矛盾是西方文化的基础。多亏了雅典和耶路撒冷之间不可消除的张力,西方传统才保持了它的活力。无论是西方哲学还是圣经信仰都曾允诺,能够对人最切身的问题(我该如何生活)作出回答,当哲学要通过不受支配的人类理性认识善时,信仰则使人接受了与神圣的法律相对的温柔的爱。两种答案相互排斥。但总是有人一再试图调和这种对立,使它们放下张弓。但是他们很少能够使哲学和宗教综合起来,正如他们不大可能综合哲学和历史一样。哲学和宗教的和解或许只有通过单方面的从属,或者两个强有力的竞争对手之一主动放弃它的根本要求才有可能。否则,要么哲学成为神学的婢女,要么相反。西方的传统大多就处在这种努力之中,或者在对手面前极力证明自身的合理性, Conflict is the foundation of Western culture. Thanks to the irreversible tension between Athens and Jerusalem, the Western tradition has retained its vitality. Both western philosophy and biblical faith have promised to be able to answer one of the most personal questions (how should I live), and when philosophy is to know good by unreduced human reason, it is accepted by the people as being divine Relatively gentle love of law. The two answers are mutually exclusive. But there are always people who repeatedly try to reconcile this opposition so that they can bow down. But few are able to synthesize philosophy and religion just as they are unlikely to synthesize philosophy and history. Reconciliation between philosophy and religion may only be possible through the partial abandonment of one of its fundamental demands by one of the two unilateral subordinates or by one of its two powerful competitors. Otherwise, either philosophy becomes a theological niece or vice versa. Most of the Western tradition is in this effort, or in the face of opponents strongly justify their own,