Toward a Theology of Translation, Part 1
I'm encouraged immensely with the growing interest in the theology of language and translation, seen, for example, with the recent publication of God and Language: Exploring the Role of Language in the Mission of God.
In laying out a theology of language and translation, some have suggested that we begin with a statement such as God communicates or God speaks. In this first blog post, I propose that we begin with God reigns.
God reigns, and God communicates with us in human language in the context of a relationship that He sovereignly initiates, is for His purposes, and is by the means He establishes. How else could we begin our reflections on the theology of language and translation?
Please click below and join me as I explore a theology of language in translation in this first of three posts:
https://aaronandsusanshryock.com/toward-a-theology-of-translation-part-1/
3 comments
Sign in to join the conversation.
Aaron, I so appreciate with you the growing interest in the theology of language and translation, and your contributions, including this one. I look forward to Parts 2 & 3. For now, though, a comment which you may have already responded to in the coming posts. It’s not uncommon to consider God’s engagement with His creation and His people in terms of both Deeds and Words. You do say “God reigns and expresses his reign in various ways, including by his spoken word,” thus not just His Word. And you say “When they saw the power of God on display,” thus again not just His Word. When you alert us to your coming propositions you do though seem to focus on ‘verbal’ aspects of our own activities, like read, preach, proclaim, and teach. I wonder how you will be integrating ‘teaching them to obey all…’, that is, living out a growing fulness of Christian discipleship…and perhaps especially the role of the BT process, and the lives of the translators, as embodying that fulness including but not just the verbal per se.
Thanks Aaron. Alongside "a theology" or "theologies" of Bible translation it is probably good to keep considering our theologies of Scripture Engagement, both in terms of how people will engage with what is translated, and how do the translators own engagement impact the translation.
There are several excellent post on MAP with a focus on Scripture Engagement. Roy Ciampa gave us a lot to think about back in 2016 in https://map.bloomfire.com/posts/2539758-contemplating-an-ethics-of-scripture-engagement
If you are interested in the next installment, here it is: https://aaronandsusanshryock.com/toward-a-theology-of-translation-part-2/