Tag Archives: provincialism

Provincialism and translations

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There’s another surprising place where provincialism raises its ugly head within the realms of Christianity. That’s in the area of translations.

Most people take a fairly healthy view toward translations. They choose a translation according to their needs and give others the freedom to do the same.

But within Christianity, there are some who feel that there is no choice among translations. They believe that only one translation bears God’s seal of approval. In the English-speaking world, that’s usually the King James Version, particularly the 1611 version of the KJV (from the first edition in 1611 to the 1769 revision there were some 75000 changes, mostly regarding spelling and grammar). In an Internet discussion, one minister made the comment:

I am of the persuasion that if there isn’t a perfect translation in the English language, I will stand down from the ministry and get a secular job rather than teach and preach falsehood. Mind you, I am NOT of the Ruckman mentality the the KJV is inspired and therefor equal (or even superior) to the originals. I believe it is perfectly preserved. It is exactly what God wants us to have. As God overrode the human element in divine inspiration and gave us His Word perfectly in the originals, He overrode the human element in divine preservation and kept His Word pure through translation.

To some degree, I wouldn’t have that much of a problem with the above, except that he used the same reasoning to reject all other translations. Since the KJV is what God wants us to have, according to this minister, no other translation will do.

So why is this an example of provincialism? Because such views only work when you limit yourself to one language. Someone in that same discussion group made a similar claim about the 1569 Reina Valera. I told these two men that their views were completely incompatible. If the KJV is a perfect translation, the R-V can’t be. And vice versa. First, because there are serious differences between the two. Second, because you can’t have an exact translation between two languages. Not word for word, jot for jot, tittle for tittle.

Only if you limit yourself to one language can you say that one translation is perfect, complete and infallible.

KJV-onlyism has lots of other problems, of course. But provincialism is a necessary ally. Without it, there is no way to hold to that view.

Provincialism and patriotism

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Recently on Jay Guin’s blog, there was a vigorous discussion about the appropriateness of displaying the U.S. flag in the church auditorium. (You can see the conversations: first post, second post, third post) I wasn’t surprised at the variety of responses nor the excited nature of the exchanges. People get hot and bothered about this topic.

I can’t help but feel that some of that patriotic fervor is a reflection of provincialism. When all you know is the place you’ve grown up, the things that are done there seem normal, as we’ve discussed. Therefore we tend to suppose that Christians around the world are waving their flags and singing patriotic songs at church. Or worse, we suppose that they too are singing “America the Beautiful” and thanking God for the greatest nation on earth.

It’s not so. I haven’t traveled to every country in the world, but I can tell you that in the places I’ve been, there was no hint of mixing Christianity with nationalism. No chest thumping while proclaiming their nation to be the best. Churches in other countries aren’t perfect, but this is one confusion they’ve been spared.

It seems to me that when you really grasp the fact that you are part of a nation that spans all borders, that people from every tribe and tongue are a part of your family, then the idea of celebrating one earthly country during a meeting of that family will seem ludicrous. I’m blessed to be a part of a church family (our local congregation) that includes people from numerous countries. Off hand, I can think of people from Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, Japan, Honduras, China and Costa Rica, not to mention some students that are from somewhere in Africa (I’m not sure where). If our church family counts them as a part of our body, then it seems to me we have two basic choices: we celebrate every country represented in our body or we celebrate none.

My preference is that we celebrate the nation that unifies all of us, the holy nation of God’s choosing, the body of Christ.

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)

Provincialism

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We were discussing cultural differences yesterday. One thing that we all must deal with is the innate tendency to view our outlook on life as normal and every deviance from that as abnormal. It’s easy to spot the strange things that others do while overlooking our own foibles.

I firmly believe that travel helps with this or can help with this. I don’t like it when someone says, “You’ll never really understand ____ until you’ve experienced what I experienced.” Therefore, I don’t want to say that the only way to escape our provincialism is to visit foreign countries, but I do think that seeing other peoples in their context can be a shortcut to better understanding.

There’s a great quote from G.K. Chesterton that I often repeat: “The purpose of travel is not to set foot on foreign land, but to set foot on your own country as foreign land.” I very much agree with Mr. Chesterton. Our increased understanding of others helps us to understand ourselves all the more.

Nick made a very good observation yesterday when he noted:

Volume of worship… ways of expressing agreement… ways of expressing joy… ways of expressing reverence… ways of expressing WORSHIP! All these are different manifestations of heart language, and it pains me to see one culture’s method of expression become, through unexamined assumption, fossilized as “The Pattern.”

I cringe a bit when people say, “We went to church while overseas, and they did things exactly the way we do them. We even knew the songs, just the words were different.” It’s not easy for Americans or Europeans to go to another country and plant a church without leaving behind a bit of their culture; the problem is, we tend to leave much more than a bit.

Bringing the discussion back home, I want to discuss over the next few days some of the things in our churches that reflect our tendency toward provincialism. Feel free to run ahead of me and point out some things, especially those things that I may be blind to. And I’d like to hear your reactions to Nick’s comment. (Sorry to put you on the spot, Nick)