宗教信仰與夢文化──明清之際天主教與佛教的比較探索

Religious Belief and Dream Culture: A Comparative Study of Catholicism and Buddhism in the Ming-Qing Period

全文首先略述夢在西方天主教神學的意義，繼而從比較明、清之際耶穌會傳教士與中國教徒對聖夢不同的態度，以探討天主教傳教史的文化背景。本文以十七、十八世紀初耶穌會傳教史料記載有關信徒做聖夢之例子，作出數量化與質量化的分析，再以之比較同期佛教史料有關聖夢的記裁。中國天主教徒進教的心態與社會背景，乃至天主教團體在明、清成立的特色，分別在結論中闡明。

After surveying the place of dreams in Christian theology of the West, this article examines the writings of Jesuit missionaries in China on the subject, and contrasts the reserved attitude of European priests with the enthusiasm for holy dreams in the writings of Chinese converts. A database of holy dreams, assembled from Jesuit reports of the 17th and early 18th centuries, forms the basis for qualitative and quantitative analyses, the results of which are compared with a second database of holy dreams drawn from Buddhist sources of the same period. The comparative analysis of religious images, doctrines, and the social history of dreams allows for some tentative observations on the psychology of Christian conversion and the sociology of Christian community formation in late Ming and early Qing China.