In a serial lecture campaign regarding Marth Luther, a professor delivered a lecture on explaining the modernity of Protestantism from the thoughts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Martin Luther.
On December 13th, 2021, Professor Zhang Shiying from the School of Philosophy of Nankai University delivered a lecture titled “Luther and Rousseau - An Introduction to the Modernity of Protestantism” in the second season of the "Martin Luther and the Third Enlightenment Forum".
The lecture consists of four parts: the origin; the basis of common thoughts; themes of enlightenment; and crises of modernity and enlightenment.
The Origin
In his work on the history of thoughts Three Reforms, Jacques Maritain puts forward that “Luther discovered personality and Descartes discovered thoughts, while Rousseau discovered nature and freedom.” Surprisingly, Maritain thinks that Rousseau was not directly influenced by Calvin and his theology, or under the influence of Catholicism which seemed superficial. Instead, he inherited Luther’s Protestant spirit.
Defined by Leo Strauss as the initiator of second-wave modernity and an enlightenment thinker, Rousseau’s influence on Chinese society was estimated to be second only to Carl Marx. His theory of civil rights was regarded as the standard by Huang Zunxian, the ideological pioneer of China’s civil rights revolution. Luther’s influence on China was much smaller, almost entirely limited to Christianity and Lutheranism.
The basis of common thoughts
Luther and Rousseau were both Protestants. Luther was a theologian, a pastor, and a leader of the Reformation while Rousseau was a deist, a follower of gospel teachings, and a non-priest. The difference between them was similar to that of Paul and Jacob.
Meanwhile, neither of them was accepted by their times and were persecuted by their churches. They all saved their religion in their respective times. With the rise of Christian humanism and the failure of church reform, Luther saved Christianity by purifying its beliefs during that era by means of reformation. Under the background of atheism being the fashion in the ideological circle at that time, Rousseau, seeing the role of Christianity in maintaining morality, put forward his political philosophy proposition that civil religion was the social and political foundation.
Themes of enlightenment
1) Ego
Luther was the pioneer of the “spiritual self” in the sense of modernity. Because of faith, the ‘self’ emerged from the medieval “great chain of being” as described by Thomas Aquinas, in which all intermediaries were eliminated, and the direct relationship between man and God was proposed. The faith of the church, fellowship, and other believers could strengthen one’s faith, but it could not replace one’s faith.
Rousseau’s ‘self’ was “to be your true self”. Rousseau’s metaphysical dualism based on soul and body set the natural self of human beings. In a natural state, we had two natural emotions: self-love and pity. A natural ability and emotion, conscience produced by socialization was derived from the combination of two kinds of emotions: one is the natural emotion (such as pity) that connected oneself with others, and the other was the self-centered natural emotion (self-love). Rousseau believed that the essence of human beings lied in conscience, which was the fundamental difference between human beings and animals. While recognizing conscience as the fundamental self of human beings, Rousseau’s optimistic theory of human nature also made him think that perfectibility was the fundamental feature of human beings.
2) Freedom
Rousseau said, “People are born free, but they are everywhere in chains.” For Luther, freedom first meant getting rid of sin, being justified by faith, being redeemed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and being reconciled with God. Because of God’s special grace and the truth in God’s way, Christians gained freedom and conquered sin, death, and hell. Luther expressed the freedom of Christians in a contradictory way: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” The former was about freedom in faith while the latter referred to freedom in love. Through the freedom of faith, Luther claimed that “every believer is priesthood”, which realized that everyone is equal before God.
Of course, Rousseau not only regarded freedom as a natural human right but also talked about freedom of belief, moral freedom, and social freedom. The idea of the freedom of belief completely inherited the freedom principle from Protestantism.
3) Rationality (nature)
Luther’s rationality (nature): He divided the rationality in the relationship between man and God and the rationality in the secular kingdom, which is given to man as a gift when he is created, the rationality in sinners after the fall, and the rationality in the life of newborn Christians.
Rousseau’s rationality (Nature): “Rationality alone cannot play a role. Sometimes it can restrain a person, but it rarely encourages people. Nor can it cultivate any great mind. If those humble minds keep reasoning, they will surely be made crazy.” As an emotionalist philosopher, Rousseau saw the limitation of reason in the field of moral obligation. Reason makes people know good and evil but cannot make people love and do good.
4) Human nature
Luther believed that human nature and human beings would move towards progress and civilization through enlightenment and education, and human society would enter the ideal realm of harmony between rationality and nature.
From the brilliance of human nature in Luther’s life, we ciykd find that, based on the Christian standpoint. He also affirmed the perfectibility of human nature, that is, righteousness and sanctification, and even righteousness in the sense of soul salvation.
Rousseau established the doctrine of goodness in nature that is the original conditions and conditions of pre-culture and pre-rational system of human life must be good, innocent, and happy, but a kind of good mentality, an inherent premise of innocence and happiness, which must belong to human nature itself.
5) Religious understanding
As a Christian theologian, Luther talked about Judaism, Islam, and other pagans, and advocated that pagans or heresies should be treated by the way of God instead of force, which reflects the enlightenment spirit of religious tolerance.
Rousseau advocated natural religion and gains a profound idea of God through natural scenes and inner voices. If human beings only listened to what God said in their hearts, there was only one universal rational religion in the world. Worship required by God is sincere worship in the heart as what God wants is true admiration from people in spirit. This is the bounden duty of all religions, countries, and nations. Christianity was the established religion that most accords with natural religion, and it was the most reasonable and holy religion. Rousseau only believed in the Bible and reason as the only principle. The truest religion should be the most social and human religion, that is, civil religion.
Rousseau’s confession and his views on marriage and family all reflected the weakness of the people-centered theory. Being a virtuous person, that is, a person with personality, dignity, and the image of God, pursuing eternal truth, freedom and infinity was more desirable than the prosperity of the world, which may might the best enlightenment of Luther and Rousseau’s thoughts to the world today.
- Translated by Charlie Li
学术讲座|张仕颖教授：“路德与卢梭——简论新教的现代性2021年12月13日，马丁路德与第三次启蒙论坛（第二季）继续进行，本期讲座邀请了来自南开大学哲学院的张仕颖教授主讲，本期讲座主题为“路德与卢梭——简论新教的现代性”。
张教授把讲座分成了四个部分：缘起、共同的思想基础、启蒙的主题、现代性危机及启示。
一，缘起
雅克·马里坦在他的思想史著作《改革三家》中提出了“路德发现了人格，笛卡尔发现了思想，卢梭发现了自然和自由”。令人惊讶的是，马里坦认为卢梭并没有在直接意义上受加尔文及其神学的影响，天主教的影响也是极为肤浅和表面的，反倒是继承了路德的新教精神。
作为列奥.斯特劳斯所谓现代性第二波发起人、注明启蒙思想家卢梭，在众多的西方思想家中，对中国社会的影响应该仅次于马克思，其民权说为中国民权革命的思想先驱黄遵宪奉为圭臬。而路德的影响要小得多，几乎仅限于基督教界和信义宗。
二，共同的思想基础
路德与卢梭他们两个人都是新教徒。路德的身份是神学家、牧者、宗教改革运动领袖，而卢梭则是自然神论者、福音教导的追随者、非神甫的信徒，他们两者之间的区别类似于保罗、雅各。
同时，这二者都为当时的时代所不容，同时招致其所属教会的迫害。他们都在各自所处的时代背景下挽救宗教。在基督教人文主义兴起、教会改革无望的情况下，路德以改教的方式挽救了基督教，纯化了时代的宗教信仰；卢梭则在无神论作为当时思想界时尚的情况下，看到了人类宗教（基督教福音）对于道德的维护作用，提出公民宗教作为社会政治基础的政治哲学主张。
三，启蒙的主题
1）自我
路德是现代性意义上“精神性自我”确立的先驱。因着信仰，这个自我从托马斯.阿奎那所描述的中世纪“存在之链”之中脱嵌而出，剔除一切中介，建立了人神之间的直接关系。教会、团契、其他信徒的信仰能坚定我的信仰，但却无法代替我去信仰。
卢梭的自我，“成为你真正的自我”。卢梭基于灵魂和肉体的形而上学二元论，设定了人的自然性自我。自然状态的我拥有自爱和怜悯这两种自然情感。良心是一种自然的能力和情感，社会化了的人身上产生的良心源于两种情感的结合：一种是将自身与他人联系起来的自然情感（如怜悯），另一种是以自我为中心的自然情感（自爱）。卢梭认为人的本质在于良心，良心是人类有别于动物的根本区分。在承认良心作为人的根本自我的同时，卢梭的乐观人性论也使得他认为可完善性是人类的根本特征。
2）自由
卢梭有言：“人生而自由，却无往不在枷锁当中。”对于路德而言，自由首先是摆脱罪，因信称义，灵火获得救赎，与上帝和解。因着上帝的特殊恩典和上帝之道中的真理，得到自由，胜过罪、死亡和地狱。路德以悖反的方式表达了基督徒的自由：“一个基督徒是一个主宰一切的自由者，不服从任何人；一个基督徒是一个对一切都尽职尽责的人，服从所有人。”前者讲的是信心里的自由，后者讲的是爱心里的自由。经由信心的自由，路德提出“信者皆祭司”，实现了人人在上帝面前平等，
当然，卢梭不仅把自由当作天赋人权，还谈及信仰自由、道德自由和社会自由。信仰的自由完全继承了新教的自由原则。
3）理性（自然）
路德的理性（自然）：他划分了人与上帝关系中的理性与世俗王国中的理性，受造时作为恩赐礼物给与人的理性、堕落后罪人身上出现的理性、新生的基督徒生活中的理性。
卢梭的理性（自然）：“单凭理性是不能发挥作用的，它有时候可以约束一个人，但却很少能鼓励人，它也不能培养任何伟大的心灵，要那些卑微的心灵一刻不停的推理，势必会使他们疯狂。”作为情感主义哲学家，卢梭在道德义务领域看到了理性的局限，理性使人知善恶，却无力使人爱善和行善。
4）人性
路德：认为人性和人类经过启蒙和教育，会走向进步和文明，人类社会会进入理性和自然协调一致的理想境界。
从路德生命中洋溢的人性光辉，我们会发现，基于基督教的立场，他同样肯定人性的可完善性，即称义和成圣，乃至灵魂获救意义上的成义。
卢梭：卢梭缔造了自然之善的教义：人类生命的前文化和前理性建制的原切状况和原切条件，必然是善的、无辜的和幸福的，而是一种善好的心态，一种固有的无辜和幸福的前提，必定属于人性本身。
5）宗教理解
路德作为基督教神学家，谈及犹太教、伊斯兰教和其他异教，主张应用上帝之道而非武力对待异教或异端，体现出了宗教宽容的启蒙精神。
卢梭倡导的是自然宗教，通过自然的景象和内心的呼声，获得对上帝深刻的观念。如果人类都只在心里倾听上帝所说的话，世界上就只有一种普世的理性宗教。上帝所要求的崇拜便是内心真诚的敬拜，上帝所希望的，是受到人们精神上真实的敬仰，这是一切宗教、国家和民族应该有的天职。基督教是与自然宗教最相符合的实定宗教，是最合理和圣洁的宗教，卢梭只以圣经和理性为信仰唯一的原则。最真实的宗教是最具有社会性和人性的宗教，即公民宗教。
卢梭的忏悔、对婚姻和家庭的观点，都折射出人本中心论者心灵之虚弱。成为一个有德性的人，即有人格、尊严和上帝形象的人，追求永恒的真理、自由和无限，要比人世的繁荣兴旺更为可取，这或许就是路德和卢梭思想对于今日世界的最好启示。
学术讲座|张仕颖教授：“路德与卢梭——简论新教的现代性”
In a serial lecture campaign regarding Marth Luther, a professor delivered a lecture on explaining the modernity of Protestantism from the thoughts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Martin Luther.
On December 13th, 2021, Professor Zhang Shiying from the School of Philosophy of Nankai University delivered a lecture titled “Luther and Rousseau - An Introduction to the Modernity of Protestantism” in the second season of the "Martin Luther and the Third Enlightenment Forum".
The lecture consists of four parts: the origin; the basis of common thoughts; themes of enlightenment; and crises of modernity and enlightenment.
The Origin
In his work on the history of thoughts Three Reforms, Jacques Maritain puts forward that “Luther discovered personality and Descartes discovered thoughts, while Rousseau discovered nature and freedom.” Surprisingly, Maritain thinks that Rousseau was not directly influenced by Calvin and his theology, or under the influence of Catholicism which seemed superficial. Instead, he inherited Luther’s Protestant spirit.
Defined by Leo Strauss as the initiator of second-wave modernity and an enlightenment thinker, Rousseau’s influence on Chinese society was estimated to be second only to Carl Marx. His theory of civil rights was regarded as the standard by Huang Zunxian, the ideological pioneer of China’s civil rights revolution. Luther’s influence on China was much smaller, almost entirely limited to Christianity and Lutheranism.
The basis of common thoughts
Luther and Rousseau were both Protestants. Luther was a theologian, a pastor, and a leader of the Reformation while Rousseau was a deist, a follower of gospel teachings, and a non-priest. The difference between them was similar to that of Paul and Jacob.
Meanwhile, neither of them was accepted by their times and were persecuted by their churches. They all saved their religion in their respective times. With the rise of Christian humanism and the failure of church reform, Luther saved Christianity by purifying its beliefs during that era by means of reformation. Under the background of atheism being the fashion in the ideological circle at that time, Rousseau, seeing the role of Christianity in maintaining morality, put forward his political philosophy proposition that civil religion was the social and political foundation.
Themes of enlightenment
1) Ego
Luther was the pioneer of the “spiritual self” in the sense of modernity. Because of faith, the ‘self’ emerged from the medieval “great chain of being” as described by Thomas Aquinas, in which all intermediaries were eliminated, and the direct relationship between man and God was proposed. The faith of the church, fellowship, and other believers could strengthen one’s faith, but it could not replace one’s faith.
Rousseau’s ‘self’ was “to be your true self”. Rousseau’s metaphysical dualism based on soul and body set the natural self of human beings. In a natural state, we had two natural emotions: self-love and pity. A natural ability and emotion, conscience produced by socialization was derived from the combination of two kinds of emotions: one is the natural emotion (such as pity) that connected oneself with others, and the other was the self-centered natural emotion (self-love). Rousseau believed that the essence of human beings lied in conscience, which was the fundamental difference between human beings and animals. While recognizing conscience as the fundamental self of human beings, Rousseau’s optimistic theory of human nature also made him think that perfectibility was the fundamental feature of human beings.
2) Freedom
Rousseau said, “People are born free, but they are everywhere in chains.” For Luther, freedom first meant getting rid of sin, being justified by faith, being redeemed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and being reconciled with God. Because of God’s special grace and the truth in God’s way, Christians gained freedom and conquered sin, death, and hell. Luther expressed the freedom of Christians in a contradictory way: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” The former was about freedom in faith while the latter referred to freedom in love. Through the freedom of faith, Luther claimed that “every believer is priesthood”, which realized that everyone is equal before God.
Of course, Rousseau not only regarded freedom as a natural human right but also talked about freedom of belief, moral freedom, and social freedom. The idea of the freedom of belief completely inherited the freedom principle from Protestantism.
3) Rationality (nature)
Luther’s rationality (nature): He divided the rationality in the relationship between man and God and the rationality in the secular kingdom, which is given to man as a gift when he is created, the rationality in sinners after the fall, and the rationality in the life of newborn Christians.
Rousseau’s rationality (Nature): “Rationality alone cannot play a role. Sometimes it can restrain a person, but it rarely encourages people. Nor can it cultivate any great mind. If those humble minds keep reasoning, they will surely be made crazy.” As an emotionalist philosopher, Rousseau saw the limitation of reason in the field of moral obligation. Reason makes people know good and evil but cannot make people love and do good.
4) Human nature
Luther believed that human nature and human beings would move towards progress and civilization through enlightenment and education, and human society would enter the ideal realm of harmony between rationality and nature.
From the brilliance of human nature in Luther’s life, we ciykd find that, based on the Christian standpoint. He also affirmed the perfectibility of human nature, that is, righteousness and sanctification, and even righteousness in the sense of soul salvation.
Rousseau established the doctrine of goodness in nature that is the original conditions and conditions of pre-culture and pre-rational system of human life must be good, innocent, and happy, but a kind of good mentality, an inherent premise of innocence and happiness, which must belong to human nature itself.
5) Religious understanding
As a Christian theologian, Luther talked about Judaism, Islam, and other pagans, and advocated that pagans or heresies should be treated by the way of God instead of force, which reflects the enlightenment spirit of religious tolerance.
Rousseau advocated natural religion and gains a profound idea of God through natural scenes and inner voices. If human beings only listened to what God said in their hearts, there was only one universal rational religion in the world. Worship required by God is sincere worship in the heart as what God wants is true admiration from people in spirit. This is the bounden duty of all religions, countries, and nations. Christianity was the established religion that most accords with natural religion, and it was the most reasonable and holy religion. Rousseau only believed in the Bible and reason as the only principle. The truest religion should be the most social and human religion, that is, civil religion.
Rousseau’s confession and his views on marriage and family all reflected the weakness of the people-centered theory. Being a virtuous person, that is, a person with personality, dignity, and the image of God, pursuing eternal truth, freedom and infinity was more desirable than the prosperity of the world, which may might the best enlightenment of Luther and Rousseau’s thoughts to the world today.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Professor Explains Modernity of Protestantism From Thoughts of “Luther and Rousseau"
