狄福《大疫年紀事》中神／人與宗教／理性間的對話

Dialogues between God and Man: Religion and Reason in Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year

狄福的《大疫年紀事》，由第一人稱敘述者，H.F.，一位居住在倫敦的商人，描寫一六六五年，鼠疫流行於倫敦，死亡迫近之際，所眼見的可怕景象，及所經歷的心靈轉變。對於瘟疫降臨倫敦，H.F.反覆於兩種截然不同的論點。他一方面相信宗教論述，認為瘟疫來自於神對世人作惡的懲罰，另一方面又相信醫學論述，認為疾病來自世俗人物接觸的傳染。H.F.明顯地主張矛盾，態度游移。本文之研究目的，即在探索狄福於《大疫年紀事》中所呈現的矛盾與游移，探討H.F.於倫敦瘟疫流行之際，面對疾病與死亡之時，同時對於神與人的信賴與懷疑：到底是無形萬能的神，能將人類由瘟疫死神手中解救出來，還是人類得依靠自己所發展出的科學實驗與理性辯證，才能擺脫瘟疫的肆虐。本文希望透過對英國啟蒙時期的科學、哲學、與文藝的發展，瞭解當時科學與宗教的衝突與協調，以期解釋狄福文中矛盾的合理性，以及其猶疑不定的成因。本研究的結論是，《大疫年紀事》的矛盾實際上既和諧也合理，起因於十八世紀啟蒙時期，科學興起，宗教式微之際，知識份子對理性主義與基督上帝雙重信仰的結果。

In Daniel Defoe's ＂A Journal of the Plague Year＂, the first-person narrator, H.F., a businessman in London, depicts the horror of the approaching death and his spiritual conversion during the plague year of 1665. Confronting the unknown disease, H.F. repeatedly changes his statements between two different beliefs. On one hand, he believes in the religious discourse, taking the plague as a punishment from the angry God, and on the other hand, he believes in the medical discourse, assuming the plague a contagious disease spread by physical contacts between people. Obviously, H.F.'s statements contradict each other, and this essay will analyze the inconsistencies in his ideas. This study will focus on H.F.'s simultaneous belief and doubt in both God and men; sometimes he wonders whether the omnipotent God will save men from the dreadfulness of the plague, at other times he looks to human manipulation of science and reason to rescue the suffering men from the hands of Death. Looking into the scientific, philosophical, and intellectual progresses during the English Enlightenment, this paper hopes to examine the odd relationship between religion and science and explain why they could conflict with each other but still coexist harmoniously. This essay proposes that H.F.'s contradicting beliefs are reasonable in the Enlightenment, because the religious and scientific beliefs were superimposing each other in the age when the authority of science was rising and the belief in the Christian God was being challenged.