Translating Christianity Across Time and Culture

When it comes to the major world religions Christianity differs greatly for many reasons.  One of the areas particularly deals with the issue of translation.  The Christian faith is translatable across both time and throughout differing cultures.  Lamin Sanneh, professor of World Christianity at Yale, has touched on this important issue.  For example, Sanneh writes: 

 "Being the original Scripture of the Christian movement, the New Testament Gospels are a translated version of the message of Jesus, and that means Christianity is a translated religion without a revealed language...The missionary environment of the early church made translation and the accompanying interpretation natural and necessary....If we view Christian origins in the light of the translated milieu of the church, then we come upon a remarkable point with respect to the history of religions.  Christianity seems unique in being the only world religion that is transmitted without the language or originating culture of its founder"  (Whose Religion is Christianity?  pg. 97-98).

For a comparison point let us look at the spread of Islam.  Wherever the Islamic religion spreads the Koran is always read in Arabic.  Any version of the Koran that is in another language other than Arabic is viewed by Muslims as being something less than the holy Koran.  In other words, differing from Christianity, Islam is not a translatable religion.  The Koran is not readily translated into the mother-tongue of the culture. 

A major issue in Christian missions involves translating the Scriptures into the mother-tongues of the people groups all over the world.  This is no easy process and in many ways calls for huge time commitments and great patience.  There are many factors that go into translation.  Here's one example I recently heard about.  I unfortunately do not remember where this particular people group exists (if you know the story making you could leave it in the comments section for us).  Some missionaries went to a particular people group only to discover that this group had never seen a sheep/lamb.  They had no clue what one looked like, etc.  Now, we know the Scriptures talk about Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  In our Western abstract thinking we can put things together and understand what that means.  Other cultures don't think that way.  The missionaries had a problem with translation.  However, they did discover that pigs were very prominent among this people group.  For example, if a person visited these people they would gather beforehand and debate and decide who would sacrifice their pig for the welcome feast.  The pigs were viewed as being part of the family.  So then, the family that sacrificed their pig for the feast subsequently took the visitor into their family in place of the pig.  Ultimately, the missionaries to this people group translated Jesus to them as "the Pig of the World."  In our English context this would probably be found as offensive to many.  But Christianity is translatable across cultures and this is a fine example.  The principle remains the same:  Through Jesus we all are brought into the family of God.  This is why it is important for us to remember that when we approach the Scriptures we apply the timeless principles, not necessarily the words themselves.

The following video is from Tyndale House.  It involves a discussion of scholars regarding the use of the word "slave" in the ESV translation of the Bible.  I found this video via a link from Bible and Mission at Twitter.  It is a small glimpse of the difficulty of translation and all this it entails.

The World-Wide Movement of the Gospel and It's Future Implications

The Christian landscape is changing world-wide.  With the rise of Christianity in the majority world (Latin America, Africa, Asia) the theological seat of Christianity is shifting.  Around the year 1900 80% of Christians were found in Europe and America.  A hundred years later those numbers are reversed:  80% of Christians are found in the majority world.  This is going to have implications on the way we in the West have viewed things for the last few hundred years.  We are going to have to put on a new "lens" to view a world-wide movement of the Gospel.  As scholars in Africa and other places of the world rise up the new material that will come out of the majority world will have a majority world perspective. 

The following piece is from an illiterate woman in Ghana, Africa.  Her name was Afua Kuma and her work carries with it the flavor of what some refer to as "grassroots" theology, oral theology or spontaneous theology.  This beautiful piece is as it is found in Kwame Bediako's book, Jesus and the Gospel in Africa.

Jesus is the grinding stone
on which we sharpen our cutlasses,
before we perform manly deeds.
We have risen at dawn
to take up our weapons of war. and join the battle
Nkrante brafo, You are the Sword Carrier
Okatakyi Birempon: Hero Incomparable
by the time we reach the edge of the battle the war has already ended.
We turn back,
singing praises.

If you go with Jesus to war,
no need for a sword or a gun.
The word of his mouth is the weapon
which makes enemies turn and run.

If we walk with him and meet with trouble
we are not afraid.
Should the devil himself become a lion
and chase us as his prey,
we shall have no fear
Lamb of God!
Satan says he is a wolf --
Jesus stretches out His hand,
and look:  Satan is a mouse!
Holy One!

What are the practical and theological implications of this, and other examples of world-wide "grassroots" theology, for the future of world Christianity?

I cannot help but get excited about what God is up to throughout the world!

"The Lion is God"

Recently we finished a study through the book of Jonah.  For a short little book it is really packed with quite a bit to chew on.  One big take-away for me was just how much God pursued Jonah as well as the Ninevites.  Our God pursues us.  This is not a passive pursuit either.  God is actively pursuing the world, constantly wooing the world to Himself.  To help us grasp this more I want to share an excerpt from the book Christianity Rediscovered.  The following excerpt pertains a dialogue between a missionary, Vincent J. Donovan, and a Masai elder:

Months later when all this had passed, I was sitting talking with a Masai elder about the agony of belief and unbelief.  He used two languages to respond to me--his own and Kiswahili.  He pointed out that the word my Masai catechist, Paul, and I had used to convey faith was not a very satisfactory word in their language.  It literally meant "to agree to."  I, myself, knew the word had that shortcoming.  He said "to believe" like that was similar to a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance.  Only his eyes and fingers took part in the act.  We should find another word.  He said for a man to really believe is like a lion going after its prey.  His nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey.  His legs give him the speed to catch it.  All the power of his body is involved in the terrible death leap and single blow to the neck with the front paw, the blow that actually kills.  And as the animal goes down the lion envelops it in his arms (Africans refer to the front legs of and animal as its arms), pulls it to himself, and makes it part of himself.  This is the way a lion kills.  This is the way a man believes.  This is what faith is.

     I looked at the elder in silence and amazement.  Faith understood like that would explain why, when my own was gone, I ached in every fiber of my being.  But my wise old teacher was not finished yet.

     "We did not search you out, Padri," he said to me.  "We did not even want you to come to us.  You searched us out.  You followed us away from your house into the bush, into the plains, into the steppes where our cattle are, into the hills where we take our cattle for water, into our villages, into our homes.  You told us of the High God, how we must search for him, even leave our land and our people to find him.  But we have not done this.  We have not left our land.  We have not searched for him.  He has searched for us.  He has searched us out and found us.  All the time we think we are the lion.  In the end, the lion is God." (pg. 48)

God is everywhere, actively pursuing all of humanity.  His kingdom comprises those from every "nation, tribe, people and language."  We are not taking God to any culture, tribe or nation.  Godd is already there because he is in pursuit of his creation.  Subsequently, the church needs to follow God in his pursuit of redeeming all the world.  Let us find out where the Lion is stalking his prey and join with him in the hunt.