From Dawn to Decadence; 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present

按有用程度 按页码先后 最新笔记

• 

  The new life [part 1]

  鱼更 (The greatest love of all.)

  pp.21 The good Christian must give alms（救济品）regularly and pay for votive（奉献的) candles or special masses for the sick or the dead. Then would come the "Gatherer of Peter's Pence," to help the pope rebuild St. Peter's in Rome; and next, the begging friar（天主教会修士） knocking at the door. To carry a body across town to the cemetery the fee was one noble (about six shillings), ... (更多)

  pp.21

  The good Christian must give alms（救济品）regularly and pay for votive（奉献的) candles or special masses for the sick or the dead. Then would come the "Gatherer of Peter's Pence," to help the pope rebuild St. Peter's in Rome; and next, the begging friar（天主教会修士） knocking at the door. To carry a body across town to the cemetery the fee was one noble (about six shillings), the price of 20 prayers for the departed. In certain predicaments（尴尬的处境) a dispensation(分配) was required, an expensive necessity. It was galling(使烦恼的，使难堪的）, too, to see one's tithes (the 10 percent church tax on land) going not to the poor parish priest but to the prosperous monks nearby, who did little or nothing toward saving the souls of the taxpayers. Some of the pious(信神的) rich might feel obliged to establish a chantry （附属于教堂的小礼拜堂), an endowment for singing masses in perpetuity for the dead. Others, at death's door, would bequeath (遗赠） their goods and land to the church, thus depriving their heirs and shrinking the supply on the market.

  教会的各种敛财阿，黑暗！

  pp.22

  Worshipping the saints had been a kind of polytheism: they were the powers to entreat. Every living person, every activity and institution, every town and village was dedicated to a patron (赞助人） saint, and aware of living under his or her protection. many Catholics in Europe still celebrate not one's birthday, but the day of the saint after whom one is named. Travelers would rely on St. Christopher, sailors on St. Elmo, old maids on St. Catherine. One prayed to St. Germain for sick children, to St. Sythe for lost keys, and to St. Wilgefortis for getting rid of detested husbands. Those in hopeless trouble beseeched St. Jude

  我顿时明白了为什么青年旅社的名字叫做St. Christopher's inn...另外最后一句..难道这就是披头士的"Hey Jude"的由来么?

  To make the new creed (教条) intelligible and congenial （宜人的，意气相投的), Christian rites and holidays were adapted to existing customs. Saints took the place of local deities（其他神祗）; Christmas, aster, Rogations (the springtime blessing of the fields) re-enacted（重新制定）the original pagan（非基督教的） festivals

  pp.23

  These details fo the new life after Luther point to something easily overlooked: the revolution was strictly speaking not religious but theological. christianity was not replaced by another religion. The Occident continued to believe in the same revelation of the divine events described in the old Scriptures. ... The overturn, then, was in the slowly built-up system of ideas surrounding the faith, which is to say ideology.

  To understand the feelings that kept up the sectarian(教派的) bloodshed, it is not enough to cite material interests. These did lead to war, but the passion was for more than winning back possessions or exacting revenge. What makes it hard to recapture the quality of religious beliefs in the 16C is that so much has happened since to draw the human mind and heart away from the goal of saving one's soul. The meaning of faith has changed, its native quantity has been divided, its quality diluted. People blithely（欢乐地，无挂虑的）speak of someone's (or their own) religious PREFERENCE-as if it were something like a taste in food or sport.

  When faith loses its singleness, its central role in life fades away, and with it the feeling that comes from knowing one's view of the world universally shared. When all around take fundamental ideas for granted, these must be the truth. For most minds there is no comfort like it.

  pp.24

  The point is that in earlier times people rarely thought of themselves as "having" or "belonging to" a religion.

  Some modern theologians call belief "the interruption of faith" - virtually a heresy（异端学说）-because belief implies a statement or thought "about" the object of faith, which distracts the mind from being suffused（充满) by its reality.

  有趣的观点。

  Whether more or less faithful, people before, during, and after the revolution never doubted that they needed God's help from moment to moment.

  pp.25

  So important did some 16C believers consider individuality that they declared each soul separately created. Others were content with a collective origin. The former were called Creationists. The name now refers to those who attack Evolution and believe that the whole human race was created in and through Adam and Eve.

  嗯，定义搞清楚很重要。

  pp.26-描写改革后的种种变化

  The revolution also changed other parts of cultural reality. The Protestant（新教徒的) church, the building itself, was no longer the tower hall for public business, the banquet hall on feast days, and the theater for moral dramas...its central and civic role was gone...the age-old association of the church with art was broken forever.

  Protestants of all types became self-sufficient also during the musical part of the service. No choir, no clerics sang on the congregation's behalf the praise of the Lord. All the faithful gathered together sing, inexpertly but sincerely, of the Lord.

  PP.27

  Another discard: the mumbling in Latin to uncomprehending ears by an absentminded priest. Clear words in everyday language carried the homily (讲道）,now called sermon..."The English Sunday" came to signify a peculiar division of human time. Lacking relics and images, Protestants go to church only for services (children for Sunday school), instead of at any hour of the day for prayer or recollection, as catholics still do.

  The change of greatest consequence, a cultural step comparable to Mohammed's gift of the Koran to his people, was making the new life find its mental and spiritual food in the Bible...more than one thinker before him had wanted to bring the word of God to the people and a dozen translations into the common tongues had been made. Once again, it was Luther who compounded these efforts and made the Bible The Book for all Protestants (bible MEANS book) and even forced it into the Catholic consciousness.

  也就是说，他推广了圣经。以前大概只有牧师神父一类的人才能接触到圣经，而现在每个教徒人手一本。

  The results for Protestants were remarkable. To start with, it gave whole populations a common background of knowledge, a common culture in the high sense of the term.

  pp.28

  What gives the Bible so strong a hold on the minds that once grow familiar with its content is its dramatic reporting of human affairs. For all its piety（虔诚）, it presents a worldly panorama, and with particulars so varied that it is hard to think of a domestic or social situation without a biblical example to match and turn to moral ends.

  于是我终于可以用另外一种观点来看《圣经》了。

  When secularism (世俗主义) came to prevail, Bible reading disappeared among the majority, and with it the backgrounded of ideas and allusion common to all. In this role, the only ecumenical（一般的）replacement one can think of is the daily newspaper's comic strip.

  LOL!!!But on a serious note-果然一代人是有一代人的活法，谁也跳不出这个时代。

  During the modern era dozens, scores, hundreds of Protestant sects have grown out of the first Evangelicism - the count at present is around 325 and unstable. Inner light, coupled with brooding over scripture, has been the efficient cause.

  然后举了几个例子:Amish; Mennonites; George Fox,在下面有解释

  The longest, most violent - and indeed blood-spattered- clashes were about the Eucharist, the Trinity, baptism, grace and merit, and predestination.

  这些名词在底下都有解释。所以说，分出来的教派在各种根本问题上都有分歧啊。

  pp.29

  下面这一段具体讲了各教派对“圣餐“的不同理解

  To the first Reformers, the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving and commemorates Christ's Last Supper with the Apostles, was the central sacrament, as it was to the Catholics. But the Protestants balked at the notion of the priest as a miracle-worker who transformed the bread and wine into Christ's flesh and blood-transubstantiation (化质说，变质说）. Lutherans believe in consubstantiation: the blood and flesh side by side with the ordinary materials. This was called the Real Presence, a mystery, but not a magical act done by a man in a cassock. The Calvinists took the bread and wine as symbols only, simple reminders of the Last Supper. When Calvin was questioned about the Real Presence, he said that Christ was everywhere and hence present at the sacrament also.

  然后讲了“predestination" - 提出的一些观点让我这个scientist情何以堪啊..

  Next, consider Predestination, which states that individual merit does not ensure salvation and that man has no free will...It was said earlier that predestination was still maintained by a good many non-believers (<12)； they might be surprised to hear it; they do not, indeed, believe that eternal damnation is decreed for the many, including unbaptized infants. But they do believe in scientific determinism - the unbreakable sequence of cause and effect, and that is predestination. (附注：这真是教人情何以堪!!!)It is the assumption all laboratory workers make and it rules out free will. Any present state of fact, any action taken ,is the inevitable outcome of a series of events going back to the Big Bang that produced the universe.

  也就是说，作为科学家，我们是相信个人意志不能推动某样东西的运作...而这就是predestination...我能说...我觉得很震惊么...

  (30页及之后的见下一篇读书笔记)

  补充的background knowledge (all from wikipedia)

  pp.28

  INNER LIGHT

  The idea is often taken to refer to God's presence within a person, and to a direct and personal experience of God. Quakers believe that God speaks to everyone, and that in order to hear God's voice, it helps to be still and actively listen for it.

  AMISH (现代的基督教教派)

  阿米什人（Amish）是美国和加拿大安大略省的一群基督新教再洗礼派门诺会信徒（又称亚米胥派），以拒绝汽车及电力等现代设施，过著简朴的生活而闻名。阿米什是德裔瑞士移民后裔组成的传统、严密的宗教组织，过着与世隔绝的生活，是1525年来自瑞士，从门诺派或是重洗派分裂出来的宗派。重洗派是因为在荷兰对重洗派运动最有影响力的门诺（Menno Simons），更加强烈。重洗派因为他的影响，发展成“门诺派（Mennonites）”。[最后一句语法不通，不过大概可以get到意思]

  GEORGE FOX

  George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.

  乔治福克斯在不断地旅行时，他的独特的宗教信仰逐渐成行。在祷告与冥想中，他愈能强烈地感知道他信仰的本质与东西他所需要的是什么。这种过程他称作“开明”（Opening），因为他完整地经验到并察觉到神的启示立刻在这个期间内降下，他也愈能确信自己能了解真正标准的基督教信仰对上帝创造宇宙与拯救的事工的论述上，背后深层的意义。以下是他所想到的：

  -基督徒在的实践上虽有所不同，但都因着他们的信念而被认为是被拯救的，因此仪式肯定可以被忽略的，只要是一个人能经历真正灵性的转变。事实上，福克斯认为真正的基督徒是加入朋友会（Society of Friends）的，并且他不接受其他宗教团体所带来拯救。

  -牧会的资格是由圣灵所给予的，并不是由教士的学识所决定。这暗示著每个人都有资格成为教士，只要是他或（她）受到圣灵的领导，包括女人也有资格。

  -神的灵降临在所有顺从祂的子民中：宗教的体验不能被教会的建筑物局限。事实上，福克斯反对用“教会”这个名词给建筑物命名，而“尖塔屋”这个名词常被今日许多贵格派（Quakers）成员所使用来命名。当他相信神遍在于每个角落时，福克斯于是马上就在户外与果树林里作礼拜。

  -虽然教会历史绝不只是有魅力的而已，而打开圣灵就能包涵这种魅力。在万事万物中，福克斯常用“驱邪”和“神疗”，或是以一种“知识的圣言”（圣经歌林多前书第12章第8节至第10节）来纪录。福克斯也认为，自己和其他人都可成为“传达神旨意的人”，在他的日记中甚至写到，有关一个人被圣灵所临在而狂喜之纪录。

  EUCHARIST

  圣餐是基督徒的重要礼仪，基督徒认为，圣餐的直接根据来自《新约圣经》，圣经中记载耶稣基督在被钉十字架上死的晚上，与十二门徒共进逾越节晚餐。

  天主教将圣餐称为圣体圣事（Eucharist in the Catholic Church），为七件圣事之一，并相信无酵饼和葡萄酒在神父祝圣时化成基督的体血（神学术语中称之为“变体”，trans-substantiation）。基督新教徒一般不认同此观点。

  TRINITY

  三位一体（拉丁语：trinitas），又译为天主圣三、三位一神、三一神、圣三一、三一神论，基督教神学术语，对于基督宗教的神耶和华（新教也称上帝耶和华，天主教汉译为天主雅威）的学说，建立于第一次尼西亚公会议的《尼西亚信经》，是天主教会与东正教会的基本信条。

  三位一体论主张，圣父 [Father]、圣子 [Son]、圣神 [Holy Ghost]（天主教会译为圣神，东正教会和新教则译为圣灵）为同一本体（本性）、三个不同的位格，他们以希腊语：homoousios 来表达他们之间的关连。

  God exists as three persons but is one God, meaning that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have exactly the same nature or being as God the Father in every way Whatever attributes and power God the Father has, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have as well.

  !!!"Father son and the holy ghost"...这不是american pie 的歌词么!!

  BAPTISM

  洗礼；

  洗礼通过把水倒在、撒向受洗者头上或把受浸者放进水中，然后扶起来施行。现天主教、东正教和大部分的基督新教实施的婴儿洗礼在3世纪时出现。由于对洗礼有不同的理解，因而形成不同的宗派；不同的宗派内，在基督教历史上也发展出不同的教义。对于洗礼的讨论，主要提到：洗礼的效能，施洗的方法及婴孩、死人受洗等问题。

  （wikipedia中文页面上有详细的列表比较各宗派的不同）

  GRACE AND MERIT

  在基督教里，恩典（英语：Grace，又称神圣恩典、神恩，天主教称圣宠）为上帝对人类一种宗主厚待的表现，特别是关于救赎方面，与实质行动或行为、赢得的价值或被证明的善良无关。 更广义的说，神圣恩典是指上帝给人类的礼物，当中包括生命、创造和救赎。狭窄但更普遍的定义则为一种把人类从原始的罪孽中拯救出来，并且授予救赎的恩典。后者对圣宠的阐述是基督教神学中最为重要的概念，更是最容易引起争论的一环，因而使基督徒间分裂成不同的基督教派系。

  In addition to sanctifying grace, merit was earned by good works; by this merit, believers can earn the right to rewards from God. This included the declaration by Trent that the faithful could be "accounted to have, by those very works which have been done in God, fully satisfied the divine law according to the state of this life, and to have truly merited eternal life."

  不同教派对恩典的认知持有不同的看法。天主教、东正教相信圣事（或称“圣礼”）对于信徒得到恩典的重要性；而大部分新教教派，如浸信会等，认为对上帝的信仰对于得到救赎恩典才是最重要的，即“因信称义”、“唯独信仰”。

  恩典的概念被认为是“天主教和新教、加尔文主义和阿民念主义的分水岭”。天主教认为，圣事是信徒获得恩典的最方便的办法，而新教普遍不这么认为。加尔文主义者强调“人除了恩典，将一无所助”（the utter helplessness of man apart from grace.）；而阿民念主义者将上帝的恩典理解为与一个人的能力和意志有关。

  （...好复杂...非教徒表示理解无能啊!!!)

  PREDESTINATION

  Predestination is a religious concept, which is about the relationship between God and His creation. The religious character of predestination distinguishes it from other ideas about determinism and free will. Those who believe in predestination, such as John Calvin, believe that before the creation God determined the fate of the universe throughout all of time and space. They believe that God orders some people to Heaven and all other people to Hell before they even are born.

  pp.29

  Calvinism:

  加尔文主义（又译喀尔文主义；荷兰语：Calvinisme；英语：Calvinism），又称“归正神学（Reformed Theology）”或“改革宗神学”，是16世纪法国宗教改革家、神学家约翰·加尔文毕生的许多主张和实践及其教派其他人的主张和实践的统称，在不同的讨论中有不同的意义，在现代的神学论述习惯当中，加尔文主义特指“救赎预定论”跟“救恩独作说”。加尔文支持马丁·路德的“唯独因信称义”学说，主张人类不能透过正义的行为获得救赎，恢复逐渐被天主教会所遗弃的奥古斯丁学说“救恩独作说”，反对逐渐成为天主教神学主流的“神人合作说”，因此加尔文建立的教会命名为“归正宗”或“改革宗”，发展出来的神学称为归正神学。

  加尔文主义五要点

  全然败坏（Total depravity）或完全无能力（Total inability），人类由于亚当的堕落而无法以自己的能力作任何灵性上的善事。

  无条件的拣选（Unconditional election）上帝对于罪人拣选是无条件的，祂的拣选并非因为人在伦理道德上的优点，也非他预见了人将发生的信心。

  有限的代赎（Limited atonement）基督钉十字架只是为那些预先蒙选之人，不是为世上所有的人。

  不可抗拒的恩典（Irresistible grace）人类不可能拒绝上帝的救恩，上帝拯救人的恩典不可能因为人的原因而被阻挠，无法被人拒绝。

  圣徒恒忍蒙保守（Perseverence of the saints）已经得到的救恩不会再次丧失掉，上帝必能保守其拣选的。

  这五点教义的英文首字字母恰Tulip，即“郁金香”之义。

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  2011-07-21 18:28:46   1人收藏   回应

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  The "Artist" is born

  鱼更 (The greatest love of all.)

  pp.67 那时的艺术必须承载道德: It is taken for granted that a work reveals the artist's soul as well as his mind. ut what is more important, the work of art must by its order mirror the hierarchical order of the world, which is a moral order...That all art must be moral is the rule until the 19C, when it cuts loose from moral significance, from regard of virtue in the maker's character, and from t... (更多)

  pp.67 那时的艺术必须承载道德:

  It is taken for granted that a work reveals the artist's soul as well as his mind. ut what is more important, the work of art must by its order mirror the hierarchical order of the world, which is a moral order...That all art must be moral is the rule until the 19C, when it cuts loose from moral significance, from regard of virtue in the maker's character, and from the expectations of the public.

  最后一句...我突然想起唯美运动了!

  作者接着顺带讨论了"What conditions bring about great artistic periods";首先他说，

  It is not, as some have thought, prosperity, or wise government support, or a spell of peace and quiet - Florence at its height was in perpetual conflict inside and outside.

  他总结的第一要素：

  1.The clustering of eager minds in one place;

  （其他运动何尝不是如此呢?）

  然后..好像就没有然后了╮(╯_╰)╭

  pp.70

  In the Renaissance it was assumed that the graphic arts must treat of clear subjects - indeed, must "tell" something, in addition to pleasing the eye and the sense of composition while also observing the rules of perspective. Classical myths naturally had a great appeal, but Christian subjects did not lose ground, especially after the Catholic counter-revolution, which promoted the decoration of new churches and the renovation of old ones.

  知道这个之后，可以帮助看文艺复兴时期的画。另外...我了个去还有Catholic counter-revolution?!

  pp.71 继续刚刚的话题

  The Bible and the lives of the saints supplied the figures and scenes as before, but in many ways secularized: the virgin looked like a peasant girl, the costumes were contemporary, the scenery local.

  下次看画要注意比较这点。

  From then on(指16C） to the end of the 18C common opinion held that religious and history painting were the highest genres. the one edified, the other reminded; both decorated. Portraits came next, landscapes lagged behind. For nature was not yet loved for itself alone. In the early Renaissance it served as background only, and even then it was“humanized" by the presence of temples, columns, or other architectural fragments, along with actual figures. In the late 16C, other subjects made up the oddly named "genre painting" - aspects of day-to-day existence and bits of "still life".

  下次看画也要注意这点。

  As time went on, secular （世俗的） subjects gained in importance, in part because of a new technique: paiting on canvas with pigments carried in oils...before oils, pigments dissolved in pure or lime water were applied to a wall which the artist himself had plastered; or again, the colors were mixed with egg yolk and water, to a panel of poplar or other wood (egg tempera啊!!!).To paint, one must have an infallible hand and a far-seeing mind; each stroke was final, as in watercolour today.

  嗯，记得national gallery说过,egg tempera干得非常非常快。

  But the oil painting had a merit all its own: it was portable; it domesticated art. By the 17C the well-to-do citizen who was devout or fond of his own likeness could order or buy ready-made a canvas of modest dimensions and with it enliven a room.

  让我想起BBC前段时间播出的关于印象派的短片，也是说由于有可携带的画板颜料，画家们可以方便地外出捕捉自然美景...技术科目革命的神奇之处就是，往往最初做出革新的那个人根本无法想像他的发明会带来多深刻的影响。

  pp.73 文艺复兴时期的画作风格

  A light blue-gray makes distant objects in the painting look hazy, as they appear to the eye owing to the thickness of the atmosphere. Combined, the two perspectives create the illusion of depth, the three-dimensional "reality" on a flat surface.

  ...望着墙上贴着的那些文艺复兴时期的画作，背景总是慢慢变成蓝色...泪流满面阿原来是要表示雾的效果啊...我怎么觉得很突兀呢

  pp.74-75

  文艺复兴时期是个很多现代的”概念“形成的时期。以下几段的摘抄：

  To anyone in the mid-16C who looked back to Petrarch or Giotto or Wycliffe and thought of recent work in literature and the graphic arts or scholarship and religious thought, it must seem evident that the accumulation of desirable changes meant Progress. The word and a theory about it arose and provided a new standard of judgement: are we improving? Change came to be judged a move forward or backward, the latter being pointless. This isn time generated the familiar labels progressive, conservative and reactionary.

  To be award of progress means being also aware of who has done the new thing, who is campaigning for the new idea. The individual gains in value...Renaissance enthusiasm thereby built up the artist into a figure destined to be more and more extra-ordinary, more and more exempt from convention and the law.

  The artist was no longer anonymous as he had almost always been in the Middle Ages...The builder, sculptor, painter now singed his work or was credited in print.

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  2011-08-20 07:34:58   回应

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  The Good Letters

  鱼更 (The greatest love of all.)

  pp.43 Individual's untrammeled (自由自在的) relation to god ----->leads to the proliferation of sects---->leads to individualism 这是个个人意识觉醒的时代：人们信仰的自由导致了个人意识的觉醒 pp.44 Humanist的来历： The term humanist was first applied by German scholars of the early 19C to writers who in the 14C and 15C rejected parts of the immediate past in favor of the culture they pe... (更多)

  pp.43

  Individual's untrammeled (自由自在的) relation to god ----->leads to the proliferation of sects---->leads to individualism

  这是个个人意识觉醒的时代：人们信仰的自由导致了个人意识的觉醒

  pp.44

  Humanist的来历：

  The term humanist was first applied by German scholars of the early 19C to writers who in the 14C and 15C rejected parts of the immediate past in favor of the culture they perceived in the classics of ancient Rome. they were particularly keen about the Latin style of these classics.

  Humanism的最初定义:

  It originally described the style of the ancients: LITTERAE HUMANIORES, the more human letters, meaning a literature less abstract than medieval philosophy and expressed in a more elegant grammar and concise vocabulary. These qualities defined what the humanists liked to call the "good letters". By comparison, the prose of the medieval scholastics was barbaric and fit only for discussing theology. It was far from ignoring Man, but it was logic-chopping and it linked all human concerns to the hereafter.

  下一段继续表明了Humanists 对古典文明的态度：

  For the original Humanists, the ancient classics depicted a civilization that dealt with the affairs of the world in a man-centered way. Those books - poems and plays, histories and biographies, moral and social philosophy - were for the ancients guides to life, important in themselves, rather than subordinate to an overriding scheme that put off human happiness to the day of judgment.

  这解释了文章的章节名字的意思。

  Cicero became the humanists' culture hero.

  补充材料：Cicero

  马库斯·图利乌斯·基凯罗（Marcus Tullius Cicero，前106年1月3日－前43年12月7日），或依英语音译西塞罗，罗马共和国著名演说家和政治家，被誉为“拉丁语雄辩家”、散文家。也被认为是三权分立学说的古代先驱。

  pp.45

  讲到humanists主要是学拉丁语而非希腊语。每个educated man都应该知道拉丁语，而对希腊语的要求则没有那么严格。不过作者又写

  But throughout, the highly educated were supposed to have mastered both the ancient languages, and the clergy must know Hebrew in addition. It is a noteworthy feature of 20C culture that for the first time in over a thousand years its educated class is not expected to be at least bilingual.

  另外这里作者引用的一句quotation超级有趣!

  ”The new degree of Bachelor of Science does not guarantee that the holder knows any science. It does guarantee that he does not know any Latin."

  ---Dean Briggs of Harvard College (c.1900)

  pp.45-46

  Humanists的思维方式非常深刻地影响着现代生活的方方面面：

  If we look for what is common to the Humanists over the centuries we find two things: a body of accepted authors and a method of carrying on study and debate. The two go toghether with the belief that the best guides to the good life are Reason and Nature. ... As for the Humanist method, it is the one still in universal use. Its conventions are commonplace everywhere: in government, business, the weekly magazines, and even in schoolwork - who has escaped "research"? Who dares ignore exact quotation and date, consulting previous work, citing sources, listing bibliography, and sporting that bade of candor, the footnote?

  在读西方史的时候，经常有很深的感叹，就是原来一切都是有根可循的。现代文化的一切可以追溯到很远很远的地方。这种有根可循令人心安。当然，也不免感叹中国古典文化随着西方文化的强烈冲击和侵略，已经断掉了。这也是没有办法的事情吧。

  pp.47

  中世纪的人也很好地保留着古希腊和古罗马的作品，但是为什么在那个时候没有产生Humanists呢?作者打了个比方：古代作品就像一座山，呈现出不同的面貌。而看山的人却根据自身经历往往只看到其中几面，却"take a few of these as a whole"。不同时代的人看同样的作品，看到的却是不同的东西。

  比如

  For the early Humanists, the aspects that shone out in the works of antiquity were the beauty of the language and the novel features of a vanished civilization. Both gave rise to a new sense, the sense of history, which may be defined as the simultaneous perception of difference and similarity between pass and present.

  所以说，对“历史"的存在感的发现，是中世纪之后才开始的。

  其实文艺复兴从意大利开始，移到其他国家也花了2个世纪多。摘录原文

  The Italian Petrarch [彼特拉克（1304-1374,意大利诗人,学者、欧洲人文主义运动的主要代表）] in the 14C is deemed the first full-blooded Humanist. "Renaissance" painting is the great achievement of the 15C. Erasmus, Ariosto, Tasso, Rebelais, Montaigne, Shakespeare, and the Pleiade poets in France are all labeled Renaissance writers, and they belong to the 16C. So does Renaissance music. As we saw, Erasmus, arriving in England in 1497, was glad to find that English scholars were now abreast of " the good letters." in short, the culture features of the so-called Renaissance moved north and west from Italy during a culture lag of some two and a half centuries.

  的确啊，去national gallery看14世纪的意大利绘画，还在没完没了的画神；14世纪后期开始慢慢出现希腊罗马神话诸神的主题。到了15世纪，画人的就越来越多了。看这本书的同时去National Gallery慢慢跟着书本的年代去看画，真是相得益彰啊！！

  我不知道现在还算不算是个”哲学家改变世界“的年代 （现在恐怕更多是科学家吧。不过科学家也算是哲学家的一种了）。但是在古代，真的是哲学家改变世界。读《苏菲的世界》的时候就深深地感到这点。一个新思想的诞生可以带动这么多东西 - 音乐美术文学...这不知道为什么总是让我觉得神奇。

  pp.49

  这里作者主要在讲Petrarch(彼特拉克）-他是早起的产生自我觉醒的学者:

  He declared that art is an individual matter, not something with the reach of all professionals. "Everyone should write in his own style." The theme to note here is SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. It is allied to INDIVIDUALISM but it differs from it in being not a social and political condition but a mental state.

  pp.50

  原来是皮特拉克这货完善了十四行诗！！(Sonnet)

  In Petrarach's day sonnets - verses to be sounded, to be sung - were of various lengths. The now traditional length (指十四行诗）is just right for a small oration - exposition, development and conclusion. And that classical form, so closely studied and practiced by the Humanists, has remained a pattern that governs western creations, from public speaking to poetry, drama, prose and the symphony.

  想起《傲慢与偏见》里的对话 （大概记忆啦）

  宾利：”我一直以为诗歌是爱情的源泉。“

  达西（还是伊丽莎白?)：”那得是健康的爱情才行...否则，一首出色的十四行诗就能把它断送掉。“

  =P

  pp.53

  这一段我觉得特别有趣

  To be fashionable in some particular foreign way has been a recurrent phenomenon in the west: After Italy, it was Spain that radiated light; then France imposed its ways and later went Anglophile, not once but twice. After a short-lived Germanism in England and France, the Orient, and last the United States have been the irresistible model, followed even when denounced.

  其实这一段也可以看出欧洲各国繁荣的更替啊。

  pp.53-54

  文艺复兴对政治/经济的影响

  At the beginning of the successive "ages of the Renaissance" north and west of Italy, when Italian poetry, drama and prose fiction were taken as models, together with the Humanist scholarly methods, attention to the written word affected enlightened opinion on law, history, politics and religion. Establishing a text by comparing sources, verifying dates, weighing evidence and witnesses' credibility, while also analyzing usage, impressed on the European mind the effect of the passage of time: documents began to be read critically; oral traditions lost authority unless confirmed. The age of indispensable literacy had begun.

  也就是说，”笔头记录“第一次成了不可或缺的东西。

  pp.54

  继续之前的话题,"笔头记录”对教会的影响

  In general, 16C scholarship strengthened the Protestant idea that the gospel, not the church, was the fount of doctrine. It is a Humanist principle that if you want to know the truth, go to the sources, not the commentators.

  pp.55

  提到了"bonfire of the vanities"

  背景资料：

  Bonfire of the Vanities (Italian: Falò delle vanità) refers to the burning of objects that are deemed to be occasions of sin. The most infamous one took place on 7 February 1497, when supporters of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy, on the Mardi Gras festival.[1] Such bonfires were not invented by Savonarola, however. They were a common accompaniment to the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino di Siena in the first half of the century.

  The focus of this destruction was nominally on objects that might tempt one to sin, including vanity items such as mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, paintings, playing cards, and even musical instruments. Other targets included books that were deemed to be "immoral," such as works by Boccaccio, and manuscripts of secular songs, as well as artworks, including paintings and sculpture.

  从这页开始，非常有趣的我无法一言总结的关于柏拉图和亚里士多德的比较.

  为什么会突然开始讨论这个呢?无法总结。引用作者原话：

  Good Christian Humanities were moral beings of the conventional sort, but their trained minds wanted something more: a metaphysics that would reformulate or at least parallel in classical terms the Catholic theology. Most of them found it in Plato.

  柏拉图

  He had taught that human beings are in a cave with their backs to the entrance and looking at the inner wall, which reflects dimly the reality outside. Interpreted, this means that the senses give an imperfect copy of the eternal forms of being. These are the proper object of human attention. By steady effort, the individual can raise his sight from the love of earthly things to the love of eternal beauty, which consists of those pure forms. Such is the Platonist's grace and salvation.

  这里，为了加强理解，引用《苏菲的世界》第九章

  “ 柏拉图认为，自然界中有形的东西是“流动”的，所以世间才没有不会分解的“物质”。属于“物质世界”的每一样东西必然是由某种物质做成。这种物质会受时间侵蚀，但做成这些东西的“模子”或“形式”却是永恒不变的。”

  “为何全天下的马儿都一样?你也许不认为它们是一样的，但有些特质是所有的马儿都具备的，这些特质使得我们可以认出它们是马。当然个别的马是“流动”的，因为它会老、会瘸，时间到了甚至会死。但马的“形式”却是永恒不变的。

  　　 因此，对柏拉图而言，永恒不变的东西并非一种“基本物质”，而是形成各种事物模样的精神模式或抽象模式。 ”

  “ 柏拉图因此得出一个结论：在“物质世界的背后，必定有一个实在存在。他称这个实在为‘理型的世界’，其中包含存在于自然界各种现象背后、永恒不变的模式。”这种独树一格的观点我们称之为“柏拉图的理型论”。 ”

  “我们已经见到柏拉图如何认为实在世界可以分为两个领域。

  　　 其中一个是感官世界。我们只能用我们五种并不精确的官能来约略认识这个世界。在这个世界中，“每一件事物都会流动”，而且没有一个是永久不变的。这里面存在的都是一些生生灭灭的事物。

  　　 另外一个领域则是理型的世界。我们可以用理性来确实认识这个世界。我们无法用感官来察知这个理型的世界，但这些理型(或形式)是永恒不变的。

  　　 根据柏拉图的说法，人是一种具有双重性质的生物。我们的身体是“流动”的，与感官的世界不可分割，并且其命运与世界上其他每一件事物(如肥皂泡)都相同。我们所有的感官都是以身体为基础，因此是不可靠的。但我们同时也有一个不朽的灵魂，而这个灵魂则是理性的天下。由于灵魂不是物质，因此可以探索理型的世界。 ”

  “柏拉图同时认为，灵魂栖居在躯体内之前，原本就已经存在(它和所有的饼干模子一起躺在橱柜的上层)。然而一旦灵魂在某 一具躯体内醒来时，它便忘了所有的完美的理型。然后，一个奇妙的过程展开了。当人类发现自然界各种不同的形式时，某些模糊的回忆便开始扰动他的灵魂。他看到了一匹马，然而是一匹不完美的马。(一匹姜饼马！)灵魂一看到这匹马，便依稀想起它在理型世界中所见过的完美“马”，同时涌起一股回到它本来领域的渴望。柏拉图称这种渴望为eros，也就是“爱”的意思。此时，灵魂体验到“一种回归本源的欲望”。从此以后．，肉体与整个感官世界对它而言，都是不完美而且微不足道的。灵魂渴望乘着爱的翅膀回“家”，回到理型的世界。它渴望从“肉体的枷锁”中挣脱。 ”

  “柏拉图用一个神话故事来说明这点。我们称之为“洞穴神话”。 ”

  “柏拉图想说的是：黑暗洞穴与外在世界的关系就像是自然世界的形式与理型世界的关系。他的意思并非说大自然是黑暗、无趣的，而是说，比起鲜明清楚的理型世界来，它就显得黑暗而平淡。同样的，一张漂亮女孩的照片也不是单调无趣的，但再怎么说它也只是一张照片而已。 ”

  然后，作者开始谈亚里士多德

  Aristotle was a physicist, biologist, social scientist, and aesthetician. His system gave matter basic importance. He taught that wealth, friends, and comfort were part of the good life and prerequisites of virtue; for every ideal possibility rests on a natural (material) base.

  Humanists 里面有一小批人是信奉亚里士多德的，"especially those attracted by the new findings in science"

  现在引用《苏非的世界》里关于亚里士多德的介绍 （第11章）

  “ 我们可以说柏拉图太过沉迷于他那些永恒的形式(或“理型”)，以至于他很少注意到自然界的变化。相反的，亚理斯多德则只对这些变化(或我们今天所称的大自然的循环)感到兴趣。 ”

  “柏拉图和他的前辈一样，想在所有变化无常的事物中找出永恒与不变之物。因此他发现了比感官世界层次更高的完美理型。他更进一步认为理型比所有的自然现象真实。他指出，世间是先有“马”的理型，然后才有感官世界里所有的马匹，它们就像洞壁上的影子一般达达前进。因此“鸡”的理型要先于鸡，也先于蛋。

  　　 亚理斯多德则认为柏拉图将整个观念弄反了。他同意他的老 师的说法，认为一匹特定的马是“流动”的，没有一匹马可以长生不死，他也认为马的形式是永恒不变的。但他认为马的“理型”是我们人类在看到若干匹马后形成的概念。因此马的“理型”或“形式” ”

  “所以，亚理斯多德并不赞成柏拉图主张“鸡”的理型比鸡先有的说法。亚理斯多德所称的鸡的“形式”存在于每一只鸡的身上，成为鸡之所以为鸡的特色”

  “在柏拉图的理论中，现实世界中最高层次的事物乃是那些我们用理性来思索的事物。但对亚理斯多德而言，真实世界中最高层次的事物乃是那些我们用感官察觉的事物。”

  “ 在批评柏拉图的理型论后，亚理斯多德认为实在界乃是由各种本身的形式与质料和谐一致的事物所组成的。“质料”是事物组成的材料，“形式”则是每一件事物的个别特征。 ”

  然后，从这个时候开始，柏拉图派和亚里士多德派就争论不休了。

  然后，作者写了一段很有启发性的关于米开朗基罗（柏拉图派）的文字.

  pp.56

  Michelangelo, for example, whose hand was subdued to matter like any ditch digger's, valued his works not for their artistic merit, as we do, but for the ideal beauty that he put into them and that, for him, made their materiality disappear.

  也就是说，米开朗基罗试图制造柏拉图所说的一个事物的“完美形式”。有趣！

  然后，又一段有趣的关于“柏拉图爱情”的话

  It is too bad that in popular use "Platonic love" means only absence of sexual relations. That typical reduction of an important idea prevents one from using the term conveniently to denote a recurrent striving in occidental culture, the longing for the Pure. Individuals and movements, not all rooted in religion or metaphysics, have repeatedly proclaimed their pursuit or their achievement of pure love, pure thought, pure form in art.

  其实人家柏拉图追求的是“纯粹”，而不仅仅是“无性”啰。

  pp.62

  This first generation of international publishers did not merely make and sell books; they were scholars and patrons who translated the classics, nurtured their authors, and wrote original works. Their continual redesigning of letter forms gave rise to the new art of typography. Dozens of fine artists since 1500 have created typefaces for every kind of use without making the earliest ones obsolete.

  这就是印刷体历史的开始啊！15世纪末16世纪初。好神奇。 (收起)

  2011-08-01 07:31:53   回应

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• 

  The "Artist" is born

  鱼更 (The greatest love of all.)

  pp.67 那时的艺术必须承载道德: It is taken for granted that a work reveals the artist's soul as well as his mind. ut what is more important, the work of art must by its order mirror the hierarchical order of the world, which is a moral order...That all art must be moral is the rule until the 19C, when it cuts loose from moral significance, from regard of virtue in the maker's character, and from t... (更多)

  pp.67 那时的艺术必须承载道德:

  It is taken for granted that a work reveals the artist's soul as well as his mind. ut what is more important, the work of art must by its order mirror the hierarchical order of the world, which is a moral order...That all art must be moral is the rule until the 19C, when it cuts loose from moral significance, from regard of virtue in the maker's character, and from the expectations of the public.

  最后一句...我突然想起唯美运动了!

  作者接着顺带讨论了"What conditions bring about great artistic periods";首先他说，

  It is not, as some have thought, prosperity, or wise government support, or a spell of peace and quiet - Florence at its height was in perpetual conflict inside and outside.

  他总结的第一要素：

  1.The clustering of eager minds in one place;

  （其他运动何尝不是如此呢?）

  然后..好像就没有然后了╮(╯_╰)╭

  pp.70

  In the Renaissance it was assumed that the graphic arts must treat of clear subjects - indeed, must "tell" something, in addition to pleasing the eye and the sense of composition while also observing the rules of perspective. Classical myths naturally had a great appeal, but Christian subjects did not lose ground, especially after the Catholic counter-revolution, which promoted the decoration of new churches and the renovation of old ones.

  知道这个之后，可以帮助看文艺复兴时期的画。另外...我了个去还有Catholic counter-revolution?!

  pp.71 继续刚刚的话题

  The Bible and the lives of the saints supplied the figures and scenes as before, but in many ways secularized: the virgin looked like a peasant girl, the costumes were contemporary, the scenery local.

  下次看画要注意比较这点。

  From then on(指16C） to the end of the 18C common opinion held that religious and history painting were the highest genres. the one edified, the other reminded; both decorated. Portraits came next, landscapes lagged behind. For nature was not yet loved for itself alone. In the early Renaissance it served as background only, and even then it was“humanized" by the presence of temples, columns, or other architectural fragments, along with actual figures. In the late 16C, other subjects made up the oddly named "genre painting" - aspects of day-to-day existence and bits of "still life".

  下次看画也要注意这点。

  As time went on, secular （世俗的） subjects gained in importance, in part because of a new technique: paiting on canvas with pigments carried in oils...before oils, pigments dissolved in pure or lime water were applied to a wall which the artist himself had plastered; or again, the colors were mixed with egg yolk and water, to a panel of poplar or other wood (egg tempera啊!!!).To paint, one must have an infallible hand and a far-seeing mind; each stroke was final, as in watercolour today.

  嗯，记得national gallery说过,egg tempera干得非常非常快。

  But the oil painting had a merit all its own: it was portable; it domesticated art. By the 17C the well-to-do citizen who was devout or fond of his own likeness could order or buy ready-made a canvas of modest dimensions and with it enliven a room.

  让我想起BBC前段时间播出的关于印象派的短片，也是说由于有可携带的画板颜料，画家们可以方便地外出捕捉自然美景...技术科目革命的神奇之处就是，往往最初做出革新的那个人根本无法想像他的发明会带来多深刻的影响。

  pp.73 文艺复兴时期的画作风格

  A light blue-gray makes distant objects in the painting look hazy, as they appear to the eye owing to the thickness of the atmosphere. Combined, the two perspectives create the illusion of depth, the three-dimensional "reality" on a flat surface.

  ...望着墙上贴着的那些文艺复兴时期的画作，背景总是慢慢变成蓝色...泪流满面阿原来是要表示雾的效果啊...我怎么觉得很突兀呢

  pp.74-75

  文艺复兴时期是个很多现代的”概念“形成的时期。以下几段的摘抄：

  To anyone in the mid-16C who looked back to Petrarch or Giotto or Wycliffe and thought of recent work in literature and the graphic arts or scholarship and religious thought, it must seem evident that the accumulation of desirable changes meant Progress. The word and a theory about it arose and provided a new standard of judgement: are we improving? Change came to be judged a move forward or backward, the latter being pointless. This isn time generated the familiar labels progressive, conservative and reactionary.

  To be award of progress means being also aware of who has done the new thing, who is campaigning for the new idea. The individual gains in value...Renaissance enthusiasm thereby built up the artist into a figure destined to be more and more extra-ordinary, more and more exempt from convention and the law.

  The artist was no longer anonymous as he had almost always been in the Middle Ages...The builder, sculptor, painter now singed his work or was credited in print.

  (收起)

  2011-08-20 07:34:58   回应

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• 

  The Good Letters

  鱼更 (The greatest love of all.)

  pp.43 Individual's untrammeled (自由自在的) relation to god ----->leads to the proliferation of sects---->leads to individualism 这是个个人意识觉醒的时代：人们信仰的自由导致了个人意识的觉醒 pp.44 Humanist的来历： The term humanist was first applied by German scholars of the early 19C to writers who in the 14C and 15C rejected parts of the immediate past in favor of the culture they pe... (更多)

  pp.43

  Individual's untrammeled (自由自在的) relation to god ----->leads to the proliferation of sects---->leads to individualism

  这是个个人意识觉醒的时代：人们信仰的自由导致了个人意识的觉醒

  pp.44

  Humanist的来历：

  The term humanist was first applied by German scholars of the early 19C to writers who in the 14C and 15C rejected parts of the immediate past in favor of the culture they perceived in the classics of ancient Rome. they were particularly keen about the Latin style of these classics.

  Humanism的最初定义:

  It originally described the style of the ancients: LITTERAE HUMANIORES, the more human letters, meaning a literature less abstract than medieval philosophy and expressed in a more elegant grammar and concise vocabulary. These qualities defined what the humanists liked to call the "good letters". By comparison, the prose of the medieval scholastics was barbaric and fit only for discussing theology. It was far from ignoring Man, but it was logic-chopping and it linked all human concerns to the hereafter.

  下一段继续表明了Humanists 对古典文明的态度：

  For the original Humanists, the ancient classics depicted a civilization that dealt with the affairs of the world in a man-centered way. Those books - poems and plays, histories and biographies, moral and social philosophy - were for the ancients guides to life, important in themselves, rather than subordinate to an overriding scheme that put off human happiness to the day of judgment.

  这解释了文章的章节名字的意思。

  Cicero became the humanists' culture hero.

  补充材料：Cicero

  马库斯·图利乌斯·基凯罗（Marcus Tullius Cicero，前106年1月3日－前43年12月7日），或依英语音译西塞罗，罗马共和国著名演说家和政治家，被誉为“拉丁语雄辩家”、散文家。也被认为是三权分立学说的古代先驱。

  pp.45

  讲到humanists主要是学拉丁语而非希腊语。每个educated man都应该知道拉丁语，而对希腊语的要求则没有那么严格。不过作者又写

  But throughout, the highly educated were supposed to have mastered both the ancient languages, and the clergy must know Hebrew in addition. It is a noteworthy feature of 20C culture that for the first time in over a thousand years its educated class is not expected to be at least bilingual.

  另外这里作者引用的一句quotation超级有趣!

  ”The new degree of Bachelor of Science does not guarantee that the holder knows any science. It does guarantee that he does not know any Latin."

  ---Dean Briggs of Harvard College (c.1900)

  pp.45-46

  Humanists的思维方式非常深刻地影响着现代生活的方方面面：

  If we look for what is common to the Humanists over the centuries we find two things: a body of accepted authors and a method of carrying on study and debate. The two go toghether with the belief that the best guides to the good life are Reason and Nature. ... As for the Humanist method, it is the one still in universal use. Its conventions are commonplace everywhere: in government, business, the weekly magazines, and even in schoolwork - who has escaped "research"? Who dares ignore exact quotation and date, consulting previous work, citing sources, listing bibliography, and sporting that bade of candor, the footnote?

  在读西方史的时候，经常有很深的感叹，就是原来一切都是有根可循的。现代文化的一切可以追溯到很远很远的地方。这种有根可循令人心安。当然，也不免感叹中国古典文化随着西方文化的强烈冲击和侵略，已经断掉了。这也是没有办法的事情吧。

  pp.47

  中世纪的人也很好地保留着古希腊和古罗马的作品，但是为什么在那个时候没有产生Humanists呢?作者打了个比方：古代作品就像一座山，呈现出不同的面貌。而看山的人却根据自身经历往往只看到其中几面，却"take a few of these as a whole"。不同时代的人看同样的作品，看到的却是不同的东西。

  比如

  For the early Humanists, the aspects that shone out in the works of antiquity were the beauty of the language and the novel features of a vanished civilization. Both gave rise to a new sense, the sense of history, which may be defined as the simultaneous perception of difference and similarity between pass and present.

  所以说，对“历史"的存在感的发现，是中世纪之后才开始的。

  其实文艺复兴从意大利开始，移到其他国家也花了2个世纪多。摘录原文

  The Italian Petrarch [彼特拉克（1304-1374,意大利诗人,学者、欧洲人文主义运动的主要代表）] in the 14C is deemed the first full-blooded Humanist. "Renaissance" painting is the great achievement of the 15C. Erasmus, Ariosto, Tasso, Rebelais, Montaigne, Shakespeare, and the Pleiade poets in France are all labeled Renaissance writers, and they belong to the 16C. So does Renaissance music. As we saw, Erasmus, arriving in England in 1497, was glad to find that English scholars were now abreast of " the good letters." in short, the culture features of the so-called Renaissance moved north and west from Italy during a culture lag of some two and a half centuries.

  的确啊，去national gallery看14世纪的意大利绘画，还在没完没了的画神；14世纪后期开始慢慢出现希腊罗马神话诸神的主题。到了15世纪，画人的就越来越多了。看这本书的同时去National Gallery慢慢跟着书本的年代去看画，真是相得益彰啊！！

  我不知道现在还算不算是个”哲学家改变世界“的年代 （现在恐怕更多是科学家吧。不过科学家也算是哲学家的一种了）。但是在古代，真的是哲学家改变世界。读《苏菲的世界》的时候就深深地感到这点。一个新思想的诞生可以带动这么多东西 - 音乐美术文学...这不知道为什么总是让我觉得神奇。

  pp.49

  这里作者主要在讲Petrarch(彼特拉克）-他是早起的产生自我觉醒的学者:

  He declared that art is an individual matter, not something with the reach of all professionals. "Everyone should write in his own style." The theme to note here is SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. It is allied to INDIVIDUALISM but it differs from it in being not a social and political condition but a mental state.

  pp.50

  原来是皮特拉克这货完善了十四行诗！！(Sonnet)

  In Petrarach's day sonnets - verses to be sounded, to be sung - were of various lengths. The now traditional length (指十四行诗）is just right for a small oration - exposition, development and conclusion. And that classical form, so closely studied and practiced by the Humanists, has remained a pattern that governs western creations, from public speaking to poetry, drama, prose and the symphony.

  想起《傲慢与偏见》里的对话 （大概记忆啦）

  宾利：”我一直以为诗歌是爱情的源泉。“

  达西（还是伊丽莎白?)：”那得是健康的爱情才行...否则，一首出色的十四行诗就能把它断送掉。“

  =P

  pp.53

  这一段我觉得特别有趣

  To be fashionable in some particular foreign way has been a recurrent phenomenon in the west: After Italy, it was Spain that radiated light; then France imposed its ways and later went Anglophile, not once but twice. After a short-lived Germanism in England and France, the Orient, and last the United States have been the irresistible model, followed even when denounced.

  其实这一段也可以看出欧洲各国繁荣的更替啊。

  pp.53-54

  文艺复兴对政治/经济的影响

  At the beginning of the successive "ages of the Renaissance" north and west of Italy, when Italian poetry, drama and prose fiction were taken as models, together with the Humanist scholarly methods, attention to the written word affected enlightened opinion on law, history, politics and religion. Establishing a text by comparing sources, verifying dates, weighing evidence and witnesses' credibility, while also analyzing usage, impressed on the European mind the effect of the passage of time: documents began to be read critically; oral traditions lost authority unless confirmed. The age of indispensable literacy had begun.

  也就是说，”笔头记录“第一次成了不可或缺的东西。

  pp.54

  继续之前的话题,"笔头记录”对教会的影响

  In general, 16C scholarship strengthened the Protestant idea that the gospel, not the church, was the fount of doctrine. It is a Humanist principle that if you want to know the truth, go to the sources, not the commentators.

  pp.55

  提到了"bonfire of the vanities"

  背景资料：

  Bonfire of the Vanities (Italian: Falò delle vanità) refers to the burning of objects that are deemed to be occasions of sin. The most infamous one took place on 7 February 1497, when supporters of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy, on the Mardi Gras festival.[1] Such bonfires were not invented by Savonarola, however. They were a common accompaniment to the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino di Siena in the first half of the century.

  The focus of this destruction was nominally on objects that might tempt one to sin, including vanity items such as mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, paintings, playing cards, and even musical instruments. Other targets included books that were deemed to be "immoral," such as works by Boccaccio, and manuscripts of secular songs, as well as artworks, including paintings and sculpture.

  从这页开始，非常有趣的我无法一言总结的关于柏拉图和亚里士多德的比较.

  为什么会突然开始讨论这个呢?无法总结。引用作者原话：

  Good Christian Humanities were moral beings of the conventional sort, but their trained minds wanted something more: a metaphysics that would reformulate or at least parallel in classical terms the Catholic theology. Most of them found it in Plato.

  柏拉图

  He had taught that human beings are in a cave with their backs to the entrance and looking at the inner wall, which reflects dimly the reality outside. Interpreted, this means that the senses give an imperfect copy of the eternal forms of being. These are the proper object of human attention. By steady effort, the individual can raise his sight from the love of earthly things to the love of eternal beauty, which consists of those pure forms. Such is the Platonist's grace and salvation.

  这里，为了加强理解，引用《苏菲的世界》第九章

  “ 柏拉图认为，自然界中有形的东西是“流动”的，所以世间才没有不会分解的“物质”。属于“物质世界”的每一样东西必然是由某种物质做成。这种物质会受时间侵蚀，但做成这些东西的“模子”或“形式”却是永恒不变的。”

  “为何全天下的马儿都一样?你也许不认为它们是一样的，但有些特质是所有的马儿都具备的，这些特质使得我们可以认出它们是马。当然个别的马是“流动”的，因为它会老、会瘸，时间到了甚至会死。但马的“形式”却是永恒不变的。

  　　 因此，对柏拉图而言，永恒不变的东西并非一种“基本物质”，而是形成各种事物模样的精神模式或抽象模式。 ”

  “ 柏拉图因此得出一个结论：在“物质世界的背后，必定有一个实在存在。他称这个实在为‘理型的世界’，其中包含存在于自然界各种现象背后、永恒不变的模式。”这种独树一格的观点我们称之为“柏拉图的理型论”。 ”

  “我们已经见到柏拉图如何认为实在世界可以分为两个领域。

  　　 其中一个是感官世界。我们只能用我们五种并不精确的官能来约略认识这个世界。在这个世界中，“每一件事物都会流动”，而且没有一个是永久不变的。这里面存在的都是一些生生灭灭的事物。

  　　 另外一个领域则是理型的世界。我们可以用理性来确实认识这个世界。我们无法用感官来察知这个理型的世界，但这些理型(或形式)是永恒不变的。

  　　 根据柏拉图的说法，人是一种具有双重性质的生物。我们的身体是“流动”的，与感官的世界不可分割，并且其命运与世界上其他每一件事物(如肥皂泡)都相同。我们所有的感官都是以身体为基础，因此是不可靠的。但我们同时也有一个不朽的灵魂，而这个灵魂则是理性的天下。由于灵魂不是物质，因此可以探索理型的世界。 ”

  “柏拉图同时认为，灵魂栖居在躯体内之前，原本就已经存在(它和所有的饼干模子一起躺在橱柜的上层)。然而一旦灵魂在某 一具躯体内醒来时，它便忘了所有的完美的理型。然后，一个奇妙的过程展开了。当人类发现自然界各种不同的形式时，某些模糊的回忆便开始扰动他的灵魂。他看到了一匹马，然而是一匹不完美的马。(一匹姜饼马！)灵魂一看到这匹马，便依稀想起它在理型世界中所见过的完美“马”，同时涌起一股回到它本来领域的渴望。柏拉图称这种渴望为eros，也就是“爱”的意思。此时，灵魂体验到“一种回归本源的欲望”。从此以后．，肉体与整个感官世界对它而言，都是不完美而且微不足道的。灵魂渴望乘着爱的翅膀回“家”，回到理型的世界。它渴望从“肉体的枷锁”中挣脱。 ”

  “柏拉图用一个神话故事来说明这点。我们称之为“洞穴神话”。 ”

  “柏拉图想说的是：黑暗洞穴与外在世界的关系就像是自然世界的形式与理型世界的关系。他的意思并非说大自然是黑暗、无趣的，而是说，比起鲜明清楚的理型世界来，它就显得黑暗而平淡。同样的，一张漂亮女孩的照片也不是单调无趣的，但再怎么说它也只是一张照片而已。 ”

  然后，作者开始谈亚里士多德

  Aristotle was a physicist, biologist, social scientist, and aesthetician. His system gave matter basic importance. He taught that wealth, friends, and comfort were part of the good life and prerequisites of virtue; for every ideal possibility rests on a natural (material) base.

  Humanists 里面有一小批人是信奉亚里士多德的，"especially those attracted by the new findings in science"

  现在引用《苏非的世界》里关于亚里士多德的介绍 （第11章）

  “ 我们可以说柏拉图太过沉迷于他那些永恒的形式(或“理型”)，以至于他很少注意到自然界的变化。相反的，亚理斯多德则只对这些变化(或我们今天所称的大自然的循环)感到兴趣。 ”

  “柏拉图和他的前辈一样，想在所有变化无常的事物中找出永恒与不变之物。因此他发现了比感官世界层次更高的完美理型。他更进一步认为理型比所有的自然现象真实。他指出，世间是先有“马”的理型，然后才有感官世界里所有的马匹，它们就像洞壁上的影子一般达达前进。因此“鸡”的理型要先于鸡，也先于蛋。

  　　 亚理斯多德则认为柏拉图将整个观念弄反了。他同意他的老 师的说法，认为一匹特定的马是“流动”的，没有一匹马可以长生不死，他也认为马的形式是永恒不变的。但他认为马的“理型”是我们人类在看到若干匹马后形成的概念。因此马的“理型”或“形式” ”

  “所以，亚理斯多德并不赞成柏拉图主张“鸡”的理型比鸡先有的说法。亚理斯多德所称的鸡的“形式”存在于每一只鸡的身上，成为鸡之所以为鸡的特色”

  “在柏拉图的理论中，现实世界中最高层次的事物乃是那些我们用理性来思索的事物。但对亚理斯多德而言，真实世界中最高层次的事物乃是那些我们用感官察觉的事物。”

  “ 在批评柏拉图的理型论后，亚理斯多德认为实在界乃是由各种本身的形式与质料和谐一致的事物所组成的。“质料”是事物组成的材料，“形式”则是每一件事物的个别特征。 ”

  然后，从这个时候开始，柏拉图派和亚里士多德派就争论不休了。

  然后，作者写了一段很有启发性的关于米开朗基罗（柏拉图派）的文字.

  pp.56

  Michelangelo, for example, whose hand was subdued to matter like any ditch digger's, valued his works not for their artistic merit, as we do, but for the ideal beauty that he put into them and that, for him, made their materiality disappear.

  也就是说，米开朗基罗试图制造柏拉图所说的一个事物的“完美形式”。有趣！

  然后，又一段有趣的关于“柏拉图爱情”的话

  It is too bad that in popular use "Platonic love" means only absence of sexual relations. That typical reduction of an important idea prevents one from using the term conveniently to denote a recurrent striving in occidental culture, the longing for the Pure. Individuals and movements, not all rooted in religion or metaphysics, have repeatedly proclaimed their pursuit or their achievement of pure love, pure thought, pure form in art.

  其实人家柏拉图追求的是“纯粹”，而不仅仅是“无性”啰。

  pp.62

  This first generation of international publishers did not merely make and sell books; they were scholars and patrons who translated the classics, nurtured their authors, and wrote original works. Their continual redesigning of letter forms gave rise to the new art of typography. Dozens of fine artists since 1500 have created typefaces for every kind of use without making the earliest ones obsolete.

  这就是印刷体历史的开始啊！15世纪末16世纪初。好神奇。 (收起)

  2011-08-01 07:31:53   回应

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  The new life [part 2]

  鱼更 (The greatest love of all.)

  pp.30 继续讲predestination,对现代criminology的影响； Modern criminology is rooted in this conviction and public opinion in the main agrees: the criminal is not responsible for his acts; he is "conditioned." Grace (the right heredity or environment) had denied him. 宗教又一次跟哲学联合起来，体现出它们对我们思维方式的长远影响。 pp.30的后半段和pp.31的前半段讲了一大堆人对trinity的.. (更多)

  pp.30

  继续讲predestination,对现代criminology的影响；

  Modern criminology is rooted in this conviction and public opinion in the main agrees: the criminal is not responsible for his acts; he is "conditioned." Grace (the right heredity or environment) had denied him.

  宗教又一次跟哲学联合起来，体现出它们对我们思维方式的长远影响。

  pp.30的后半段和pp.31的前半段讲了一大堆人对trinity的不同看法。有些人认为father, son and holy ghost是一体的，有些人认为他们不是一体的。不信教的我表示我真的不关心...

  pp.31给了一句很有趣的话:

  The likeness in these similars is in the human motive: the idea of worshipping one God is akin to the scientific hope of bringing all phenomena under one law.

  What if there is just no such thing as "one law" - 那样科学家就无谓挣扎了...

  32-33页花了大篇幅讲了历史上各种人对圣经的不同诠释...出了眼花缭乱之外没有其他感想了。但是33页里面出现了一个有趣的人/观点：

  A last eccentric who should not be forgotten is the German Kaspar Schwenkfeld. If, he said, each soul has a unique destiny, then each man and woman may frame his or her creed(教条) within common Christian religion. They deserve to have faith custom-tailored to their needs. Today, when Individualism has turned from a fitful theme to a political and social right...(后略)

  真是新颖啊..faith custom-tailored to needs..╮(￣▽￣")╭

  于是这大概就是个人主义的雏形吧。

  pp.34,开始重点讲Calvin

  His achievement was to combine in practice Luther's two statements about the Christian's liberty: individual salvation through faith, and subjection to society as antidote（解毒剂） to anarchy（政治混乱). The second clause means the control of morals and manners by the state, a system that Calvin brought about without any planning.

  讲Luther 和 Calvin的关系，强大的作者居然拿马氏和列氏来做类比:

  The two oracles respected each other, warily. Luther, who had only five years to live when Calvin's fame began to spread, was not best pleased to see so many new recruits differing from his theology only in details and yet bearing a new name. But Calvin- a sort of Lenin to Luther's Marx - may well have saved Protestantism when it was at a low ebb.

  Its pulling power was not due to a book (指Calvin的INSTITUTE) alone. The Academy or college that Calvin founded to train ministers and that was to become the city university, made Geneva a European center of learning...The place was buzzing with foreigners of all ages and origins. It was a Mecca for the enthusiasts, a city of refuge for exiles.

  pp.35 讲到Calvinism对很多人的影响

  Calvinism, it has been said, makes every man the enemy of every other, as well as his own （注：因为教规非常严格)...Byron's lifelong conviction, born of his harsh Calvinist rearing, that everything he found good would turn to evil because WRONG. Still more surprising, Rousseau's Genevan birth and upbringing influenced his philosophy of life and of the state.

  pp.36 地理分界:

  The German states were generally Lutheran, part of France and of the Netherlands were Calvinist. Sweden and its neighboring dependencies were Lutheran, Switzerland two-thirds Calvinist. England made a creed of its own more anti-papal(反教皇的) than thoroughly reformed.

  英国果然是因为地理关系，搞得很分离阿

  pp.36-37 神通广大的作者居然..居然把新教徒跟资本主义的产生联系到一起了!!!

  Self-repression for the sake of freeing the spirit had other than strictly religious consequences...Oddly enough, these ways of dealing with the self have in our day been believed to throw light on a complex economic question: the rise of Capitalism... the Capitalism system owes its birth and success to the moral teachings of the Reformers. The protestant "work ethic" created the entrepreneur, the economic man as we know him under capitalism.

  这主要是社会学家 Max Webber 和 R.H. Tawney提出的:

  Weber and Tawney based their thesis on social and psychological grounds: Protestantism, by leaving the believer in doubt about his salvation, yet holding out the chance of grace, encourages him to act as if already an elect - sober, earnest, hardworking. His moral code makes him CALCULATING at every turn - the ideal man for business. On earth and beyond, he faces risk with fortitude while taking all thoughtful precautions. The Catholic, by comparison, is easy-going, pays his way spiritually by symbolic "works,", most of which have no practical effects on earth. Far from praising real work, he sees it as Adam's curse.

  如果这是真的，何以解释今天不管是在新教徒的欧洲还是在天主教的欧洲甚至在没信仰的中国资本主义都一派欣欣向荣呢...当然这个理论真的有趣啊!!!

  37页，作者也举了反例 - 资本主义老早在新教和天主教分裂前就发生了╮(￣▽￣")╭

  Large-scale banking thrived early in Italy - the Medici are the outstanding example - and so it was not the child of Protestantism.

  然后他举了个更搞笑的反例

  Facts from the Protestant side itself refute the thesis: both Luther and Calvin attacked profit-making and deplored "the materialism of the age"...(Calvin) urged his flock to live as modestly as possible, so as to always leave something for charity.

  接着举：

  Besides, the newly Protestant countries did not lead Europe in economic progress.

  ╮(￣▽￣")╭只有这个表情才能表现我读到此刻的心情。但是我始终觉得那个理论挺有趣的。

  pp.39

  文化教育方面的影响：

  The Catholic effort to regain ground produced new works of architecture and the fine arts; the Protestant effort produced literature and large works of doctrine. The Calvinist courts in particular favored learning and Scotland started popular education. The Catholics put up or restored churches, commissioned altar pieces and paintings and sculptures of the Virgin and the saints - witness the abundance of Baroque aret. The protestants contributed PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, the poems of Milton and Marvell, Jermy Taylor's HOLY LIVING AND DYING and (as will appear) a spate of tracts （小册子),many of them in favour of rule by the people.

  pp.42

  The Jesuits set up schools by the score. In mid-17C Europe there were more schools and puiples than in the mid-19C. Indeed, there soon was complaint of too many schools for the population. All likely youths, rich or poor, were given the means to attend, and the merits of the system were shortly seen in the galaxy of brilliant minds that it produced. From Descartes to Voltaire and scientists were educated by the Jesuits.

  背景知识/名词解释 [source: wikipedia]

  pp.35

  PURITAN

  The Puritans were a significant grouping of English-speaking Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant of practices which they associated with the Catholic Church.

  A Puritan was any person seeking 'purity' through worship and doctrine. Piety, simplicity of dress and modesty of life were hallmarks. Many of their beliefs were similar to those of Calvinists and Scottish Presbyterians

  pp.39

  COUNCIL OF TRENT

  特伦托会议（又译脱利腾会议、特伦多会议、特伦特会议或天特会议）(The Council of Trent)，是指罗马教廷于1545至1563年期间在北意大利的天特城召开的大公会议。

  是次会议乃罗马教廷的内部觉醒运动之一，也是天主教反改教运动中的重要工具，用以抗衡马丁·路德的宗教改革所带来的冲击。

  特伦托会议是罗马天主教宗教改革的主轴。正当基督新教兴盛之时，罗马天主教会持续腐化，英国也宣布国王权力凌驾教皇。天主教会内部召开宗教改革会议的呼声，从下层教士起以至大学里都不绝于耳，最后连查理五世也决定要解决这些宗教问题。

  查理五世是宗教改革运动的激烈反对者，为了促成基督新教与天主教合一，他曾多方邀请奔走。教皇保禄三世(Pope Paul III)终于在压力，同意在1545年召开首次特伦托会议，处理教会改革和应付与日俱增的更正教的威胁，宣告欧洲天主教势力反对宗教改革的浪潮的开始。

  议决摘要

  是次为罗马天主教会之自我改革运动，被称为“反改教运动”(Counter Reformation)。部分议决内容兹摘要如下：

  -取消会吏长一职：会吏长即总执事，初期由主教任命，协助主教处理事务。中世纪时，由于权力增大，时有妄用职权之弊，故在特伦托会议中予以取消。

  -第三次特伦托会议重申教徒必须缴付什一税。

  -废止售卖赎罪券的议案在第三次特伦托会议上被提出，到了1567年获庇护五世批准。

  -对于改革宗一向秉持为教义的"Eternal Security"神学观念，特伦托会议颁布：“如果有人说，一但称义便不会失去救恩，因此，跌倒犯罪的人从来就没有称义过！这人是受绝罚的”

  -为了对抗基督新教的影响，特伦托会议重新肯定耶柔米的武加大译本为圣经权威版本，会议委托教皇制定一部标准文本。

  -制定Tridentine Mass礼仪，即梵二前用拉丁文举行的弥撒礼仪。

  在教理方面，教会采取“完全闭关主义”，对任何中世纪教理的攻击不作妥协的主张，也不

  对新教的回应

  对于马丁·路德极力攻击的各项教义问题，天特会议有以下的决议：

  -罗马教会之一切传统教说，与《圣经》具有同等地位。

  -所有基督徒必须承认教皇之神圣性。

  -宣布马丁·路德所谓因信仰而获赎罪（因信称义）之说为异端。

  -罗马教会之所有神官、主教及总主教都必须以基督之清静生活为道德标准。

  特伦托会议针对马丁·路德的各种“反改革”议决，很大程度上却改革了罗马教会.

  影响

  查理五世决心惩罚德意志的基督新教王公，此会议显出教皇制度的成功，肯定了教皇的最高权柄；纠正许多教会弊端；为圣职人员预备更好的教育，也对神职人员有些规定：在大城市教会中，规定要向会众讲解圣经及得救之道；教士要驻在任职，不得兼任数职等。总的而言，特伦托会议给了罗马天主教在往后世纪有明确立场，对其后展开的布道宣教及宗教战争有极大的帮助。

  pp.41 JESUITS

  耶稣会（拉丁语：Societas Iesu, S.J.），是天主教的主要修会之一，1534年8月15日由圣依纳爵·罗耀拉（St. Ignatius of Loyola）为因应当时基督新教的宗教改革在巴黎成立，后获得罗马教廷教宗的许可。耶稣会最主要的任务是教育与传教，在欧洲兴办许多大学，培养出的学生除是耶稣会人才外，也活跃于政界与知识份子阶级，著名的如笛卡儿。

  15世纪后当时天主教受到新教的冲击非常大，天主教内产生了一股维新改革的思想，耶稣会的成立是这个势力的一部分。

  在欧洲耶稣会在反新教的运动中起了非常大的作用。尤其在学校和大学中他们的影响非常大。他们将布道的仪式搞得非常华丽，这正好与马丁·路德的新教相反，路德宣传节省的布道仪式。耶稣会对巴洛克艺术的发展和普及起了很大的作用。耶稣会的成员对当时的政治也有很大的影响，因为他们中许多人是国王的忏悔神父。

  The new life这章对于我来说非常难读。脑袋里头基本上没有对于基督教/天主教的各个教派的任何储备知识，阅读的时候也因此举步维艰。一旦弄懂，学到的东西也很多。=］ (收起)

  2011-07-22 06:55:43   回应

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