试析宗教伦理的涵义和问题

理解宗教有两种思路:一是狭义的,将宗教视为和其他各种社会文化现象,如政治、经济、哲学、艺术等并列而不同的另一种独特的社会精神生活现象;二是广义的,将宗教理解为整个社会文化生活的基础,理解为人性或生命存在的形而上学根基。根据两种宗教思路,宗教伦理有两种释义:着眼于个性形态,指在宗教领域和宗教活动中,由信奉者群体遵守的,从特定信仰体系里引申出来的一套伦理规范,与政治伦理、经济伦理等一样,属于一种特殊的伦理领域或伦理形态。着眼于共性意蕴,关涉的是对于人的存在来说具有某种普遍意义的价值生存模式,将人的整个社会伦理生活秩序指向了某种终极意义或终极信念。依此,宗教伦理学的基本问题是探讨人类生存的伦理秩序和信念根基之间的关系,一是人心道义秩序与信念根基之间的关系,二是社会伦理秩序与意义共识之间的关系。

On the Meaning of Religious Ethics and its Problems

There are two approaches to the understanding of religion: in a narrow sense,religion is considered to be a particular phenomenon of social spiritual life,and in this sense it may be juxtaposed with politics,economics,philosophy,arts and so on;whereas,in a broad sense,religion is understood as the foundation of the entire social cultural life,as the metaphysical root of humanity or the existence of human life.On the basis of these two approaches,there are accordingly two different ways to understand religious ethics.With regard to its individual form,religious ethics refers to a set of ethical norms observed by its believers in religious domain and activities.And if it is considered from their common basis,religious ethics is concerned with a certain pattern of life which has common significance for the existence of human being;it leads the ethical order of social life towards the ultimate value,or the ultimate belief.Therefore,the fundamental question of religious ethics is to investigate the relationship between the ethical order of human existence and its foundation of belief.Specifically speaking,on the one hand it deals with the relationship between the moral order of individual person and the foundation of belief,and on the other hand,it deals with the relationship between social ethical order and the agreement of value.