仇恨是死亡的种子”：托马斯·默顿的反战立场与世界和平理想

“Hatred is the Seed of Death”—Thomas Merton’s Anti War Stand and the Ideal of World Peace

中文关键词:  托马斯·默顿;战争与和平;天主教社会思想;美国研究

英文关键词:Thomas Merton, war and peace, Catholic social thought, American studies,

中文摘要:

      和历史上的很多修道人士一样，美国修士和作家托马斯·默顿（1915—1968年）由出世和孤寂的立场观察社会和世界局势，以一种独特的方式表达了他对所有人的同情和关爱。他不断强调说，这份同情和关爱必须延伸扩展到当时在冷战和越战中被看成是美国敌人的国家和人民。他写作了倡导和平、反对战争的大量作品，批评了敌视社会主义阵营的美国政治家。他希望被这些政治家煽动和迷惑的民众能够意识到，真实的世界不可能被简单地划分为良善和邪恶两个部分，真实的情况不可能是美国和西方代表所有的善，不再需要为社会进步进行任何改良和变革，而与之竞争的社会主义国家只是邪恶的化身。在默顿看来，存在重大分歧的世界主要国家需要有足够的谦卑做出自我反省，有足够的人道主义精神向对手方展示善意和诚意，因为真正能够持久的世界和平，只能建立在这样一种态度的转变之上。

英文摘要:

      For Thomas Merton (1915-1968), a Trappist monk in the United States, and many in religious communities in history, the spirituality of withdrawal from the world always grew into compassion for humankind, another important dimension of genuine monasticism, and hence their active participation in social intervention when the situation demanded it. In the case of Merton, it was a fierce protest against violence in the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Through his numerous writings denouncing war and trying to promote lasting peace, he combated the demagogues who attempted to demonize people believing in the ideology different from the one upheld as the mainstream in the West. The root of war and the threat of war, according to Merton, existed in the illusion that inevitable enemies, invested with all the evil in the world, were out there, and they were to be destroyed in order for conflict to cease. As he repeatedly pointed out, this “most diabolical illusion” was the great temptation of Christians in the West, and prevented them, while accepting themselves as perfectly good and rejecting any reforms necessary for further social progress, “from seeing any good or any practicability in the political ideas” of the other side. Only love and humility on all sides, if Merton is to be trusted, can lead to enduring world peace.