A Primary Research of Oliver Cromwell's Religious Thought

Abstract

[[abstract]] 克倫威爾（Oliver Cromwell, 1599-1658）將虔信上帝的精神與軍隊結合，在成立新模範軍（New Model Army）時使他們具有共同的信念，嘗試使國家、軍隊、信仰三者合而為一，此點十分成功。批評者或許認為他藉宗教之名整肅異已，但克倫威爾始終努力實現他個人的宗教意念。他懷著自己的目標和理想投入內戰，聰明地選擇敬畏上帝的人作僚屬。他必定深刻了解宗教驅動人心的力量；他極力營造一個能實現理念的大環境，但從來不曾將自己歸類於某一教派，或支持其中之一的主張，這該是他的高明之處。當真相曖味不明而人人自以為是時反而有利於控制局面；又或許是他的想法的確與他人不同，單純地希望在推廣福音到全世界之前以福音統一大不列顛，因為英格蘭肩負傳播上帝的福音這份重任。畢竟他曾統治英格蘭十年；他雖然不是宗教家，卻因滿腔的宗教熱忱與使命感，深深影響了他的作為。

[[abstract]] Founding the New Model Army, Cromwell linked the spirit in the true belief of God to the armed forces, and made them have the common conviction. He was greatly successful in trying to combine the country, the army, and the faith of three. Maybe the critics thought that he purged the opponent political leaders in the name of the religion, but Cromwell always made efforts to realize his own religious volition. He cherished his own goal and ideal to participate in the Civil War (1642-49), tactfully choosing those who revered God as subordinates. As a result he was profoundly certain of the religious strength of drawing the human will, constructing the opportunity to afford the idea as well as possible, but it was exquisite that he had not been classified to some denomination himself or holden any view of them. When the truth was ambiguous and everyone reckoned without his host, it was of great advantage to control the situation on the contrary; instead of the fact that perhaps his thought was indeed different from others' and it was because England undertook the responsibility for preaching the God's evangel that he sincerely expected to unify Great Britain by the evangel before propagating it over the world. After all he had ever ruled England for ten years. Though he was not a religionist, the high enthusiasm in religion and the sense of duty had a deep effect on his action.