The Lord's Prayer as Identity Marker of Christian Community : With a Brief Comparison to Ximing as a Neo-Confucian Primer

Abstract

The Lord‟s Prayer (LP) is a model prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to say as a group (Matt 6:9; Luke 11:2). It reflects Jesus‟ concern for God‟s holiness, God‟s kingdom and God‟s will, and tells his followers what physical and spiritual needs they can ask their heavenly Father to help meet. As a corporate prayer, it gives Christians a sense of identity, confidence and solidarity as children of God. As a ritual practice, it strengthens their relationship with God, sets priorities for their missions, and provides divine assurance and eschatological hope to support their daily struggles with the contingencies of life and the evil in the world. With its prominent use in catechisms and liturgies, the LP become one of the most beloved texts in the scripture and has shaped the belief and practice of the church in distinctive ways. In order to make explicit the “deep reasoning” for which this text takes on a central significance for Christian religion, this essay will explore four questions: What is the LP? Why is it venerated and influential? How does it become an identity marker for Christian faith? What social functions does it serve for the church? The essay will then reflect on “scriptural reasoning” as a promising inter-faith effort and briefly compare the LP to a Neo-Confucian primer Ximing (Western Inscription), written by Zhang Zai, to see how a sincere reading seeking mutual understanding across religious/philosophical borders can discover new insights and/or raise fresh questions on both texts.

Abstract in Chinese: 主祷文是耶稣教导他的门徒们以一个团体方式进行祈祷的一个典范祷文。它反映了耶稣对上帝的圣法、上帝之国、上帝意志的关注，并告诉他的门徒们可以向天父祷求帮助他们的物质和灵性需要得以满足。作为一个集体性的祈祷，它赋予基督教一种作为上帝子民的身份感、自信感和团结感。作为一个礼仪实践，它强化了上帝子民与上帝的关系，赋予他们使命的优先性，为他们与日常生活的劳苦与世上罪恶的抗争提供神圣的保证与末世的盼望。主祷文在教义问答与礼仪活动中它都具有突出地位。它还是圣经中最为人喜爱的经文，并以独特方式塑造了教会的信仰与实践。为深入讨论主祷文在基督宗教中的中心地位，本文将探讨四个问题：什么是主祷文？为什么它被尊敬并具有广泛影响力？它是如何成为基督徒生活的身份标志？它为教会发挥了什么样的社会功能？本文还将进行跨信仰的比较，将主祷文与儒家的《西铭》篇进行简短对比，来看跨越宗教/哲学边界的相互理解，如何在双方的文本中发现新的启发并提出新的问题.