Remembering Evelyn / 怀念尹玮玲

Remembering Evelyn

I first met Evelyn before she ever became involved with China.  She and Jim were experts in religious psychology and were giving workshops on spirituality and human life around the USA, especially to religious and communities.  The message was that the spiritual life – the religious life – was not simply a matter of conforming to rules, but of joyously affirming and cultivating the potentials for love and wisdom given to each of us through the grace of God.  This fit the message of the Catholic Second Vatican Council, but it could also be seen a threatening to authoritarian traditionalists.  Evelyn was just the opposite of an authoritarian traditionalist.  She was a woman full of deep caring and down to earth wisdom and exuded spiritual joy. 

It came as a bit of a surprise that she and Jim began to teach in China.  I believe they were recruited to it by my friend Fr. Ed Malatesta who had a passionate commitment to helping the Church in China engage more fully with the people of China and with the modern world as a whole.  One aspect of this was to introduce the best thinking of modern religious psychology into the Chinese intellectual world. Evelyn and Jim were the perfect couple to do this.  As part of this they did deep study of China’s religious traditions and authored a major book on Chinese spirituality with Prof. Fan Lizhu.  I fondly remember discussing these ideas over dinners with them in San Francisco, where they had research and writing fellowships at the Ricci Institute of the University of San Francisco – and then later at Fudan when they spent their time living and teaching there. Every meeting was warm and memorable.  Evelyn was someone who always listened deeply and responded graciously and thoughtfully. She always strove both to accept you for who you were and then to bring out the best in you. Her legacy of humane knowledge and generous friendship will long live on.

Author：Professor from University of California at San Diego

怀念尹玮玲

　　我们第一次相遇早在他们开始与中国的交流之前。玮玲和大诚是宗教心理学家，在美国各地举办人生灵修讲习班，特别是针对男女会士及团体的讲习班。 他们传递的信息强调灵性生活 —— 宗教生活 —— 不是简单地遵从规则，而是快乐地肯定并培育通过天主的恩宠赋予我们每个人的爱和智慧的潜力。 这符合公教梵蒂冈第二次大公会议的精神，但也可以看作是对独断的传统主义者的威胁。 玮玲恰恰与专制的传统主义者相反。 她是一个充满深切关怀和脚踏实地的智慧女人，散发着灵性上的喜悦。

　　她和大诚夫妻两人开始在中国教书，这让人感到有点意外。 我相信他们是被我的朋友马爱德（Ed Malatesta, SJ）感召去的，马神父积极推动中国教会与中国人民和整个现代世界的交流，其中一个贡献就是将现代宗教心理学思想引入中国的知识界。大诚和玮玲就是促成这个引介的重要推手。作为这项工作的一部分，他们对中国的宗教传统进行了深入研究，并与范丽珠教授一起撰写了关于中国宗教精神的重要书籍。 我深深地记得在旧金山与他们共进晚餐时讨论这些想法的情景，他们获得旧金山大学利徐学社给予的研究和写作基金资助，他们在复旦大学的生活和教学时也没有放弃这些研究。我们每一次见面都非常温暖、感人至深。 玮玲总是专注倾听、亲切而周到地回应他人。她总是愿意接受你的本来面目，然后帮助把你的优点发挥出来。她的人文关怀和慷慨友谊将是永远被我们珍视和追念。

作者：南加州大学教授