The culture shock of the Bible

Modem Bible translations are often more sensitive to the needs of their intended readers than to the right of biblical texts to be heard on their own terms as religious artefacts from the ancient Mediterranean world. Since all biblical documents linguistically embody socio-religious meanings derived from ancient Mediterranean societies, they also need to be experienced as different, even alien, by modem readers. Without an initial culture shock in encountering a Bible translation modem people are held prisoners by Western translations of the Bible. Therefore, translations should instil a new sensitivity among modem readers to the socio-cultural distance between them and the original contexts of the Bible. In order to help facilitate this historical awareness, a new generation of "value added" translations must, in creative and responsible ways, begin to provide a minimum amount of cultural information to assist modem readers in assigning legitimate meanings to the linguistic signs encapsulated on the pages of the Bible.

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The Exceptional Influence of Christian Fundamentalism

Exceptional America ◽

10.1525/california/9780520293298.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Mugambi Jouet

Keyword(s):

Church And State ◽

Culture Shock ◽

Social Institutions ◽

Founding Fathers ◽

Evangelical Churches ◽

The Bible ◽

Relative Separation ◽

Biblical Literalism ◽

American Society ◽

Christian Fundamentalism

Religion remains exceptionally influential in America but frequently inspires indifference, skepticism or suspicion in other developed nations. Moreover, a huge minority of Americans lean towards Christian fundamentalism—a radical faith rooted in Biblical literalism and ultra-traditionalism. Due to the relative separation of church and state since the United States’ founding, Americans have not experienced the long history of religious oppression that Europeans once endured. Americans thus became far less suspicious towards organized religions, which many see as benign means of worship, not as social institutions. This is a paradox, as prominent Founding Fathers were skeptical of organized religions and Christian dogma. Jouet illustrates the weight of religion in the Bible Belt by describing his experiences as a Frenchman in Texas, where he visited evangelical churches and observed a very different kind of faith from the “soft” Catholicism he was accustomed to in France. This culture shock leads him to explore the fascinating historical and social factors behind the evolution of faith in American society.

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