英文自修71：价值崇拜

本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站，朋友们也可以下载节目录音收听。

译者：Young

审读：武太白

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Thought for the Day 20140503 Catherine Pepinster

Young 译

If you’re listening to the Today Programme while browsing the morning papers, the chances are that you’ll be looking at property sections and personal finance columns, full of cheery news for homeowners that house prices are soaring again.

如果你一边收听《今天》节目，一边浏览早报， 你可能会看到地产和个人理财专栏上全是令房主高兴的消息：房价再次飙升。

These seductive supplements can convince those fortunate homeowners that hour by hour they are getting rich – especially if they live in London and the South East. Indeed it was reported this week that three bedroomed houses in the most expensive areas of the capital, such as Chelsea, have gone up by £729 a day over the past 12 months. House prices are on average nearly 11 per cent higher than a year ago.

这些引人注意的消息让那些幸运的房主确信，时间每过去一个小时，他们就变得更富有。如果他们住在伦敦或是东南部，情况尤其如此。事实上，据本周的报道，在过去的12个月里，伦敦如切尔西这样的最奢华地区，三室的房子价格每天上涨729英镑。房价比一年前平均高出近11%。

What theologian 神学家 Thomas Aquinas called "natural wealth" such as food, clothing, and shelter are of course vital to survive. There is nothing wrong with wanting to secure the physical well-being of yourself and your loved ones through using money to acquire a home. But the very British obsession with making vast profits from housing tempts people to measure their worth by their ownership of property. With websites offering ordinary home-owners the chance to check their property’s value day by day, this fascination can become something almost idolatrous. It’s rather like a 21st century version of the Israelites worshipping a golden calf.

神学家托马斯·阿奎所谓的衣、食、住等“天然财富”对生存当然是不可或缺的。想要用钱安家置业，为自己和至爱的人提供健康幸福的保障，这本身无可厚非。但是英国人热衷于利用房屋谋取巨额利润，使得人们易于用房屋所有权来衡量自身的价值。加上网站能让普通房主每天核对房产的市值，这种着迷会发展成盲目崇拜。这就像以色列人崇拜金牛在21世纪的翻版。

So why does this false worship matter? Biblical stories suggest that such idolatry is a sin against God. But if God is omnipotent 无所不能的 then he can’t be harmed or diminished by us making false gods. Rather, the wisdom of the Scriptures hints at something else: that if we end up obsessed by something material such as our house and its rising value, then we are diminishing ourselves.

那么，为什么这种错误的崇拜关系重大呢？圣经故事告诉我们这种盲目崇拜会得罪上帝。但是如果上帝是无所不能的，他就不会因为我们编造出假的神明而受到伤害或贬低。《圣经》里的智慧给我们其他的暗示：如果我们最终沉迷于房子和它上涨的价值这些物质的东西，我们就是在贬低自己。

Rather than thinking about its financial value, where we live should reflect the value of a home in a broader currency, as two recent ecclesiastical examples show. Pope Francis took one look at the apostolic palace in Rome after he was elected and decided he’d be too isolated. He prefers instead to rub shoulders with other people by living in a nearby residence.

我们不应思考房屋的经济价值。我们的住所应该在更广泛的货币意义上体现出家的价值。正如最近两个有关教会的事例所体现的那样。在当选罗马教皇后，弗朗西斯看了一眼罗马的宗座宫，觉得住在这里太与世隔绝了。他更喜欢住在附近的住宅和人们肩并肩的感觉。

In contrast the Church Commissioners had wanted the new bishop of Bath and Wells to live in a new home out of town rather move into the traditional bishop’s palace next door to Wells cathedral. Local people might have been expected to approve of foregoing the grand old building. Instead they protested and the decision has been overturned. And no wonder: where you live represents who you are and for the bishop that means being right at the heart of his community.

相比之下，教会委员本希望巴斯和威尔斯的新主教能住在城外的新家里而不是搬到威尔斯大教堂旁边的主教宫，那是传统住处。他们本期望当地人会同意放弃那座宏伟的老建筑。相反，当地人进行了抗议，推翻了之前的决定。不足为奇的是：你的住处代表着你的身份，对主教来说选择住处意味着他要选在社区的中心。