The new life [part 1]

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。