, and the meaning--or the absence of meaning--which has been thought to characterize the stream of human life. Many scribes, both ancient and modern, have centered their stories upon men and women who have loomed large in the collective life of the group--rulers, statesmen, artists, authors, scholars, religious leaders. Some of this, as in early China, has been from a mixture of reverence for ancestors and the desire of insuring prestige to a particular family. Some has been at the instance of those in the public eye who have wished to perpetuate the memory of their greatness--from some of the most ancient inscriptions and chronicles to the archives amassed and preserved by recent Presidents of the United States and the spate of autobiographies which has been mounting since the invention of the printing press. Many arrangements of events have had as their principle of selection admiration and affection for a friend, a teacher, or a saint, or concern for the perpetuation and spread of a religious or political faith--as in the case of Confucius, the Buddha, Jesus, and Lenin. Some historians have centered their narratives upon a war or series of wars--the Peloponnesian struggle, the Gallic Wars, the American Civil War, and World Wars I and II. Many have concentrated on the state and politics. Some, especially in recent times, have viewed economic factors as determinative. Others have attempted to discern a science of society. Influenced by the temper which has characterized much of the Occidental mind for the past few generations, historians have debated whether history is a science. Whatever their answer, in general they have attempted to apply scientific methods to their work. Modern historians usually believe in causation--that events and movements are in large part or entirely determined by preceding events and movements. Yet there are those who declare a time sequence to be all that can be demonstrated. For at least twenty-five hundred years there have been those who have insisted that no meanings or patterns are to be observed in history. Often, as in the case of Yang Chu, this has been in protest against those who believed such to exist. Those who have viewed this world, including human life, as illusion, as has been so widely the case in India, naturally have had little or no regard for history. Many observers across the centuries have believed that history is cyclical, repeating itself. This has been true of the Greeks, of many Buddhists, and of some of the most widely read of modern Occidental authors. Others have held that progress is discernible, whether by steady movement, by pulsations, or by the dialectical process. Some are passionately convinced that progress culminates in an ideal society in which all man's ills will have been resolved. Others, while believing in progress, do not envision mankind as ever escaping from struggle. These are merely a few of the many attitudes which men have taken as they have sought to record or to understand the past. Some contradict one another. Others can be embraced in a larger synthesis.

面临着这许多种的令人信服的学说， 老练的历史学家避免倾向于其中的任何一种就一点不奇怪了。可是如果没有一些基本的选择（不管是人为的纯粹主观的还是人的关心的历史事件本身带有的）， 历史就没有办法写成。对过去这个协会的主席特约报告的调查就会发现，对于那些被选举来领导这个荣誉团体的人来讲，没有一个主题比历史的可能模式和意义更有吸引力。有几篇报告评价对于历史的解释甚至所有的解释。但更多的是提供了解释。为了不至于引起同行的过分评价，这些解释以谦逊和小心的方式提出：经常是模式以隐含的方式提出或已隐含在假定当中。

Faced with this multiplicity of convictions, it is not surprising that the experienced historian tends to be wary of committing himself to any of them. Yet history cannot be written without some basis of selection, whether artificial and purely subjective or inherent in man's story. A survey of the presidential addresses made before this Association reveals the fact that no one single topic has so attracted those who have been chosen to head this honorable body as have the possible patterns and meanings of history. A few of the addresses have been critical of particular interpretations or even of all interpretations of history. More have presented interpretations--although usually with such modesty and cautious tentativeness as befits those who submit themselves to the judgment of their peers. Frequently the patterns have been assumed or implied.

于是历史学家就出于两难之中。 一方面， 他为难地意识到有许多提出来的历史的解释和哲学思想， 然而却不能全部地接受其中任何一种。另一方面， 他面临只有一种选择：必须采取行动确定哪怕是任意的一种选择原则， 并不断地被要找到一个具有客观现实性框架和意义的希望所困扰。

The historian, then, is faced with a dilemma. On the one hand he is painfully aware of the many interpretations and philosophies of history which have been put forward and is therefore hesitant to accept wholeheartedly any one of them. On the other hand he is confronted with the necessity of acting on some principle of selection, even though it be arbitrary, and is haunted by the persistent hope that a framework and meaning can be found which possess objective reality.

这种希望在现今尤其不定。我们似乎生活在一个重大变革的时代。 作为历史学家，我们对过去许多巨变的时期非常熟悉。 确实，如果我们对描述历史的特性有共识的话，那就是变化。似乎是没有一种文化（如果我们能够同意它存在的话）和组织能够永远保持不变。至少我们知道，人类从来没像今天这样在巨变中前进。从来没像今天这样这么多的文化似乎处于解体的过程中。也从来没有一个时代人类面临这么多的好的和坏的可能选择。人类作为一个整体也从来没有像现在被那些用各种各样的教条般的对历史的解释和在痛苦的转型的引导所困扰。

This hope is peculiarly insistent in our day. We appear to be living in a time of major revolution. As historians we are familiar with many earlier periods of rapid change. Indeed, if there is one feature which we are agreed upon as characterizing history it is flux. It seems probable that no culture--if we can assent to the existence of such an entity--and no institution remains permanently unaltered. Yet so far as we are aware, never before has all mankind been so drastically on the march. Never at any one time have so many cultures been in what appears to be disintegration. In no other era have all men been faced with such colossal possibilities of what they deem good and ill. Never before has the race as a whole been so assailed by those who urge upon it dogmatically one or another interpretation of the historical process to explain and to guide in humanity's painful transition.

在这种情况下， 我能否斗胆请你们考虑一下最古老的历史观之一： 基督徒的历史观？我的确意识到许多人现在认为它太过时了， 是与一个已被弃绝的一段思想相连的，只有那些与现代社会脱节的可怜虫才坚持的观念。我这样作是因为我接受基督徒的历史观并越来越被其精确的洞察所吸引。 但我不是作为一个先入为主的主张者和一长串不断的寻求证明神与人关系的人们之一 来再一次吸引你们的注意力。相反， 我是与你们一起提出一个问题： 基督徒的历史观能不能为迷惑我们许多优秀的思想家的奥秘提供线索。

May I make bold under these circumstances to invite your consideration to one of the oldest interpretations of history, the one which bears the name Christian? I do so realizing that many now regard it as quite outmoded, as associated with a stage of thinking which mankind is discarding, and as being held only by those who are victims of what is indulgently denominated social lag. I do so as one who accepts the Christian understanding of history and is more and more attracted by what he believes to be the accuracy of its insight. But it is not as an advocate, as one in the long succession of those who would seek to justify the ways of God to men, that I would once more draw your attention to it. I would, rather, raise with you the question of whether the Christian understanding of history may not offer the clue to the mystery which fascinates so many of our best minds.

我能否概括一下什么是基督徒的历史观？然后在提出在什么程度上我们可以用今天历史学家采用的方法来代替实验， 下一步则指出采用这些方法的途径和从这些实验中得到的可能结论？一方面我们通过基督徒历史观所得的结论来推论主题的结论， 另一方面，基督徒的观点通过基督教的在世界上的扩展不断地被更多的个人和更大的团体所接受， 并且通过了各种新旧挑战， 越传越广。 另外最近的历史经验为这个熟悉的问题提供了新的答案。

May I first outline what the Christian understanding of history is? Then may I go on to suggest the degree to which it eludes testing by the methods employed by historians of our day? May I next note the ways in which it can be approached by these methods and indicate possible conclusions from these tests? The subject is rendered pertinent partly by reason of the claims which continue to be made for the Christian understanding of history, partly because, through the geographic expansion of Christianity, the Christian view is held by individuals and groups in more and more peoples and is, indeed, more widely spread than any other, in part from the challenges, some old and some new, to which the view is submitted, and because recent experience may shed fresh light on a familiar question.

基督徒的历史观是什么？乍一眼似乎没有一种观点能够被所有的基督徒接受并冠以基督徒的名字， 而是有许多种，相互联系却针锋相对， 没有多少共性的东西。有些差别在基督教初期就存在于最早的新约的信仰和信条里。但大多数产生于对于这些信条的各种各样的解释里。

What is the Christian understanding of history? At first sight there may seem to be no single view held by all Christians and given the Christian name, but rather a number of views, related but reciprocally contradictory and having little in common. Some differences are to be found near the very beginning of Christianity and are   imbedded in the earliest documents of the faith, those assembled in the New Testament. Most of the others arise from varying interpretations of these documents.

重要差别在这里。 耶稣谈了许多关于天国或神的国的事。我们假定他这样做是出入神的旨意，因为有一段我们所有基督徒都会的祈求祷告， “愿你的国降临，与愿你的旨意行在地上，如同行在天上”。希伯来语诗词的风格是第二段用不同的词来重复第一段的意思。但基督徒对于这个祈求祷告得答复的方式和时间意见不一。在历史中，神的国是通过不同阶段缓慢地， 需要人的配合最后等神的旨意完全实现才能到来？这种观念为十九世纪后期的新教徒们广泛接受， 直到今天在一些地方仍然存在。 据信可以在耶稣的话中找到确证。 明显地，这与进化观点相近并为许多接受进化假设的人所喜欢。 相反的观点是世界不是在变好，而是在变得更坏。神，无需要人的参入， 会把历史带到一个突然的终点并完成他的旨意。许多杰出的学者都坚持认为耶稣自己也期望这种结局快来。许多世纪以来，有些人不时地相信历史马上就要结束了。这些人今天就确实在我们当中。有些基督徒认为神的国是教会。其他人不这样认为。有些人坚持人类因为罪堕落而毫无希望，任何使自己变好的努力都注定要失败， 唯一能做的是静静地等候神自己实现他的目的。其他人， 对人的能力有更多的信心， 认为神基于人的工作来实现天国。

The chief differences are quickly summarized. Jesus had much to say of what he called the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God. Presumably he meant by this the doing of God's will, for one of the central petitions of the prayer which all Christians agree to have been taught by him, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," in the fashion of Hebrew poetry makes the second part repeat in different words the idea in the first part. But Christians disagree as to how and when that petition is to be answered. Is the Kingdom of God to come by slow stages and by the cooperation of men until God's will is perfectly accomplished--within history? This view was widely cherished in Protestant circles late in the nineteenth century and in some quarters survives today. It is believed to have support in the words of Jesus. This, obviously, is akin to evolution and has been congenial to many who have accepted the evolutionary hypothesis. The opposite view has been held that the world is becoming no better, and, indeed, may even be deteriorating, and that God by His own unaided act will bring history to a sudden dramatic end and will then accomplish His perfect will. Eminent scholars have contended that Jesus himself expected this consummation and very soon. From time to time through the centuries there have been those who have believed the end of history to be imminent. Indeed, we have them with us today. Some Christians identify the Kingdom of God with the Church. Others would not so identify it. Some have held that the human will is so hopelessly corrupted by sin that every effort by man to better his condition is foredoomed and that we must quietly wait for God to accomplish His purposes. Others, with more confidence in human ability, make God dependent on man's efforts in bringing in the Kingdom.

尽管这些差别很明显也很重要，但他们都在大多数基督徒都基本同意的框架里。 他们用不同的方式阐述信仰，但许多表述都建立在很大程度的共识上。基督徒相信神是宇宙的创造者和统治者。 他的统治范围无边无际， 或者有人无法想象的距离， 无数的星斗和无法认识的微小的原子世界，或者是人所称的物质世界或精神世界。这意味着人生活在宇宙当中，历史也在其中发生。一切现实的存在都归于宇宙且在神的掌控当中， 人类的一切戏剧性的活动都是神的宏大的一体创造的一小片。因此基督徒的观点认为，最终神会以他的方式在人类的一切中掌权。 基督徒坚持认为， 尽管人在身体上脆弱，但他们是按与神的相似的性情所造，且有与神交通的可能性。 为此， 在基督徒眼里， 人类是一个整体。历史也包含了整个人类机器相关的一切。神在按他的形象造人时，他给了人类一定程度的自由意志。尽管人类的自由受到了各种因素的限制， 其中包括遗传，身体和社会环境等，但它是真实存在的。人类历史很大一部分是悲剧，而悲剧的主要内容是人类对自由的滥用。人类很容易忘记他们是被造物。 人以这样或那样的方式把自己放到完全自治的程度， 寻求他自己的意愿而不是神的意愿。他对其他事物的忠心超过了对神的忠心， 没有把该给神的献给神。一个人想象中的安全感和快乐，家庭，自己的一套思想，国家或其他组织甚至教会都被看的比神高。按基督徒的说法，神，在宇宙和历史中永远工作的神，用审判和怜悯两种方法对付人的意愿的悖逆。通过时刻被称为残酷的写在宇宙结构上和人类自己的结构和环境里的律法， 神审判人类和人类在神里所做的一切。这样人类的苦难和挫折就来了。但神希望人类悔改，而且只要人类真心悔改，不管多少次，不管是个人的悔改还是团体的悔改，他都原谅人类， 并重新给人类机会成长达到他为他们所预定的目的。最终神必然胜利。历史将会达到一个顶峰。不管是在时间当中还是时间以外，神的旨意将会完成， 他的完全的主权遍及全地。

Striking and important though these differences are, they occur within a framework to which most informed Christians give general assent. They state their faith in a wide variety of ways, but back of the many formulations lies a large measure of agreement. Christians believe that God is the creator of the universe and rules throughout all its vast reaches, whether, to man, the unimaginable distances and uncounted suns or the inconceivably minute world of the atom, whether in what men call matter or in what they call spirit. This means that man lives and history takes places in a universe, that all of reality is one and under the control of God, and that the human drama is part and parcel of the far larger unity of God's creation. Ultimately and in His own way, so the Christian view maintains, God is sovereign in the affairs of men. Physically frail though he is, man, the Christian declares, was created in the likeness of God and with the possibility of fellowship with God. For this reason, as the Christian sees it, mankind is one; history embraces all mankind and is universal. In creating man in His image, God gave to man a certain measure of His own free will. Man's freedom is limited by various factors, among them heredity and physical and social environment, but his freedom is still real. Human history is in large part tragedy, and the tragedy consists in man's abuse of his freedom. Man is prone to ignore the fact that he is a creature. In one fashion or another he arrogates to himself full autonomy and seeks to do not God's will but his own will. He places other loyalties above his loyalty to God and gives to them the allegiance due to God. Thus one's own fancied security and pleasure, the family, a set of ideas, the state or some other organization, even a church, may be given priority. God, who is always working in the universe and in history, meets this perversion of man's will, so the Christian goes on to say, in two ways, by judgment and by mercy. Through what are sometimes described as His inexorable laws written into the structure of the universe and so in man's own constitution and environment, God judges man and whatever man sets up in place of God. Hence comes most of man's misery and frustration. But God wishes man to repent, and as often as men truly repent, whether individually or in groups, He forgives them and gives them fresh opportunity to grow toward the purpose which He has for them. Ultimately God will triumph. History moves toward a culmination. Whether within or beyond time God's will is to be accomplished and His full sovereignty will be seen to have prevailed.

至今为止基督徒的宇宙观和历史观也与非基督徒的几个观点相符。 我们在这里讲的是犹太教，一定程度上的伊斯兰教， 以及在中国，古波斯和其他地方的有神论或接近有神论的系统。

Thus far the Christian understanding of the universe and of history resembles several non-Christian views. What is here outlined is largely true of Judaism, to a certain extent of Islam, and has partial parallels in theistic or near-theistic systems in China, ancient Persia, and elsewhere.

基督徒的历史观的独特之处在于历史事件的多次出现。 它的核心不是一套思想观念，而是一个人。历史学家采用B.C.和A.D来记录历史。 他们也知道许多别的记录方法。 由于在过去的许多世纪里基督教的有力的影响，这种特别的年表记录法才被广泛采用。对于基督徒来讲， 这种年表记录法绝不是一种俗成约定而已，它是历史固有的一部分。基督徒们坚持神在拿撒勒人耶稣身上一劳永逸地显示了他自己并开始做工。 大多数基督徒都相信耶稣是神的肉身体现。历史学家也相当清楚历史上的争论和教会斗争， 其中的许多与神通过耶稣的神人两重性所显出的超然神圣素质， 爱， 形成了鲜明的对比。许多争论意气性的是一个更大的问题的一部分。 这个我们以后会谈到。 基督徒相信这个问题最有戏剧性和决定性的论述是在耶稣被钉十字架这件事上。撇开争论中的苦毒不谈， 或者部分地由于它， 关于在耶稣身上的人性和神性的争论是人的思想和精神努力想明白基督徒所坚持的这件特别事件的意义。绝大多数基督徒都同意基督教早期文件中所表明的： 耶稣是自有永有神的道所成的肉身。基督徒相信神的国源于耶稣。部分原因是全人全神的耶稣在他的教导和生命里展现了神对人的期望和使人可能成为什么。 另外也因为在耶稣里和通过耶稣，神启示了他的最内在的素质并成就了他最重要的核心工作。

The distinctively Christian understanding of history centers upon historical occurrences. It has at its heart not a set of ideas but a person. By a widespread convention historians reckon history as b.c. and a.d. They are aware of many other methods of recording dates and know that this particular chronology has acquired extensive currency because of the growing dominance during the past few centuries of a civilization in which Christian influences have been potent. To the Christian, however, this reckoning of time is much more than a convention. It is inherent in history. In Jesus of Nazareth, so the Christian holds, God once for all disclosed Himself and acted decisively. The vast majority of Christians believe that Jesus was God incarnate. Historians are well aware of the long debates and the ecclesiastical struggles, some of them in stark contradiction to the love which is the supreme Christian virtue, over the relation of the divine and human in Jesus. That so many of the debates should have been an occasion for this temper is part of a larger problem to which we must later recur and which had its most dramatic and, so Christians believe, its decisive expression in the crucifixion of Jesus. In spite of and, perhaps, in part because of their acrimony, the controversies over the relation of the human and divine in Jesus are evidence of the struggle of the human mind and spirit to comprehend what Christians hold to have been a quite unique event. The large majority of Christians agree with the conviction expressed in one of the early Christian documents, that in Jesus the eternal Word which was and is God became flesh. In Jesus, so Christians maintain, God's Kingdom began in a fresh way. This was partly because Jesus, being both God and man, disclosed by his life and his teachings what God intended man to be and what man might become. It was also because in and through Jesus God revealed His inmost nature and accomplished a work of central and supreme importance.

神像基督徒所声称的是爱。英语中的“爱“字是笨拙的和多义的。它被用来表示许多含义的。早期基督徒所用的希腊语则比较清晰， 但仍然不够。当”爱“字用在神身上时，基督徒是指一种自我奉献， 这种意思无法用语言完全表达清楚， 只有通过在耶稣身上彰显出来，特别是在他的死里。在这里，正像最早的一个基督徒所声称的， 尽管他的死显出的是软弱和愚蠢，但神的大能和智慧却借此显示出来【林前1:18-25.】。钉十字架带来的是复活。 基督徒认为，通过复活， 肉体的死不仅没有终结一切， 而且可能进入永生并超越历史的一个阶段。这个阶段不止是现状的继续--这里可能对一些人来讲是极其不幸的--而且是一个与神和神的爱密切交通的阶段。在最早的记录里，神在耶稣身上所完成的不叫基督教， 而是叫福音：”好消息“。 他福音通过清除人的邪恶和罪来审判人，并释放生命以对付邪恶和罪。 神在历史中对人的希望是”效法他儿子的模样“【罗  8:29】

God, so the Christians declare, is love. The English word "love" is clumsy and ambiguous. It is used to cover a wide range of meanings. The Greek which the early Christians employed was more discriminating. But even that was inadequate. In "love," as that term is applied to God, the Christian discerns a self-giving which can never be perfectly described in words but which was disclosed in Jesus. This love was especially seen in the death of Jesus. Here, as one of the earliest Christians declared, although it appeared to be weakness and folly, were displayed both the power of God and the wisdom of God.1 The crucifixion was followed by the resurrection. Through the resurrection, so Christians believe, God demonstrated that physical death not only does not end all but that it may be a stage in an endless life beyond history which is not merely continued existence--this might be and presumably will for some men be extraordinarily unhappy--but which is one of growing fellowship with God, God who is love. In the earliest documents the name for what God did in Jesus is not Christianity: it is Gospel, "Good News." The Gospel judges man by making clear as in no other way man's perversity and sin. It also releases life to overcome that perversity and sin. The purpose of God in history is that men shall be "conformed to the image of His son."

基督徒对历史的理解还包括在十字架受死和复活以后，神继续提供圣灵工作。通过圣灵，人可以被重造并进入神在创世时就为人计划好的荣耀的永远的生命。那些具有永远生命的人身上充满了信心，盼望和（尤其是神的最本质的素质）爱。他们建立了团契，即教会。 教会是在历史中有形的， 但从来没有完全等同于任何历史表述并超越历史。历史是神寻找人的过程。神是法官，但他审判那些他可以拯救和转换的人。神的恩典（即人不配得的和无法赢得的）尊重人的自由意志并主动提供道成肉身，十字架和圣灵便及我们。 对基督徒来讲，这就是历史的意义和统一核心。

The Christian understanding of history goes on to say that following the crucifixion and the resurrection God continued to operate through what Christians call the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit men can be remade and can enter upon the radiant, eternal life which from the beginning was God's plan for men. Those who have that life are characterized by faith, hope, and especially love, the kind of love which is of the very nature of God. They form a fellowship, the Church, which takes on a visible form or forms within history but which is never completely identical with any historic expression and continues beyond history. The course of history is God's search for man. God is judge, but He judges man that He may save him and transform him. God's grace, the love which man does not deserve and cannot earn, respects man's free will and endeavors to reach man through the incarnation, the cross, and the Holy Spirit. Here, to the Christian, is the meaning of history and its unifying core.

从一开始，基督徒的历史观就包含了所有人。在基督徒看来，人不一定是宇宙中心。也许在其他星球上或星系中，神也按他的形象有所创造，并赋予自由意志，这自由意志也被滥用。如果这样的话， 他的爱也会星球他们。 果然神是爱，他的爱必须在全员宇宙起作用。即在其他星球上，他的爱也普及到所有人。 耶稣要求早期的使徒“到地极”去做“我的见证”【使1:8】， 给他们使浸， 并教导他们耶稣一开始教导他们的话。想必这是以后所有基督徒的责任。这意味着基督徒的生活目的是像耶稣一样对神全然顺服。这意味着整个人类社会的转变：全然符合神对人类的意志。然而从一开始耶稣或基督徒们就没有期望在整个历史里人类会“满有耶稣长成的身量”【弗  4:13】， 在历史终结以前， 麦子和稗 子, 好和坏，都会生长【马太 13:24-30】。在历史意外，也许是在时间以外，神将“使 天 上 地 上 一 切 所 有 的 ， 都 在 基 督 里 面 同 归 于 一”  【弗 1:10】。 神永远是主权的神，在十字架和符合里标明他的得胜【Col. 2:15】。但他的主权在历史以外显得完整。

From the outset, the Christian view of history has embraced all men. From the Christian standpoint man is not necessarily central in the universe. There may be many other beings and on other planets or in other stellar systems, whom God creates in His likeness, to whom He gives free will, and who abuse that free will. If so, His love also seeks them. If God is love, His love must be at work in all the universe. Yet on this planet God's love certainly includes all men. The early disciples were commanded to be "witnesses" "unto the uttermost parts of the earth,"3 to "make disciples of all nations," baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all that Jesus had commanded his original followers.4 This, presumably, also becomes the obligation of all subsequent Christians. It implies that the Christian goal can be nothing short of the full obedience of all men to God as He disclosed Himself in Jesus. This would entail the complete transformation of human society to bring society into entire conformity with God's will for man. Yet it seems clear that neither Jesus nor the early Christians expected within history the full conformation of mankind to the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."5 Both the wheat and the tares, the good and the evil, were expected to "grow" until the consummation of history. Beyond history, presumably outside of 'time, God is "to gather together all things in one in Christ, which are in heaven and which are on earth."7 God has always been sovereign, and in the cross and the resurrection He signally triumphed,8 but beyond history His sovereignty is to be seen as complete.

基督徒的历史观与其他观点截然不同。 它与波斯的二元论形成鲜明的对比： 后者意味做善和恶各有其源。这种二元论表明良善的神在历史中并无完全主权， 因为他没有创造整个宇宙。 然而基督教却认为神是一切的创造者和一切之主。只有一个完全主权的神才能像基督徒相信那样赦免罪。基督教也不像印度哲学那样的泛神论， 因为它不认为神是被人所称恶的源头。基督教声称人的苦难源于人滥用神所赐的自由意志。按基督徒的理解， 历史不是全然周期性的， 它认可年代和朝代，但它承认新的思想进来， 新的事物发生。 基督徒眼里的伟大事件是耶稣，耶稣是独一无二的。所以最后的结局也是过去没有的。有的对历史的解释期望历史中出现完美， 一个理想的人类社会的到来。这是共产主义的信息。 孔德和黑格尔也有过大概的想法。基督徒的历史观并不一定否认这个过程。明显地，在我们能够说进程是否发生以前， 衡量进步的标准要首先确立。 基督徒的标准是非常基督徒化的--像神在耶稣里所显明的那样，在神的形象上成长。基督徒还没有在进步是否在历史中发生形成一致意见： 有人说是也有人说不。但很少（如果有的话）基督徒坚持人类将在历史中达到完全的定命。

he Christian understanding of history differs radically from other views. It is in contrast with the ancient Persian dualism, for the latter implies separate origins of good and evil. This dualism means that the good God is not sovereign in history, because He has not created the universe as a whole, whereas Christianity regards God as creator and lord of all. Only a sovereign God can forgive sins as the Christian believes Him to do. Nor is Christianity pantheistic, as is so much of Indian philosoephy, for it does not make God the author of what men call evil. Man's misery, so Christianity declares, arises from the abuse of the free will which God has given him. The Christian understanding of history is not exclusively cyclical. It recognizes eras and ages, but it holds that novelty enters, that new things happen. The great event, as the Christian sees it, was Jesus and Jesus was without precedent. So, too, the consummation will be new. Some interpretations of history seem to expect perfection within history, the coming of the ideal human society. This is the communist message. It appears to have been true of Comte and of Hegel. The Christian understanding of history does not necessarily deny progress. Obviously, the criteria for measuring advance must be established before we can say whether progress has occurred, and the Christian criteria are peculiarly Christian--growth in the likeness of God as God reveals Himself in Jesus. Christians are not agreed as to whether progress occurs in history. Some affirm it and others deny it. Yet few if any Christians have maintained that man will attain his full destiny within history.

所以这些是， 或将是历史学家的所要面临的共同问题。这是简单地阐述一下大多数基督徒一直持守信的信念。许多基督徒会加点东西或强调一下。许多基督徒会认为这还不够完整和全面。 但绝大多数会说就目前的认识来讲，它是一个过去和现在坚持的基督徒历史观的一个总结。如果不是有必要在这里评定基督徒对历史的理解，我不会不断地重复。

All this is, or should be, a commonplace to historians. It is simply an attempt at a restatement of what the majority of Christians have always believed. Many Christians would add to this or would amplify it. Many would regard it as inadequate and incomplete. Yet the overwhelming proportion would say that so far as it goes it is a summary of what Christians have held and hold today to be the Christian view of: history. I would apologize for repeating it were it not necessary for any assessment of the Christian understanding of history.

如果历史学家要采用目前这个行当里的成员倾向使用的标准进行评估的话， 要特别注意基督徒观点的几个特征。

Several features of the Christian outlook must be especially noted if the historian would seek an appraisal by the standards which the members of his craft are currently inclined to apply.

首先， 他要明白这是一个直率的观点和一套与人类通常提倡的完全相反的价值观念。圣经告诉我们除非我们重生，否则我们不仅进不了神的国，连看也看不见（或者也许是认不出来）【约3:3, 5】。 大家记得使徒的王子（彼得)就是因为顺从人的想法而不是神的想法而被耶稣训斥【马太. 16:23】。 这是因为他没有想到上十字架的命定而劝告他的主人避开它。在耶稣以前几个世纪，有一个关于耶稣以前最伟大的先知之一的故事讲到他所想象的神不是电闪雷鸣， 也不是狂风，而是安静细小的声音【王上 19:11-13】。 耶稣以前另外一个先知也强调神的意念非同人的意念，神的道路非同人的道路【赛55:8】。保罗在论到上十字架时宣称”智慧人“和文士（即学者）全然忽略了十字架的意义， 神叫这世上的智慧变成愚拙【林前. 1:20】。用另外的话讲， 如果人能明白神眼里的历史，历史学家应该把注意力放在那些平时被忽略的事件上。从基督徒的眼光来看， 一般的历史学家完全歪曲了历史的真相并忽略了最重要的特征。在这里我们插入一句： 这对研究教会史的人以及研究政治史，经济史和知识史的人同样适用。

First of all, he must be clear that here are frankly a perspective and a set of values which are the complete reverse of those which mankind generally esteems. We are told that unless a man is born again not only can he not enter, but he cannot even see (or presumably recognize) the Kingdom of God.9 On one memorable occasion the "prince of the apostles" was rebuked by Jesus for thinking like man and not like God.10 This was because he was shocked by the prospect of the crucifixion and sought to dissuade his master from it. Centuries before Jesus a famous story of the one of the prophets who was counted as among his greatest predecessors declared that God was not in the thunder nor in a mighty wind, where He was expected, but in a still small voice.11 Another of the prophets in whose succession Jesus stood was emphatic that God's thoughts are not man's thoughts nor man's ways God's ways.12 Of the crucifixion Paul declared that the "wise man" and the "scribe," namely the scholar, completely miss its significance and that God makes foolish the wisdom of this world.13 In other words, if he is to understand history as God sees it, the historian must focus his attention upon events which he would normally ignore. From the Christian standpoint, the usual historian has an entirely distorted view of history and misses the most important features. This, may we add parenthetically, may be true of those who deal with ecclesiastical as well as with political, economic, or intellectual history.

即使当历史学家注意到那些基督教历史观认为最重要的事件时，他也许忽略了他们的真正意义。下面的带求 “父阿，赦免他们。因为他们所作的，他们不晓得”【路23:34】具有深远的意义。如果那些钉死耶稣的人梦想到他们杀死了神的儿子时， 他们就会一直被扯进颤栗和恐惧中。

Even when the historian gives attention to the events which the Christian understanding deems most significant he may miss their real import. There is deep meaning in the plea, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."14 Had those who crucified Jesus dreamed that they were executing the Son of God they would, presumably, have drawn back in terror or in horror.

第二点，历史学家必须意识到， 在耶稣的眼里， 个人是具有显著的重要性的。在这一点上，他声言是表达神的意志。基督教信仰高举个人。像我们以前所讲的，每一个人都是准备与永生神相调的和相爱的。耶稣的注意力是在个人身上。他一个接一个地医治。 他的一些最使人牢记的教导和比喻是讲给个人听的。他一遍遍地重复神赋予个人的价值。正像他讲的，他对犯错者的心意就像那个放下九十九只在安全处的羊而去寻找那丢失的一只直到找到为止的牧羊人对羊的心意一般【 路15:3-6】， 或者像那个期待失丧的儿子的回归并在他出现和悔改后欢喜的父亲一样【路15:11-24】。

In the second place, the historian must recognize that from the viewpoint of Jesus the individual is of outstanding importance. In this he declared that he was expressing the mind of God. The Christian faith exalts the individual. Each human being, as we have said before, is regarded as intended for fellowship with the eternal God Who is love. It was to individuals that Jesus gave his attention. He healed men one by one. Some of his best remembered sayings and parables were to single persons. He spoke again and again of the value which God places on individuals. The concern of God for the erring, so he said, is like that of the shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine who are safe in the fold and seeks for the one sheep who is lost until he finds it,15 or like the father who longs for the return of a wayward son and rejoices when he appears, repentant.16

耶稣深切地关怀他的人民的命运。在他的时代，巴勒斯坦地区（的人民）正经历着几年后将变成一场公开的起义并导致耶路撒冷被毁灭的骚乱。像许多有智慧和深思的人一样， 他也看到了日益积累的民族主义， 宗教狂热和罗马的力量， 预测到了将要发生的事情。如果耶路撒冷的人愿意听从他的话的话， 耶路撒冷会被饶恕， 毁灭可以避免。但是他们是那样的盲目，城市的毁灭是注定了。 他为这种前景忧伤以致流泪痛哭【路19:41-44】。

Jesus was deeply concerned for the fate of his people. In his day Palestine was seething with unrest which a few years later broke out in open revolt and was followed by the destruction of Jerusalem. He clearly foresaw what was coming, as must any intelligent, well-poised observer who took account of the mounting nationalistic and religious fanaticism and who knew the power of Rome. He believed that the destruction had not been unavoidable, that had its inhabitants been willing to heed him Jerusalem might have escaped, but that they were so blind that the doom of the city was sealed. So deeply pained was he by the prospect that he wept.17

然而至今就我们所知耶稣从来没有卷入政治之中。确实在他开始他的公开传道生涯时， 他把进入政治领域的明显的诱惑的想法推到一边【路4:5-8】。更肯定的是，他被指控有叛族的企图并被嘲弄性地以“犹太人的王”被钉死【Mark 15:18, 26; 路23:1, 2】。但这一点是非常清楚的： 他相信他的国“不属于这个世界”【约18:36】， 在他的心中和他所相信的神的计划中， 这个词对他来讲具有比人所能理解的赋有很多的意义。从政治智慧和谨慎的角度来看，耶稣所走的路简直是疯狂的。在去宣判他死刑的耶路撒冷的路上，他选择了一条不得不承受当权的宗教权威的愤怒，回绝了逃离并拒绝他的追随者组织或使用武力来维护他和他的事业。

Yet so far as we know Jesus never engaged in politics. Indeed, at the outset of his public career he had put aside as a palpable temptation the suggestion that he enter the political arena.18 To be sure, he was accused of treasonable aspirations and was crucified derisively as "the King of the Jews,"19 but it is quite clear that he believed his kingdom to be "not of this world"20 and that as applied to what he had in mind and what he believed to be God's purpose, the term had for him far other significance than that given it by men. From the standpoint of political wisdom and when viewed prudently the program which Jesus followed seemed the sheerest madness. On the visit to Jerusalem which issued in his death he pursued a course which could not but bring down on his head the wrath of the established authorities of religion and the state and yet he declined either to flee or to permit his followers to organize or to use armed force to defend him and his cause.

然而，第三点， 耶稣没有置人类的社会结构不顾。他谈了许多关于人和其他人的关系问题，声言爱神的表现是爱邻舍【 Matt. 22:34-40】。他经常提到的神的国就是社会。人要一个一个地进神的国。当他们（此时此地就能）进入时，他们要像里面的人一样行事， 就好像神国早已在了一样。神国的标准高于任何社会所能实际达到的， 基督徒在里面作永远作为一股革命的力量。福音的目的不是挽救任何文化。文化和帝国的兴起和衰落对个人的影响是重要的，但兴衰对于文化和帝国本身的影响远远超过对个人的影响。在这里，正像基督徒所坚持的， 福音的意志和坚固能力能够使个人胜利荣耀地承受试炼。确实的是，从基督徒的观点来看，一个帝国或文化的崩溃可以是一个建造一个更好的机会。基督徒要远远挑战他们所处的文明。然而他们不是毁灭性的而是建设性的。他们是“世上的盐和光”【Matt. 5:13, 14】。

However, in the third place, Jesus did not ignore the social structures of mankind. He said much of the relation of individuals to other individuals and declared that the corollary of love for God is love for one's neighbor.21The Kingdom of God, of which he so often spoke, is a society. Men are to enter that Kingdom one by one. When they enter it, as they can here and now, they are to act as its members and as though the Kingdom were already here. The standards of that Kingdom are so far above the actual attainments of any other society that Christians as members of the Kingdom are always a revolutionary force. It is not the purpose of the Gospel to save any culture. The rise and fall of cultures and empires are important in so far as they affect individuals, but the rise and fall may harm the individual no more than do the cultures and empires themselves. There is that in the Gospel, so Christians maintain, which enables individuals to pass through such experiences triumphantly, centers of healing and strength. Indeed, the collapse of an empire or a culture may make it possible to build what, from the Christian standpoint, is better. Christians must always challenge any civilization in which they are set. Yet they are not to be primarily destructive but constructive. They are to be "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world."22

在这里终于有一些历史学家可以触摸和开始测量的东西。他当然确定在什么地方基督徒，因为为其信仰，可以成为历史的塑造力量。但他要注意， 由于基督徒的整套价值观与平常人不同，在他所掌握的文献中基督徒的贡献记录也许没有得到保存。 ”然而有许多在前的将要在后，在后的将要在前“【 Matt. 19:30】。他应该知道， “神的国来到，不是眼所能见的， 人也不得说，看哪，在这里。看哪，在那里。”【Luke 17:20, 21】

Here at last appears to be something tangible on which the historian would like to believe that he can lay his hand and begin to measure. Surely he can determine where Christians, because of their faith, have been a molding force in history. Yet he is warned that, since the Christian set of values is different from that of the rank and file of men, the record of the accomplishments of Christians may not be preserved in the documents on which he relies. "The last shall be first and the first last."23 The Kingdom of God, he is told, comes not by observation. Neither can men say about it "lo here and lo there."24

第四点，在基督徒对历史的理解中，历史和时间均为永恒所包围。基督徒看待历史事件为神在历史里的作为。它坚持人类的活动还没有结束， 当历史学家与这些历史事件打交道时，他的眼光必须超越这些事件，甚至超越那些将来要发生的事件才能完全地认识神是如何与人交往的。出于必要和历史时间的因素， 基督教着眼于时间上的事件但也穿越事件。

In the fourth place, the Christian understanding of history regards history and time as surrounded by eternity. Christianity centers upon historical events and views God as acting in history. Yet it holds that the human drama is not completed in time, and that one must go beyond the events with which the historian deals and even beyond what is still to occur in time in order completely to see God's dealings with man. Of necessity and by its very nature history deals with time. Christianity centers upon events in time and also transcends them.

当历史学家不得不面对基督徒的历史观时， 他可能感到困惑甚至不耐烦。他可能苦笑着讲基督教就像道教一样声言“知者不说， 说者不知。” 基督徒有一些关键的认知不会也不可能被历史学家们常用的方法测试。例如，历史学家既不可能完全肯定也不可能完全否定神按他自己的形象造人。在历史中，人无法完全认识神。如果他可以被完全认识，他将是一个有限的并不再是基督徒信仰所认定的神。

When he is confronted with the Christian understanding of history the historian may well feel baffled and even impatient. He may say with a wry smile that the Christian is like the Taoist who declared that those who know do not speak and that those who speak do not know.25 Some of the key Christian convictions about history are not and cannot be subject to the tests which the historian is able to apply. For instance, the historian can neither absolutely prove nor disprove that God created man in His own image. Obviously he cannot reach beyond time and verify the Christian conviction concerning the goal of history. God cannot be fully known within history. If He could, He would be limited and would cease to be what the Christian faith believes Him to be.

困难本身就在历史学家所限定的研究方法中。他必须与记录打交道。他必须通过任何畅通的渠道来试图确定过去确实发生过什么。历史学家所接触的记录文件通常是充满错误的。在评鉴他们和整理和解释历史事件时，历史学家要靠推理。他知道在大多数的文件记录及其整理和解释中多存在主观性， 而他永远无法从中解脱。他试图采用推理来把主观因素降到最小， 但如果他是诚实的和具备常识的，他知道推理的局限， 也怀疑主观因素永远不可能完全去掉。历史学家自己是历史的一部分。 他自己就在其中， 不可能完全站在历史之外， 用纯粹的客观性来观察历史。

The difficulty is inherent in the methods to which the historian is confined. He must deal with records. Through whatever channels are open to him he must attempt to determine what actually happened. The records which are accessible to the historian are usually very faulty. In appraising them and in arranging and interpreting events the historian relies on his reason. He knows that in most of the records and in his arrangement and interpretation of them there is subjectivity, a subjectivity from which he can never be entirely emancipated. He seeks through reason to reduce the subjective element to a minimum, but if he is honest and well equipped he knows something of the limitations of reason and also suspects that the subjective element can never be completely eliminated. The historian is himself part of history. He is caught in it and cannot fully stand apart from it or view it with undiluted objectivity.

历史学家的工作中的这些限制阻碍了他的有效的工作， 甚至他的试图对历史解释的评价。 这不单纯是他把这些工具应用在基督徒历史观时其工作受到阻碍。历史学家与可见的事件打交道，但存在那些人无法测量的不可见力量。如果他尊重历史的话， 历史学家永远无法从价值中提取出事实。至少今天历史学家所受的训练使他无法这样作。除非他是一个全然的怀疑论者，否则他会尝试着发现价值体系标准。 基督教声称给他提供了一套绝对标准。然而当他采用他所惯用的程序来评价基督教或其他的价值体系时，他会感到别扭和困惑。

These limitations on his work handicap the historian in all his endeavors, including his attempt to appraise any interpretation of history. It is not merely when he applies his tools to the Christian understanding of history that he is hampered. The historian is dealing with visible events, but there are also invisible forces which he cannot measure. If he is not to do violence to history the historian can never abstract fact from value. Yet his training, at least as usually given in our day, does not equip him to deal with the latter. Unless he is a thoroughgoing skeptic, the historian tries to discover a standard of values. Christianity professes to provide him with an absolute criterion. Yet by the processes which he normally employs the historian is clumsy and baffled when he comes to appraise the Christian or any other set of values.

然而，尽管有限制，历史学家必须使用它们所掌握的工具。当他这样作时，他会逐渐发现他更多的证据支持基督教对历史的理解。历史学家作为历史学者本身既不能反驳也无法证明基督教的理论，但他会发现一些证据来说明基督教的理解的真实性的几率很大。

However, limited though they are, the historian must employ such tools as he possesses. When he does so, much comes to light which tends to support the Christian understanding of history. The historian as historian can neither refute nor demonstrate the Christian thesis, but he can detect evidence which suggests a strong probability for the truth of the Christian understanding.

逐渐地， 我们会看到很明显历史应该在整体背景下观察而中国背景就是宇宙。这就是基督徒争辩的所在。通过科学方法， 越来越多的人承认宇宙是有序的。这就支持了神的存在。一个有序且能被人的推理来认识的宇宙暗示了一个原因和一个意志， 他们是宇宙成为人类思想所能贴近的。

Increasingly it is apparent that history must be seen in its entire setting and that that setting is the universe. This is what the Christian has all along contended. More and more man by the scientific method is recognizing that the universe is orderly. This supports theism. An orderly universe which can be explored by human reason implies a reason and a will controlling that universe to which the human mind is akin.

在地球上的生命发展过程中，似乎是有目的的。至少在目前，人好像是在这个星球上的生命的顶峰。 至少我们现在知道，人类是唯一的对自己的过去感兴趣和努力去理解宇宙的动物、 这不大可能是盲目机会的结果。更多地，当生命上升到我们所理解的更高的阶段时，生物过程似乎更多地对个体而不是对群体感兴趣。当然，个体之间也越来越不相同。

In the development of life on the earth there seems to be purpose. Man appears to be the culmination, at least at this stage, of the life process on the planet. So far as we know, man is the only creature who is interested in his own past and in seeking to understand the universe. It is quite unlikely that this is the outcome of blind chance. Moreover, in support of the Christian conviction, as life reaches what we believe to be higher stages, the biological process appears to be increasingly interested in the individual rather than the mass. Certainly individuals are more and more differentiated from one another.

基督徒相信在历史以外所发生的一切与地球上生命的发展紧密相连。 正像我们所讲过的， 至少在目前，人类这种高级的发展形态是无法可比的。 但人类在历史中明显是不完全的。他有一种在其短暂的物质生命中无法满足的渴望。 基督徒认为在物质生命死亡以后所发生的一切将是人类潜能的实现和渴望得以满足的希望。 这就是神学中启示论和末世论的内容。

The Christian belief about what happens beyond history gives relevance to the development of life on the earth. As we have said, it appears to be true that this development issues in ever higher forms of life of which man is, at least in the present stage, the highest. But man is obviously incomplete within history. He has longings which cannot be satisfied in the brief span of the existence of individuals in this flesh. The Christian view of history regards what occurs beyond physical death as essential to the realization of man's capacities and holds out confident hope of that fulfillment. This is what is embraced in what the theologian terms apocalypticism and eschatology.

基督徒关于人的概念为人类不断陷入的悲剧性的困境提供了一个明了和合理的解释。一方面，人类努力去了解宇宙并不断添加其知识。这正说明了 如果人是(正如基督徒所声称的)按神的形象被造的话，人类按将按神的思想方式思考。当然，这也是很清楚的： 如果一个人严守基督徒声称的神写在人的本质里的爱的律法， 他将会与那些他自己带给自己的厄运无缘。他的一生将是敬神爱神和爱人的一生。将不会有战争。 人类将为了世人的共同物质和精神福祉在对环境资源的利用上合作。 对我们同样明显的是， 人类对律法的背离造成了他们自身的悲剧。 对周围环境的知识的增加和掌控的增强, 越来越多的人在不断利用环境取利的同时也为自己不断制造灾难。 确实地， 他们滥用这些知识， 已经威胁到了他们所创造的文明， 甚至人种本身的存在。 在这一点上， 基督徒认为审判也是神试图把人类限制在他的意愿里面。

The Christian conception of man provides an intelligible and reasonable explanation of the tragic dilemma in which man increasingly finds himself. On the one hand man aspires to understand the universe and adds more and more to his fund of knowledge. This is what we would expect if man, as the Christian faith declares, is created in the image of God. Man is thinking God's thoughts after Him. It is clear, too, that were man to follow the law of love which the Christian declares is written by God in man's nature, he would be freed from the ills which he now brings on himself. He would live in reverence and love of God and love of his neighbor. War would be banished. Men would co-operate the globe over in utilizing the resources of their environment for the physical and spiritual well-being of all. Just as clearly, through his departure from this law man brings on himself misery. The more his knowledge and mastery of his physical environment increase, the more man employs them on the one hand for his benefit and on the other for his woe. Indeed, through his misuse of that knowledge he threatens the existence of the civilization which he has created and even the race itself. In this the Christian sees the judgment by which God seeks to constrain man to do His will.

但是什么是基督徒所信仰的神在耶稣里显示的救赎之爱？ 又有什么证据表明它（救赎之爱）是现实的和有效的？ 下面的事实当然是很清楚的 耶稣曾经生活过， 曾经教导过， 曾经被钉死在十字架上 也从死里复活并深刻地影响了其门徒，  对其死而复活的确信而得的能力使门徒们为他起步去赢得世界 . 几个世纪过去了， 从对其影响来看，历史自身不断地证明耶稣是在这个地球上生活过的最有影响的人， 而且这个事实的证据正在不断增加。  它们不是均匀的增加， 而是呈呈脉冲的形式： 前进， 后退， 在向前。 在过去450年里， 尤其是在感情150年里，它得到了前所未有的增长。基督教在地理上已经超过了它自己过去孩子其他任何宗教所覆盖的地区。 只有很少的人和有数的几个部落没有被组织化地代表。

But what of the redeeming love which the Christian believes God to have displayed in Jesus? What evidence, if any, is there that this is present and is proving effective? It is, of course, clear that Jesus lived, that he taught and was crucified, that his disciples were profoundly convinced that he was raised from the dead and in the strength of that conviction set out to win the world to allegiance to him. As the centuries pass the evidence is accumulating that, measured by his effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. That influence appears to be mounting. It does not increase evenly but by pulsations of advance, retreat, and advance. It has had an unprecedented growth in the past four and a half centuries and especially in the last century and a half. Christianity is now more widely spread geographically than it or any other religion has ever been. Only a very few peoples and tribes exist where it is not represented by organized groups.

这种进展是与西方的扩张相联系的。 我们都知道扩张是一种最近的历史现象。 我们也知道， 作为这种扩张发源地的西欧显得有些乏力 ， 不时地，西欧的基督教也正在没落。 然而在其他国家， 尤其是以西欧为源头的美国， 这种扩张正在进行，这种源于西方的文化传播的更广更快。 它已经全球化。 西方文化的一部分显然是基督教的产物。 在艺术， 文学， 思想， 教育（大学和其他新型的学校都归功于它），道德方面， 在社会， 经济和政治机构里， 基督教都起了重要的作用。 西方现在所理解的民主大体上是基督教的产物。 也有例子说明科学也源于基督教。 要精确度量耶稣对于西方文化的影响是不可能的。 围绕这个问题可以著述千卷，但也无法得出确切的结论。 现在西方本身和其文化的扩张毫无疑问是对人类的一个祝福。 如果（我们承认）耶稣是这个文化发展和有力的扩张的重要因素的话， 我们可以尽管开口问基督徒认为的神通过耶稣所实现的救赎是不是足够抵消人们津津乐道的伴随着基督教扩张的种种问题了。

This advance has been associated with the expansion of the Occident. As we all know, that expansion is a recent historical phenomenon. As we also know, Western Europe, from which that expansion stemmed, appears to be waning and at times it seems that in Western Europe itself Christianity is declining. Yet nations, notably the United States, which trace their source to Western Europe, are still continuing the expansion of the Occident, and the culture which had its origin in the West spreads ever more widely and rapidly. It has become global. That Occidental civilization is in part the product of Christianity is obvious. In art, literature, thought, education (for universities and many other new types of schools have owed to it an incalculable debt), in morals, and in social, economic, and political institutions Christianity has been a major factor. Democracy as the West understands that term is largely its child. A case can be made for the claim that science sprang from Christianity. Precisely to what degree Jesus is responsible for Western culture is by no means clear. On that question large volumes could be written and the answers would not be definitive. Now the expansion of the Occident and its culture has by no means been an unmixed blessing to mankind. If Jesus has had a major share in the development of that culture and in its dynamic spread, we may well ask whether the redemption which the Christian declares that God wrought through him has been sufficiently potent to offset the ills that have accompanied the growth of what is often described as Christendom.

随着耶稣影响的地理上的扩张， 随后产生的各种各样的结果表明了基督徒宣称的耶稣的转变大能在起作用。 由于它， 在人类历史上前所未有数目的语言有了书写形式。 识字不单纯是一个祝福， 它更可以被用来并且已经用来丰富人类的生活。 通过西方人和文化的扩张， 人类第一次被聚集到一起。 从这是耶稣的影响的结果这个角度来看， 这是人类合一的梦想的部分实现。 人类合一也是基督徒历史观的一个特点。 控制甚至最后消除战争的努力以至于我们这个不断缩小的地球不再是一个危险的村庄将归功于耶稣。 正像弗朗西斯科•维多利亚(Francisco de Vitoria ) 和胡果•格老秀斯（Hugo Grotius）所见证的， 耶稣如果作为国际法的先锋完全够格。 耶稣对上一代人的海牙会议也有部分贡献。 像万国联盟和联合国这样的全球范围的合作也有证据归功于耶稣。 尽管如此而， 他对这些伟大成绩的贡献还是难以精确估量。

As the influence of Jesus has spread geographically, various results have followed which are evidence that the transforming power which Christians claim for it is at work. Because of it more languages have been reduced to writing than through all other agencies in the history of mankind. Literacy is not an unmixed blessing, but it can be and has been used to further the enrichment of man's life. Through the expansion of Western peoples and their culture, mankind has for the first time been brought together. To the degree that this is the result of the influence of Jesus it is a partial implementation of the dream of the unity of mankind which is a feature of the Christian understanding of history. The struggle to regulate and eventually to eliminate the wars which make our shrinking globe so perilous a neighborhood owes much to Jesus. That he was potent in such pioneers of international law as Francisco de Vitoria and Hugo Grotius is well attested. He can also be shown to have had a part in the initiation of the Hague conferences of the last generation. Such attempts at world-wide co-operation as the League of Nations and the United Nations are demonstrably to some extent from him. However, just how large his share has been in these achievements cannot accurately be measured

耶稣在反对奴隶制和其他形式的人对人的剥削方面的作用是更加明了的。 众所周 知， 在新世界第一个被按立的基督徒牧师巴托洛梅•德拉斯•卡萨斯（Bartolomé de Las Casas）在保护印第安人方面也是先锋。 他反对西班牙热恩对印第安人的暴行， 在印第安人法律里规定了人性的地位并试图实施。  受到基督教信仰的激励和坚固， 有一长列西班牙和葡萄牙平信徒和教士曾经努力地在两个半球的殖民地里保护那些土著人不受他们同胞们的无情的虐待。基于他的基督教信念，威尔伯福斯呼吁并反对奴隶交易的事实人所共知。 在美国有贵格党人， 赛缪尔。霍普金斯还有其他受芬尼的复兴运动的影响人， 凭着委身于基督教信仰的敏感的良心， 投身到奴隶解放的运动里。 我们也都知道基督教传教士大卫。列文斯顿在非洲试图禁止奴隶交易的努力。在印度， 基督教是解放和提升被压迫种族的最有力的力量。耶稣也是甘地的影响和激励者。 在一块块土地上， 他不断地解放着妇女。 在西方对于其他非西方的冲击里， 受耶稣激励的基督教差会和其他组织提高当地医疗水平，公共卫生设施， 改善农业生产方式，  是学校和大学提高到一个前所未有的水平。 不断地， 耶稣的这些影响特征散发开来，现在正以不同程度地影响人类

Much clearer is the decisive part which Jesus has had in the efforts to combat slavery and other forms of the exploitation of men by their fellows. It is significant that the first Christian priest ordained in the New World, Bartolomé de Las Casas, was the chief pioneer in the struggle to protect the Indians against the cruelties of the Spaniards, to write humane statutes in the Laws of the Indies, and to seek their enforcement. The list is long of the Spanish and Portuguese laymen and clergy who, inspired and sustained by their Christian faith, labored to guard the non-Europeans in the colonies in both hemispheres from the callous selfishness of their fellow countrymen. The place of his Christian faith in impelling Wilberforce in his campaign against the Negro slave trade is well known. So, too, is the role of the Quakers, Samuel Hopkins, and those touched by the Finney revival, consciences made sensitive by commitment to the Christian faith, in the movement for the emancipation of Negro slaves in the United States. We are all aware of the efforts of the Christian missionary, David Livingstone, to curb the slave trade in Africa itself. Less familiar is the share of such Christian missionary leaders as John Philip and Cardinal Lavigerie in the campaign against African slavery. Christianity has been one of the most potent forces making for the liberation and advance of the depressed classes of India. Jesus was a major inspiration of Gandhi. In land after land he has contributed to the emancipation of women. In the impact of Occidental upon non-Occidental peoples Christian missions and other agencies inspired by him have made for improved medical care, for public health, for better methods of agriculture, and for schools and universities better adapted to the new day than were their predecessors. Increasingly these features of the influence of Jesus have been spreading and now in varying measure embrace mankind.

有越来越多的教会组织变得全球化。 他们试图使耶稣的影响持久化并使基督徒福音的核心—献身和团契—实体化。 尽管他们的分歧和争执是历史学家熟悉的， 但教会却扩张到世界各地。 最大的罗马天主教会以扩展到世界的几乎每一片土地和人民。 非天主教的教会也同样遍布全地， 形成了包括罗马天主教在内的新型的教会组织。

More and more the ecclesiastical organizations which we call churches are becoming world-wide. They seek, not unsuccessfully, to perpetuate the influence of Jesus and to incarnate the self-giving and the fellowship which are of the essence of the Christian Gospel. Their divisions and quarrels are familiar to the historian, but in spite of them the churches have become global. The largest, the Roman Catholic Church, is to be found in almost every land and people. The non-Roman Catholic churches are fully as widely distributed and have been drawing together through new types of organizations, several of which include some Roman Catholics.

基督徒相信神的爱的转变大能，通过耶稣不但出现在集体的运动里， 更主要地显示在个人身上。 他们其中的一些人就在历史学家手头的资料里： 大数的保罗， 奥古斯丁， 弗兰西斯， 马丁路德， 罗耀拉，乔治。福克斯， 以及约翰。卫斯理。 实际上， 这个名单要几页纸才能完全。但从一个基督徒的观点来看， 一个完整和详细的名单是不可能的， 因为有上百万的信徒根本没有资料存留。  更难的是， 对于所存留的资料， 我们不可能确定这些人的那些特性是由基督教信仰改变的， 那些不是。 对于基督徒认为奖赏的性情的改变， 从质上来讲也不可能测量。 他们是真实的， 但是没有办法用历史学家惯用的方法来度量。 我们也不可能测量他们对于别人和作为一个整体的人类社会 起的作用。 我们知道的是在基督教信仰的影响下人的性格发生了变化。 有时这些•变化是突然的， 但更多的是逐渐的， 甚至是没有感觉的。对一些人的 生活来讲， 这些变化是明显的， 对更多的人来讲是轻微的。 但当我们看到他们时，我们会认出来这些变化。 他们是在登山宝训里， 在福音书的其他篇章里， 在新约的书信里提到的特性。 通常我们发现这些素质是供应该那一小群完全委身做基督徒的人。 实际上， 那些在他们身上基督教信仰显著成为一种生命改变的力量的人一直是少数。 然而他们的影响超出了他们的疆界。

The transforming love of God through Jesus is seen, so the Christian believes, not only in collective movements but also and primarily in individuals. Some of these individuals loom large in the records which are at hand for the historian. Among these are Paul of Tarsus, Augustine of Hippo, Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, Ignatius Loyola, George Fox, and John Wesley. Indeed, the list could be extended to many pages. What from the Christian standpoint would be a full and therefore an accurate list can never be compiled, for it would need to include untold millions for whom no record survives. Moreover, for those whose records we have, we cannot determine with complete accuracy just which qualities and changes of character are due to the Christian faith and which to other factors. For the qualities of character, too, which the Christian view prizes no accurate measurements are possible. They are real, but are not capable of being plumbed by the methods which are at the historian's disposal. Nor can we judge their full effects on other lives and upon human society as a whole. Yet we have enough information to permit some generalizations which possess rough accuracy. We know that under Christian influence changes in character take place. Sometimes these appear to be sudden. More often they come by gradual, almost imperceptible stages. In some lives they are outstanding. In many they are slight. Yet when we see them we recognize them. They are the qualities commended in the Sermon on the Mount and in other parts of the Gospels and in the Epistles of the New Testament. Often we find them nourished in small groups of those who have sought to commit themselves fully as Christians. Indeed, those in whom the Christian faith predominates as a transforming force have always been small minorities. Yet often they have had effects which far outstrip their own borders.

基督教的这些对整个社会， 对个人，对群体所产生的结果正是来自于被基督徒们称为圣灵的存在。 正像基督徒声称的， 这些结果是源自神圣的源泉--圣灵 它由耶稣的性情表现出来并与他一直同在。 他们远远超过一个伟大生命的身后影响。 基督徒认为在历史上神通过也是神自己的圣灵继续起作用。 于是，神尊重人的意志却继续把他的爱来浇灌世人。 基督徒相信通过圣灵耶稣的影响随着世纪的流逝不减反尔增加。

These many results of Christianity, in society at large, in individuals, and in groups, are what we would expect from what the Christian calls the Holy Spirit. They are, so the Christian maintains, in consequence of stimuli issuing from the divine initiative, stimuli marked by the characteristics displayed in Jesus and tied up historically with him. Yet they are more than the lengthened influence of a great life. The Christian understanding of history is that it is through the Holy Spirit which is God Himself that God continues to work in history. Thus God respects man's will but continuously brings His love to bear on man. It is through the Holy Spirit, the Christian believes, that as the centuries pass the influence of Jesus grows rather than wanes.

在一些地区的某个地方隐藏着对基督教历史观中的最困扰的问题之一的可能解释。 为什么基督徒认为善和恶在个人和群体里同时存在？ 为什么这两者在教会团体里存在？ 而教会团体有是神的爱的结果， 是充满爱的基督徒社会的体现？为什么人类的一些常见的灾难， 尤其是战争， 在受基督教影响的地区和人民中达到最高峰？ 为什么一些像神的恩赐礼物和基督教的影响被扭曲以致伤害人类？ 在这里我们想到科学和它的结晶经常被用在人类的毁灭上。 神已经失败了？ 他的主权与世界妥协了吗？ 他通过耶稣的救赎已经足够了吗？ 尽管耶稣的影响在增加， 但它仍然是一股微小的力量 远远不及其敌对势力并驱使它更加活跃？ 从而基督徒的历史观是一个幻觉？

Somewhere in this region lies a possible explanation of one of the most perplexing questions provoked by the Christian understanding of history. Why is it that what the Christian deems evil and good continue side by side in individuals and in groups? Why do even ecclesiastical bodies display both, bodies presumably the result of God's love, the embodiment of the Christian community of love? Why do some of the chronic ills of mankind, notably war, attain their most colossal dimensions in lands and through peoples that have long been under Christian influence? Why are some of what seem to be the gifts of God and the effects of Christianity twisted to man's hurt? Here we recall the fashion in which science and its fruits are so often turned to man's destruction. Has God failed? Is His sovereignty compromised? Is His salvation through Jesus frustrated? Is the influence of Jesus, though growing, always to be a minority force, outstripped by the forces opposed to it and perhaps even provoking them to greater activity? Is, therefore, the Christian view of history an illusion?

当我们对这些不断出现的问题思考时， 我们要提醒我们自己基督徒的历史观承认人的自由意志，即人可以接或者拒绝神的爱。 我们必须想到这个问题不是个新问题。 这个问题在耶稣在十字架上时就一生动的形式提出。 在这里， 基督徒看到人对神的心意的盲目和人类的自负与神的显示自己爱的方式的似乎软约和无效形成鲜明的对比。 这确实是从基督徒的教育里得到的关于神和人的与事实相符的真实关系。 当神的爱被最清楚地显示时， 人的叛逆也最明显。 神的审判和义在十字架上和对神的恩赐的其他悖逆上显示出来。

As we meditate on these persistent questions we need to remind ourselves again that the Christian understanding of history presupposes a degree of freedom of man's will, sufficient for man to accept or reject God's love. We must also recall that the issues are not new. They are posed in their most vivid form in the crucifixion of Jesus. Here, as the Christian sees it, man's blindness to God's purpose and man's self-assertiveness were in stark contrast with the seeming weakness and futility of God's chosen way of showing His love. Indeed, this is what we should expect if the Christian teaching of man and God is in accord with the facts. Man's rebellion becomes most marked when God's love is most clearly displayed. In the cross and in the other perversions of God's gifts is seen the judgment as well as the love of God.

然而， 如果神是爱的神和有主权的神， 他的审判应该是通向他的爱的凯旋的道路。 因此， 在耶稣受刑后 在那些意识到耶稣死的意义， 自由地接受了宽恕和神的爱的人的身上释放出一种新鲜的力量就不奇怪了。 十字架成为基督教信仰的象征， 也是成千上万歌基督徒凯旋版地面对内外的恶者的信心和力量源泉。 同样地， 在耶稣受难后神所显示的爱在那些有耶稣明显影响的文化里以痛苦的形式显现， 使百万民众有机会试图消除在他们身上显是症状的恶魔， 从而无论在个人生活中还是整个人类生活中产生比过去要好的美好。

Yet, if God is love and is sovereign, His judgments must be a way to the triumph of His love. It is, therefore, not surprising that following the crucifixion there came a fresh release of power in the lives of those who began to see something of the significance of the death of Jesus and freely accepted the forgiveness and love of God. It is understandable that the cross became the symbol of the Christian faith and has been the confidence and inspiration of millions to face triumphantly the evil in them and about them. Similarly the abuses of God's love which have followed the crucifixion and have been painfully apparent in those cultures where the influence of Jesus has been most marked have been the occasion for millions to seek to eliminate the evils of which they are the symptoms and thus have given rise to something better than had been there before, both in individual lives and in the collective life of mankind.

争斗在继续。 文明变得更加复杂。 全人类正被捆绑在一起， 局部的不合影响整体。 然而与不合相争的因素正在聚集， 越来越多地被整个世界感受到。 他们不断地视耶稣为源泉， 从基督徒所相信的他的出生， 他的死和他的复活吸取力量。 这就是对基督徒的历史观的正确性的重要信心之一。 历史学家， 无论基督徒还是非基督徒， 可能不知道神是否能在历史上取胜。 他无法结论性地展示基督教历史观的有效性。 然而他可以认为这些深刻认识的可靠性是非常可信的。 这是我们能够在任何知识领域用人类理性所能得到的结论。

The struggle continues. Civilization becomes more complex. All mankind is bound together ever more closely in the bundle of life and the disorders of one segment affect the whole. Yet the efforts to combat these disorders mount and more and more make themselves felt throughout the earth. Increasingly they have a major source in Jesus, and what Christians have believed about his birth, his life, his death, and his resurrection. Here is one of the strongest reasons for confidence in the accuracy of the Christian view of history. The historian, be he Christian or non-Christian, may not know whether God will fully triumph within history. He cannot conclusively demonstrate the validity of the Christian understanding of history. Yet he can establish a strong probability for the dependability of its insights. That is the most which can be expected of human reason in any of the realms of knowledge.