A theology of diversity with special reference to translation issues in Central Asia

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-168
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Williams

Cross-cultural ministry to Muslims raises questions about communication and the legitimacy of presenting biblical truth in different forms. This paper seeks to address some of those questions through a survey of the biblical storyline by focusing on the development of diverse cultures, languages, and communities in Scripture. After establishing an endorsement of cultural diversity in the Scriptures, the article moves to applying those principles to the task of translation in light of one prevailing theory of communication, namely Relevance Theory (RT). Translation practices offer both risks and opportunities to the church and established theology. The article argues that in engaging other cultures and language, cross-cultural workers should take a posture of risk and experimentation. They should bias their efforts towards the receptor cultures’ understanding even when the existing church may fear a loss of valued theological principles. This applies to the initial questions raised in the article by endorsing creative ways of presenting biblical truth, including ways that co-opt other religious structures.

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
William D. Taylor

The issue of attrition of longer-term cross-cultural workers is a critical and multifaceted one. We define attrition in its broadest sense as departure from field service by missionaries, regardless of cause. However, our prime concerns related to attrition themes speak to the causes of premature or painful departure from field service. We discovered major attrition variants between newer sending countries (NSC) and older sending countries (OSC). Lessons must be learned from both categories as mission stakeholder groups grapple with their own roles in addressing the causes of attrition as well as reducing it.


2020 ◽  
pp. 009182962097237
Author(s):  
Simone Mulieri Twibell

Short-term missions provide opportunities for the formation of cross-cultural relationships and joint evangelistic endeavors. Scholars have challenged the typical unidirectional nature of short-term mission and partnership efforts, advocating for a more bidirectional flow of resources. This article analyzes the dynamics of reverse short-term missions with the goal of understanding their contributions from the perspective of the American hosts. The author suggests that reverse short-term missions bridge social capital across social networks and function as “networks of invigoration” by bringing information benefits to their hosts. These types of exchanges have the potential to help the American church reinterpret familiar experiences and see the mission of the church in a new way. Five perceptual outcomes are identified: alteration of perspectives; service opportunities for the hosts; renewal of spiritual commitments; first-hand exposure to a different culture; and contact with faith-mission models.


2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 681-701
Author(s):  
Bryan Cones

The 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church generated a significant number of resolutions related to the church's liturgy, most of which passed both Houses, including resolutions authorizing preparation of the revision of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and The Hymnal 1982. A review of the resolutions related to liturgy and music, however, raises fundamental questions about the kind of liturgical reform the church may undertake and how it may integrate growing appreciation for linguistic and cultural diversity in the church, including the insights of feminist, postcolonial, and LGBTQ theological reflection and those produced by theologians of color. This essay argues that serious engagement with these questions suggests a completely reimagined liturgical “center of gravity” that integrates the insights of liturgical scholarship and practice since the authorization of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and The Hymnal 1982, while providing the flexibility to respond to the church's current diverse contexts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-99
Author(s):  
F. Javier Díaz-Pérez

AbstractXiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is a novel in which language has a special protagonism. The main character, Z, is a Chinese girl who goes to London to improve her basic English. Her idiolect is thus characterised by a great quantity of linguistic errors of different types. This lack of proficiency in English makes cross-cultural communication really difficult. Therefore, language becomes in this novel not only a characterisation tool, but also an essential aspect of the plot. Moreover, it is also a paramount source of humour, since there is plenty of jokes based, for instance, on puns, many of which derive from Z’s lack of linguistic competence. The main objective of this paper is to analyse language representation in the source text as well as in the Spanish, Italian and French versions of the novel from the perspective of relevance theory. Out of the three versions, the Spanish one reflects the highest interpretive resemblance in this regard, whereas the Italian one occupies the opposite pole of the scale. With regard to the translation of wordplay, the pragmatic scenario is normally maintained in the TT, although there are statistically significant differences between the three versions and across different types of puns.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaw Owusu-Agyeman

Purpose The current study examines the moderating effect of supportive campus environment on the relationship between cultural diversity and students’ sense of belonging in a university in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was designed and used to gather data from a sample of 2,026 registered undergraduate students. Using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 software, the data gathered were analysed by way of hierarchical regression analysis. Findings Results of the hierarchical regression analysis revealed that supportive campus environment and cross-cultural interaction serve as strong predictors of students’ sense of belonging. Furthermore, a simple slope analysis showed that supportive campus environment enhance: the positive relationship between cross-cultural interaction and students’ sense of belonging; and the positive relationship between students’ interaction with diverse peers and their sense of belonging. Originality/value This study addresses important knowledge and practical gaps in the relationship between supportive campus environment, cultural diversity and students’ sense of belonging in higher education. The results further highlight the significance of institutional structures, policies and practices that aim at enhancing students’ sense of belonging and reducing possible feeling of otherlings that arise due to a lack of supportive campus structures.


Traditio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 143-178
Author(s):  
ANNA MINARA CIARDI

The phrase per clerum et populum (“by clergy and people”) was traditionally used to describe how the election of a bishop had been or should be undertaken. Over the course of the twelfth century this changed. Ecclesiastical legislation was step by step revised and codified. The aim of the reformers was to safeguard the autonomy of the Church and to reduce lay influence. The purposes of this article are, first, to examine legal terminology in the context of episcopal appointments from 1059 to 1215, with special reference to the formula per clerum et populum and the role of cathedral chapters as electoral bodies; second, to examine how episcopal appointments were actually undertaken and what terminology was used in the kingdom of Denmark until circa 1225; and, third, to share some ideas about the development of canon law in the context of “cathedral culture.” My conclusions are, first, that the mode of election per clerum et populum was gradually replaced and eventually became invalid, parallel to a legal development where cathedral chapters became the “proper” electoral body; second, that the monastic ideals of ecclesiastical freedom prompted by the reformers are evident in normative texts from cathedral chapters in Denmark already in the first quarter of the twelfth century; and, finally, that the legal developments strongly contributed to the formation of capitular institutions and a specific cathedral culture, which was rooted in monasticism but also differed from it, not least with regard to its legal functions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Agustinus Supriyadi

Catholic teens Indonesia is part of the Church in Indonesia and the Indonesian people. Indonesia consists of thousands of islands that stretched from Sabang to Merauke. This fact opens the possibility of a fairly wide occurrence of the encounter between cultures and simultaneous cross-cultural. This diversity is certainly a logical consequence to an enrichment of civilizations and diversity (plurality), although also contains elements of the loss. Plurality of Indonesian society on the one hand can make the Catholic teens swept away in the swift currents of the community to lose our identity or conflict. However Plurality can also awaken in the Catholic teen award nature between one race to the other races, between ethnic or tribal one with the other tribes, between groups with one another. In a pluralistic society such as this, the Catholic teens called to the apostolate. Through the act of self-discovery, live in love and have a sense of tolerance of differences is the real form of the apostolate.


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