Bible Translations in Sweden

The article focuses on approaches to Bible translation that existed in Sweden in different periods. Special attention is payed to what is to date the latest translation in 2000 (Bible 2000). On the eve of celebration of the 500th anniversary of the first translation of the Gospels (1526) this topic is particularly relevant and discussed more and more actively in works by Swedish researchers, first and foremost because a new edition of the next Bible translation is planned in 2026. This tradition goes back to 1540-1541 when translation of the full Bible was printed, known as the Gustav Vasa Bible (Gustav Vasas Bibel), which has made an impact on the hearts and minds of Swedish people for almost four centuries and formed the basis of Standard Swedish. The approach declared by Luther has become a fundamental principle of Bible translations into Swedish: text must convey precisely the message, spirit and content of the original, not literally, however, but in the language that is clear to uneducated people. The Gustav Vasa Bible was reissued twice: in 1618 (the Gustav II Adolf Bible) and 1703 (the Charles XII Bible). Whats more, every new edition was redacted officially. In 1773 Gustav III established the Biblical Commission and requested to replace the outdated text with a new one. However, there were numerous changes in the Swedish Language during the XXth century. Besides, the development of linguistics and translation studies, as well as new scientific data have formed the basis of a new Bible translation project that was launched in 1972 and ended up with publishing the Bible-2000. The translation is the result of collaboration between numerous scholars and average readers. It took almost thirty years to perform the work. In the end, a text was created which most people think is unique, as it strives to convey the style of each particular book. However, there is obviously a gap between the new text and the centuries-old tradition of Bible translation, because after textual analysis was complete, scholars and translators often took decisions about how to render separate words and whole phrases. Their decisions had nothing in common with established practice. Consequently, critics consider that the text of Bible-2000 is often greatly oversimplified, everyday, lacking its solemn beauty and magnificence.

Themes Related to Islandness in Tourism Logos: Island versus Non-Island Tourism Destinations

Islands hold a special place in the hearts and minds of travelers. The depiction of islands as a paradise and the sense of idyllic fantasy that travellers invoke with respect to islands is, in essence, a rudimentary attempt to brand islands. Islands are celebrated as being distinct from non-islands in ways rooted in the place, and the pursuit to discover characteristics that distinguish islands from their non-island counterparts is the quest to understand islandness. It should be no surprise then if some island destination management organizations, responsible for the creation of engaging and compelling brand identities, integrate themes related to islandness in the brands they develop to promote island destinations. This paper examines the incorporation of islandness themes as part of the brands developed to promote tourism by comparing islands and non-islands destinations. The tourism logos used by 85 island- and 146 non-island destinations were reviewed to assess the degree to which the logos included themes related to islandness. Employing a modified Likert-scale, study findings show island themes are not used exclusively by islands, but instead are used to various degrees and in different ways by islands and non-islands alike. This suggests that many of the themes related to islandness are not unique to islands and apply in some cases to non-island destinations as well. In addition, the findings may be interpreted to mean that the investigation of logos as a proxy for understanding islandness in island tourism brand identities is insufficient and inadequate, and a more fulsome investigation into the various ways of expressing brand identity might provide greater insights.

Democratic Assessment Colored by Understandings of Democracy

This chapter examines the attitudinal consequences of popular understandings of democracy. In particular, we focus on the influence of this critical mass opinion on how citizens assess democratic practices in both foreign countries and their own societies. Mixed-effect regressions confirm that, ceteris paribus, people who have embraced the procedural understanding of democracy by prioritizing its institutions and procedures in protecting basic rights and liberty are more critical of China’s democratic practice but more favorable to that in the United States. Similar mixed-effect regressions reveal that, again, people’s different understandings of democracy significantly shape how they assess their own societies’ democratic practices. On average, people who prioritize the intrinsic values of democracy are less satisfied with their regime’s democratic practices and more critical in assessing their regimes’ democratic nature. Furthermore, even a full democracy still needs to deliver to win over people’s hearts and minds, thereby fostering its popular support.

Conflicting and Shifting (Self)Perceptions of Bosnian Muslims

The article discusses the self-perceptions and outside images of the Bosnian Muslim Community by looking at a selection of recent scholarly works on the topic. The emerging picture is one of conflicting and shifting (self)perceptions. To some, this community is a source of hope and inspiration, and to others, it is a source of concern. In the aftermath of genocide, the community itself is uncertain about its future and its place in the hearts and minds of its neighbors and global community.

The Slow Fall of Babel

This is the story of the transformation of the ways in which the increasingly Christianized elites of the late antique Mediterranean experienced and conceptualized linguistic differences. The metaphor of Babel stands for the magnificent edifice of classical culture that was about to reach the sky, but remained self-sufficient and self-contained in its virtual monolingualism – the paradigm within which even Latin was occasionally considered just a dialect of Greek. The gradual erosion of this vision is the slow fall of Babel that took place in the hearts and minds of a good number of early Christian writers and intellectuals who represented various languages and literary traditions. This step-by-step process included the discovery and internalization of the existence of multiple other languages in the world, as well as subsequent attempts to incorporate their speakers meaningfully into the holistic and distinctly Christian picture of the universe.