Question cocerning the native term for god(s) and imported Christianity

[awebster@siu.edu]

You might also look at the David Samuels piece:

2006. “Bible Translation and Medicine Man Talk: Missionaries, 
Indexicality, and the “Language Expert” on the San Carlos 
Apache Reservation.” Language in Society.  35(4): 529-557.	


---------Included Message----------
>Date: 28-aug-2008 15:43:54 -0500
>From: <Paul_Lewis at SIL.ORG>
>Reply-To: "Indigenous Languages and Technology" 
<ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>Subject: Re: [ILAT] Question cocerning the native term for god
(s) and imported Christianity
>
>Jimmy:
>
>You might take a look at:
>
>Sanneh, Lamin. 1989. Translating the message. Maryknoll, NY: 
Orbis Books.
>
>and / or 
>
>Sanneh, Lamin. 2003. Whose religion is Christianity? The 
gospel beyond the 
>west. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing 
Company.
>
>Sanneh, an African theologian and historian teaching at Yale, 
looks at the 
>history of Bible translation and proposes that using the local 
name(s) for 
>God plays a significant role in how readily Christianity is 
accepted and 
>becomes enculturated in any given setting.
>There are disagreements among Bible translators (and 
Christians generally) 
>about how the name(s) of God should be treated, with some 
arguing that the 
>Judeo-Christian God of the Bible is clearly different from any 
local deity 
>and so using the local name is confusing and theologically 
wrong, probably 
>leading to misunderstandings of the nature of God as expressed 
in the 
>Bible. The Jewish tradition, of course, is that The Name 
itself is sacred 
>and so not really translatable nor appropriately used in print 
(as I have 
>done here) except through substitutions and metaphorical 
allusions. 
>Others (like Sanneh) argue that the local terms can be re-
invested with 
>the theological concepts of the Bible and thus make 
Christianity more 
>easily translatable and transferable across cultures.
>I'm not aware of any studies that test these claims but I 
haven't done any 
>real study in that area. Sanneh give some examples.
>Hope this helps,
>Paul
>*****************
>M. Paul Lewis, PhD.
>Editor, Ethnologue / International Sociolinguistics Coordinator
>SIL International
>7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd.
>Dallas, TX 75236
>
>Voice: (972) 708-7521
>Fax: (972) 708-7589
>Cell: (817) 703-8361
>
>
>
>Chun Jimmy Huang <huangc20 at UFL.EDU> 
>Sent by: Indigenous Languages and Technology 
<ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>08/28/2008 02:50 PM
>Please respond to
>Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>
>
>To
>ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>cc
>
>Subject
>[ILAT] Question cocerning the native term for god(s) and 
imported 
>Christianity
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Tabe (greetings),
>
>I have been looking at a copy of Dutch-English-Siraya St. 
Mattew's 
>for Siraya language revitalization (an indigenous Austronesian 
>language in Taiwan). It was edited by the Dutch missionary 
Daniel 
>Gravius in 1661. What I have found is that when translating 
the 
>bible to Siraya, Gravius had kept the native term that 
referred to 
>god in general, "alid," and used it to refer to the Christian 
god. 
>Later I realized that the same applied to other indigenous 
>languages in Taiwan. That is, the Presbyterian missionaries 
that 
>came to Taiwan all kept the native terms for god(s) and 
>incorporated them into their Christian missions.
>
>Curiously, on the other hand, the Spanish Catholic priests who 
>went to the Philippines around the same time had replaced the 
>native terms for god(s) with "Dios".
>
>so the different choices in terms of whether appropriating the 
>native religious terms into Christianity or not (which may 
lead to 
>significant sociolinguistic consequences). It makes me wonder 
if 
>such difference in choice is pertinent to (Presbyterian) 
>Protestant vs. Catholics and/or Dutch vs. Spanish.
>
>I'd much appreciate if anyone can share some insights from the 
>American experience or from other regions.
>
>madag ki alilid (thanks very much)!
>
>Chun (Jimmy) Huang
>PhD candidate,
>Linguistics, University of Florida
>Special assistant,
>Tainan Ping-pu Siraya Culture Association
>
>
>
---------End of Included Message----------

Anthony K. Webster, Ph.D.
Department of Anthropology &
Native American Studies Minor
Southern Illinois University
Mail Code 4502
Carbondale, IL 62901-4502
618-453-5027