Bible translation encounters The Real World
Brian D. Russell of Real Meal Ministries blog writes in Encounters in the Real World: Missiological Reflections on the Role of Scripture:
I consider these statements very well worded--especially that first sentence. I often think that what the Church needs more than anything else is a renewed understanding that we must do two things: maintain a very high standard within the Church so that our community is safe; and, two, venture out of the safety of our community in order to achieve our mission.
What implications does this have for Bible translation? Are we providing to Christian workers the vocabulary and the texts for mission? Are we able to take our Bibles to the "marketplace of pluralism" and witness the inherent effectiveness of the Word of God when spoken in the language of the harvest field?
These are staggeringly important and difficult questions, if I may say so.
Do you have any thoughts?
The very act of involvement in mission takes us out of the safety of our own communities of faith and places us in the marketplace of pluralism. It is a realm in which our Christian language will prove to be indecipherable at best and contested at worst. Yet, I believe that the way forward is a passionate and rigorous return to the principal source of our knowledge of Jesus – the Bible. Being on mission demands that we are intimately acquainted with the Scriptures in their totality. In the Bible, we encounter the mission of God to bring salvation and wholeness to the world, and we meet humanity in all of its potential, fallenness, and ambiguity. If we learn to read the Bible in light of our missional practice, I believe that we will be more discerning in our conversations with others and learn to speak in the language of persons created in God’s image
I consider these statements very well worded--especially that first sentence. I often think that what the Church needs more than anything else is a renewed understanding that we must do two things: maintain a very high standard within the Church so that our community is safe; and, two, venture out of the safety of our community in order to achieve our mission.
What implications does this have for Bible translation? Are we providing to Christian workers the vocabulary and the texts for mission? Are we able to take our Bibles to the "marketplace of pluralism" and witness the inherent effectiveness of the Word of God when spoken in the language of the harvest field?
These are staggeringly important and difficult questions, if I may say so.
Do you have any thoughts?
posted by Mike Sangrey at 7:00 AM
2 Comments:
This is an interesting comment. But it needs to be understood in the context of the rest of the posting, in which Russell talks about outreach to Muslims and Jews who already have an understanding of Bible stories. It is worth remembering that when Paul was reaching out to Jews, he based his approach on the Hebrew Bible which his audience accepted as authoritative, but when Paul spoke to the pagan Athenians, he did not quote the Bible but rather the Athenians' own philosophers. Yes, we should do our mission on the basis of the Bible and in a biblical manner. But we shouldn't just quote the Bible at people who don't accept its authority and expect them to accept and respond to our preaching. Instead we need to start our mission where people are, "to the Jews... as a Jew", to the Muslims as a Muslim, to the new agers as a new ager, and to the atheists as an atheist.
Straylight, I tend to agree with your final comments about science and religion. I know of people with a scientific background who were very interested in the Christian faith. But then someone told them that to become a Christian they must first reject evolution and lots of science which they had learned. That is certainly the wrong way round. Even if evolution is not true, even if (as some wild people might say) it is an atheistic conspiracy against God and the Bible, I would never suggest that rejecting it is a precondition to becoming a Christian. Instead, let the person first repent and believe, and then gradually learn about the Bible. Then, probably a few years down the line, let them reexamine their scientific presuppositions and reconsider whether they can continue to believe in evolution etc.
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