The Pneuma Review » english

Transmission Trouble: Clashes in English Language Theological Education in Africa

Jim Harries — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 23:02:36 +0000

Missionary-scholar Jim Harries looks at the inherent difficulty in packaging and teaching theology in language translated from another culture.

This short article suggests that there are three possible translation-options when theological education from the West is transferred to Africa. None of those options are very satisfactory. The article concludes that a people need to engage theological education using their own languages.

Conflicting Understandings: Africa and the West

I offer some examples below of ways in which foundational understandings differ in parts of Africa with many people in the West:

Western theology tells us that God can forgive sin.[1] Sin can be considered “an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.”[2] Sin, therefore, is an offence against God. In much of Africa people are more in fear of offending fellow community members than they are of offending God. People fear the shame that arises from condemnation by their community. To be discovered as having done something that one’s community disapproves of, is considered much more of a serious offence than to have done something that God does not approve of. Because acts can be performed secretly, an important means of discerning whether someone has offended their community is to look at the level of their prosperity. If someone ceases to prosper, perhaps showing visible signs of illness or poverty, then the cause for that can easily be assumed to be some secret shameful offence. The way to overcome shame, then, is to prosper. When African people discover that God forgives sin, that sets up the expectation that he will undo shame. Then that they will be healed and will emerge from their state of misfortune. A forgiven person should prosper. Someone will demonstrate their forgiveness through prospering. This common-sense understanding, according to African people, is often interpreted by Western theologians as being the prosperity Gospel, which they consider to be a very misleading teaching.

James 5:14-16 reads as follows: “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” This passage, as others, makes it clear that sickness can be caused by sin. Matthew 9:1-8 also illustrates this clearly. In the Bible, especially the New Testament, the treatment for sickness is often forgiveness. Disease being caused by sin, one would expect the forgiveness of sins to be linked to healing. The plain reading of many New Testament examples affirms this. Yet the emphasis for healing from the perspective of Western Christians focuses on the use of bio-medicines.

Prosperity Gospel in Zambia: The Problems of Engaging African Theology Using English

Jim Harries — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 14:14:11 +0000

In this review essay, missionary-scholar Jim Harries challenges Western assumptions used to decry the prosperity gospel as it is taught and believed in Africa.

Hermen Kroesbergen, ed., In Search of Health and Wealth: The Prosperity Gospel in African, Reformed Perspective (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2014).

In reviewing a book about Africa written in English, one is tempted to ignore constant category errors being made. I have chosen in this review not to ignore them.

The contributors to this book have embarked on an impossible, but nevertheless important task. Impossible, I suggest, because one cannot effectively evaluate African thinking using English. Important, because the issue they address is critical and topical. The book is an outcome of debates that occurred at Justo Mwale Theological University in Lusaka, Zambia, in 2012.

My own background affects my interpretation. As a young man, I was much influenced by Calvinism. I continue to love Calvin’s teaching. Yet, I struggle to see how it can fit in Africa. I lived in Zambia from 1988 to 1991. Since 1993, I have lived in Western Kenya. Reformed churches in my home area in Kenya (I am familiar with one or two, there may be more I do not know about) have been swamped by Pentecostalism. It is hard to see how a reformed church can thrive, except through foreign donations, which would then implicate them in a kind of prosperity teaching that this text sees itself as critiquing.

Chilenje gives us a run-down of the kinds of difficulties that the West has with prosperity teaching. In the following chapter, Zulu sees positive things in prosperity teaching, rejecting the idea that it is only a pathology. Ellington tells us that correct analysis of biblical texts would solve the problem of prosperity teaching. Banda, D. suggests that we shouldn’t attack prosperity unless or until we have a better alternative. Then Banda L. suggests that the best way to resolve the rift between reformed and Pentecostal churches, is through dialogue. Kroesbergen struggles not to condemn prosperity teaching as sheer folly, by looking at ways in which it enables African dignity. Soko sees prosperity teaching and Pentecostalism in general as a response to globalisation. Kroesbergen-Kamps realises that in Zambian minds, Christianity and modernism are integrally linked. Togarasei concludes the book, by suggesting that what prosperity-oriented Zambians are looking for is not flagrant wealth, but merely bread on the table.

Many hours were needed to edit and proofread this book (xi). This indicates a starting difficulty – the expectation that citizens of African countries should produce work of a literary standard that pleases Western scholars. The book presents many respectable avenues of exploration of prosperity teaching in Zambia. I very much appreciate the efforts made by its authors.

Be careful with the words you use: Supernatural is a Western category, from Western positivistic dualism.

A foundational error made to different degrees by all authors in this compendium, is a basic confusion between Western and African worldviews. It is this very consequential if sometimes concealed situation, that I want to concentrate on in this review. The authors presuppose in their writing, in other words, that Zambian people have a ‘modern’ dualistic worldview. This presupposition being largely incorrect disqualifies a great deal of the book’s content. Most of my critique below is simply examples that point to this fundamental concern. In my view, this basic error is extremely widespread in English language literature about Africa. It might be considered unfair for me to point to errors in this book, that are being made throughout the literature. The fact that this book has stimulated me to do such, should perhaps be taken in its favour! Perhaps it represents the proverbial straw that breaks the back of the camel on this issue?

Leland Ryken: The Word of God in English

Michael Knowles — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 23:54:32 +0000

Leland Ryken, The Word of God in English: Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2002), 336 pages.

When reviews are written of new books, there is often a temptation to use such phrases as “ground-breaking” or “most important book of the year/decade/century.” At the risk of adding yet another such review, the term “ground-breaking” does seem to be appropriate to apply to Dr. Ryken’s latest book. Dr. Leland Ryken is professor of English at Wheaton College, and recently served as a literary stylist for the English Standard Version of the Bible (ESV), published in 2001 by Crossway Books. In addition to his teaching, and his work on the ESV, Dr. Ryken has written several books on the literary styles and analysis of the Bible, and so brings both qualifications and credentials to a discussion on the literary aspects of Bible translation.

Dr. Ryken aims to answer the question which has been in the thoughts of many Christians: “How does one determine which the best type of Bible translation?” Although his initial criterion was literary, his work on the ESV led Dr. Ryken to examine other aspects of Bible translation, which are discussed in this book. In the end, it comes down to a comparison between two basic types of translations:

Dynamic equivalent translations, such as the New International Version (NIV) and the New Living Translation (NLT); and
Essentially literal translations, such as the King James Version (KJV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and the English Standard Version (ESV).

Leland Ryken served as professor of English at Wheaton College for over 43 years.

At the same time, Dr. Ryken is quick to differentiate between the concepts of “essentially literal” translation theory and “formal equivalent” translation theory. On page 19 he defines “formal equivalence” as “a theory of translation that favors reproducing the form or language of the original text, and not just its meaning. In its stricter form, this theory of translation espouses reproducing even the syntax and word order of the original.” Dr. Ryken is correct in pointing out that formal equivalence would produce a translation that would be unreadable to the average reader. C. John Collins, in his appendix to the book, mentions the ending of Exodus 20:17 (the Tenth Commandment) as an example. A formal equivalent translation would reproduce the Hebrew word order as “and all which to your neighbor,” which of course makes no sense according to all the rules of English grammar. However, the ESV (essentially literal) translates it as “or anything that is your neighbor’s,” which makes sense according to the English language while remaining faithful to the original Hebrew text.

In the very preface of his book, Dr. Ryken informs his readers right at the outset that he favors essentially literal translations over dynamic equivalent translations, and gives this explanation of how that applies to translation theory:

By an essentially literal translation I do not mean one that renders the original text so literally as to be incomprehensible to English readers. The syntax must be English rather than Hebrew or Greek, and idioms that are incomprehensible to English readers need to be rendered in terms of meaning rather than literal equivalence. But within the parameters of these necessary deviations from the original, an essentially literal translation applies the same rules as we expect from a published text in its original language: The author’s own words are reproduced, figurative language is retained instead of explained, and stylistic features and quirks of the author are allowed to stand as the author expressed them (p. 10).

In a very detailed and thorough volume, Dr. Ryken discusses a wide variety of topics ranging from the mundane (for example, if we value Shakespeare’s writings enough not to consider changing the literary form of the words he used, why would we change the literary form of the words used in the Word of God?) to the vital (for example, if we truly believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, how could we ever consider changing the very words used when we translate them into English?). Along the way, Dr. Ryken treats us to a summary of the history of Bible translation into English, explores some of the fallacies believed regarding the Bible, translation, and the readers of the Bible, and spends a good third of the book discussing the literary excellence required in faithful translation theory.