Catholicism, Protestantism and how they differ - 天主教、新教及它们的区别

Catholicism is a Christian religion, a reformation of the Jewish faith that follows the teachings of its founder Jesus Christ. Like other Christian religions as well as Judaism and Islam, it is also an Abrahamic religion, and Catholics consider Abraham as the ancient patriarch. The current head of the church is the Pope, who resides in Vatican City. There are 2.2 billion Catholics in the world today, 40 percent of whom live in Latin America. ¹⁾

天主教是基督教的一种宗教，是犹太教信仰的改革，遵循其创始人耶稣基督的教义。和其他基督教以及犹太教和伊斯兰教一样，它也是亚伯拉罕宗教，天主教徒认为亚伯拉罕是古代的族长。现任教会领袖是宗梵蒂冈城的教皇。当今世界上有22亿天主教徒，其中40%生活在拉丁美洲。

The Catholic religion is monotheistic, meaning that Catholics believe that there is only one supreme being, called God. The Catholic God has three aspects, known as the Trinity. The Supreme Being is the creator, called God or God the Father, who resides in heaven and watches over and guides everything on earth. He is known as the lord of heaven and earth, and referred to as almighty, eternal, immeasurable, incomprehensible, and infinite in understanding, will, and perfection. The Holy Trinity is made up of the Father (God), who has no origin and holds the sole power of creation; the Son (Jesus Christ) of God, who shares the wisdom of the Father; and the Holy Spirit, which is the personification of goodness and sanctity, arising from both the Father and Son.²⁾

天主教是一神论的，这意味着天主教相信只有一个至上的存在，即上帝。天主教的上帝有三个方面，被称为三位一体。至高的存在是造物主，被称为上帝或上帝的父亲，住在天堂，监督和指导地球上的一切。他是天地的主，是万能的、永恒的、不可测的、不可思议的、在理解、意志和完美上是无限的。圣三位一体是由圣父(上帝)组成的，他没有起源，只有创造的力量; 1:1神的儿子(耶稣基督)，与人分享父的智慧。圣父和圣子同时产生的圣灵，是善和圣洁的化身。

The Catholic church is traditionally said to have been founded on Pentecost, the 50th day after its founder Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. On that day, Christ's apostle Peter preached to the “multitudes,” people assembled in Rome. Peter baptized 3,000 new Christians and sent them back to their home countries to spread the word. The period from the Pentecost until the death of the last Apostle is known as the Apostolic Era, and it was during that time that the church went underground because of Roman persecution. Paul of Tarsus, who would become an important leader in the early church, was converted to Christianity while on the road to Damascus. Early church leaders met at the Council of Apostles Paul began his missionary work to Cyprus and Turkey, and he and Peter were executed in Rome. During the centuries after Christianity became the state religion, they too practiced persecution of other non-Christian groups.³⁾

传统上说，天主教会是在五旬节建立的，也就是其创始人耶稣基督升天后的第50天。在那一天，基督的使徒彼得向“群众”传道，人们聚集在罗马，彼得给3000名新基督徒施洗，然后把他们送回自己的国家去传播福音。从五旬节到最后一位使徒去世这段时期被称为使徒时代，正是在这段时期，教会因为罗马人的迫害而转入地下。后来成为早期教会重要领袖的塔尔苏斯的保罗，在前往大马士革的路上皈依了基督教。保罗开始他的传教工作到塞浦路斯和土耳其，他和彼得被处死在罗马。在基督教成为国教之后的几个世纪里，他们也对其他非基督教团体进行迫害。

Title - 标题
Catholic America : a pictorial map portraying the contribution of Catholics in the development of the United States of America 1492 to 1946 ⁴⁾
美国天主教:一幅描绘天主教徒在1492年至1946年间在美国发展中的贡献的图画地图

Artist - 创作者
Chase, Ernest Dudley, 1878-

Editor - 编辑
O'Connell, Lawrence M.

Publisher - 出版者
Chase-O'Connell

Date - 时间
1946

Extent - 大小
51 x 69 cm

Location - 位置

Boston Public Library (English)
波士顿公共图书馆

Protestantism is both an ecclesial movement of the Church, and a devotional urge within the believer. Historically, that which may be called “the Protestant faith” emerged from perceived and undeniable abuses within the Roman Catholic Church during the late fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries in the British Isles and Northern Europe. ⁵⁾

新教既是教会的一种教会运动，也是信徒内心的一种虔诚冲动。从历史上看，可称为 “新教信仰 “的东西产生于十五世纪末、十六世纪和十七世纪，在不列颠群岛和北欧的罗马天主教会内部，被认为和不可否认的虐待行为。

One of the most famous works on the origins of Protestantism began with this literary portraiture: “The man who thus called upon a saint was later to repudiate the cult of the saints. He who vowed to become a monk was later to renounce monasticism. A loyal son of the Catholic Church, he was later to shatter the structure of medieval Catholicism. A devoted servant of the pope, he was later to identify the popes with Antichrist. For this young man was Martin Luther. It is hard to overestimate the importance of Martin Luther to the Reformation and, thus, to Protestantism. ⁶⁾

关于新教起源的最著名的作品之一就是这样的文学写照:“这样召唤圣人的人后来会拒绝对圣人的崇拜。”发誓要出家的人后来放弃了修道。作为天主教会的忠诚之子，他后来打破了中世纪天主教的结构。作为教皇忠实的仆人，他后来被认为是教皇的反基督者。这个年轻人就是马丁·路德。他对宗教改革以及因此对新教的重要性是很难高估的。

Protestantism may be thought of in terms of history, but it is also a matter of the individual believer and her response to God. Protestantism is a movement within the broader Church of our Lord Jesus Christ that is fueled by a preeminent concern for a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ according to Scripture. The theological basis for the relationship is “justification by faith, through the grace of God, in Jesus Christ, according to the Scriptures, and all to the glory of God.” The term, Protestantism, remains a historical reality as the movement has retained its basic tenets but taken new forms in the Global South and the Global East. The meaning of Protestant was, is, and will, no doubt, continue to be, an impulse in the Church for reform. Protestantism that began in England in the 15th century and in Western Europe in the 16th century was not merely about reform from undeniable abuses of faith and practice within the remnant of the medieval Church, that is, the Roman Catholic Church.⁷⁾

新教可以从历史的角度来考虑，但它也是一个独立的信徒和她对上帝的回应的问题。新教是在我们的主耶稣基督的更广泛教会内的一种运动，根据圣经，它是由对通过耶稣基督与上帝的个人关系的高度关注所推动的。这种关系的神学基础是“根据圣经，因信称义，借着神的恩典，在耶稣基督里，一切归于神的荣耀。”“新教”这个词仍然是一个历史事实，因为该运动保留了它的基本原则，但在全球南部和东部采取了新的形式。新教的意思，毫无疑问是一个脉冲的教会改革。15世纪在英格兰和16世纪在西欧兴起的新教不仅仅是对中世纪残余教会，也就是罗马天主教的信仰和实践进行改革。

Protestant thought centers upon the divine revelation of Almighty God in his word, the Holy Scriptures. Furthermore, Protestantism insists that each and every believer should be grounded in that Word and have access to that Word. Whereas Roman Catholic clergy performed the service of the Mass with an emphasis upon “Ex opere operato,” from the work worked. Protestant ministers conducted worship services that centered in the Word preached and Sacraments administered according to the faith of the believer. In its most severe interpretation, not altogether unjustified with the state of the medieval Church, this doctrine meant that the efficacy, or power, of the Sacraments, were tied to the action of the priest. Such a view was repugnant to the renewed spirit of Martin Luther, Calvin, and others. Not only did this mean that the Roman Catholic priest reserved a power that the Reformers ascribed only to Christ, but that the people were dependent upon the Roman priesthood for the dispensing of God’s grace.⁸⁾

新教的思想集中于全能的上帝在他的话语中，即圣经中的神圣启示。此外，新教坚持每一个信徒都应该以那个词为基础，并能接触到那个词。而罗马天主教的神职人员在做弥撒时，强调的是，从工作中获得的“经验”。新教牧师以所宣讲的话语为中心进行礼拜，并根据信徒的信仰执行圣礼。在其最严格的解释中，并非完全不符合中世纪教会的状态，这一教义意味着圣礼的效力，或权力，是与神父的行为联系在一起的。这种观点与马丁·路德、加尔文等人的新精神相抵触。这不仅意味着罗马天主教的神父保留了改革者们认为只有基督才能拥有的权力，而且也意味着人们需要依靠罗马祭司来分配上帝的恩典。

From this one “protest,” the Reformed churches exalted the Word above the one who dispensed it, whether by preaching or through the Word made visible, the Sacraments. A thorough systematic theology would follow from this singular idea: that the believer, by virtue of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ has essential access to God without the need of a priest.⁹⁾

从这一次“抗议”中，归正教会无论是通过讲道还是通过圣礼的有形话语，都把话语高举在施教者之上。一个完整的系统的神学将从这个单一的想法而来:信徒，通过耶稣基督的生、死、复活和升天，有必要接触上帝，而不需要牧师。

There is continuity and discontinuity from the medieval Roman Church to the modern Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church did not remain as it was. Today’s Protestant believer must be careful to recognize the enormous strides made within the Roman Catholic Church and the common heritage that all Western Christians have. That being said, differences remain on how God’s grace is appropriated by a believer. Grace comes as a gift in both major Christian groups but is accessed through the “Magisterium” of the Roman Church, the hierarchy of the clergy, or for Protestants through a personal relationship with God through Christ. This difference has proved to be both a strength and a source of continuing dispute within the larger Protestant movement.¹⁰⁾

从中世纪罗马教会到现代罗马天主教会，既有连续性也有断续。罗马天主教会也不再是原来的样子了。今天的新教信徒必须谨慎地认识到罗马天主教会内部取得的巨大进步和所有西方基督徒拥有的共同遗产。话虽如此，在信徒如何善用神的恩典这一问题上仍存在分歧。恩典在两个主要的基督教团体中都是作为礼物而来的，但通过罗马教会的“教权”，神职人员的等级，或者对新教徒来说，通过基督与上帝的个人关系而来。事实证明，这种差异既是一种力量，也是更大范围的新教运动内部持续争论的根源。