与杨庆球教授商榷：田立克和士莱马赫的神学理解──评《二十世纪神学选读》

Discussion with Prof. Jason Yeung on the Understanding of Paul Tillich and Schleiermacher: A Review of 20th Century Selected Theologians

Keith KF CHAN

This review critiques Prof. Jason Yeung's 20 th Century Selected Theologians on the theological understanding of Paul Tillich and Schleiermacher. Firstly, Yeung is dissatisfied with Tillich's rejection of the Chalcedonian Christological formula and incarnation. Yeung comments that Tillich committed the error of adoptionist Christology. This review clarifies that the reason Tillich rejects “two-natures Christology ” is that he prefers to use a dynamic framework to describe the dynamics between divine Logos and human being in Jesus' life rather than to employ static language to struggle with the union between divine and human “natures”. Also, Tillich disagrees with the metamorphosis character of the doctrine of incarnation rather than the concept of incarnation as such. Regarding the problem of adoptionism, Tillich's pneumatological Christology is an alternative way of understanding his intention of balancing these two classical models of Christology.

Secondly, Yeung critiques the non-cognitive character of Schleiermacher's description of religious feeling and points out that its subjective and emotional tendency would destroy the objectivity of theological language. If so, Schleiermacher's God will be dismissed in the scientific world. This review points out that “Gefühl” in Schleiermacher's usage doesn't identify with psychological faculty; it actually points to the human ontological mode in its totality. Based on the view that the object of Christian dogmatics is Christian religious consciousness, Schleiermacher asserts that the definite and objective object of Christian dogmatics constitutes its “positive” character and this is why theology is a kind of “positive science.” The “scientific” nature of theology should be understood in view of its postive and encyclopedic character.