In the business of theology it is hard not to be controversial - Jurgen Moltmann

Saturday 26 April 2008

三蚊上帝 :: $3 worth of God

Read this from Ben Witherington:

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please - not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.

I don't want enough of him to make me love a foreigner or pick beets with a migrant worker.  I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of a womb, not a new birth. 

I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.  I'd like to buy $3 worth of God, please. 

My Chinese paraphrase:

請給我三塊錢上帝 — 那剛好不致令我心靈震撼或者輾轉無眠,只讓我感到無比溫馨,有如一杯熱鮮奶或者陽光下的小睡。

我不需要足夠斤両的上帝,我不想真的愛異族人或者體驗外勞苦況。我只想要亢奮的喜樂,不想要生命更新;我只想要母腹的溫暖,不想要離開母腹的新生。

請把一磅永恆用紙袋包裝給我。我買三塊錢上帝就夠了,謝謝。

好一個 「無痛信仰」淋漓盡致的表達,而且真實存在於無數自稱為基督徒的人之間,跨越國界種族文化。

這種 「無痛信仰」的神學淵源,極堪玩味,有精力的時候再談。

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who is Ben Witherington? From his blog, he said that the quote is from Wilbur Rees and not from him.

$3 worth of God...

seems that most Christian forget that we RECEIVE Him freely

and so, people forget/ do not want to GIVE freely

don't even mention about the hard way and narrow door

Hoi Sue

Yam 飲者 said...

BW3, as he likes to call himself, is Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, USA.