Translating Christianity

Last week I participated in a colloqium 'Translating Christianity' hosted by the School of Languages, Cultures & Religions (SLCR) of the University of Stirling in conjunction with the ‘Colonialism and Postcolonialism network’ and the ‘Critical Religion Category Network (CRCN)’ (http://www.crcn.stir.ac.uk/). Here are some more details about the event:


In this research colloquium we focused on issues of translation and particularly, the
translation of texts, practices and concepts identified as Christian, from one
language and (sub)culture into another, reflecting an interest in translation both in its
linguistic and in its socio-cultural sense. Apart from written texts we hoped to reflect
on other genres as well, such as dramatic and ritual performances, visual
representations and oral traditions.

Objectives
To entertain multiple perspectives and methodological approaches (religious studies,
history, languages studies & linguistics, anthropology, literary and gender studies) in
addressing the issue of how cultural contents such as religious canons, beliefs and/or
practices found in mainstream, dominant, elite sectors of society both change and are
changed in the process of translation into minority, marginalised or subaltern
contexts.

Translating Christianity Colloquium · Programme
Stirling University, 28 May 2008
10.00-10.10 Welcome
10.10-10.20 Brian Murdoch
The Apocryphal Adam
10.20-10.30 Kerstin Pfeiffer
Staged Interpretations: Exegesis and the Question of
Representation in Late Medieval Drama
10.30-10.40 Stephen Penn
John Wyclif and the Meaning of Veritas in Scholastic Exegesis
10.40-11.10 Discussion
11.10-11.40 Break
11.40-11.50 Nara Improta Franca
The Translation of the Bible into the Yoruba Language –
the Concept of 'Nation' and 'Nationality'
11.50-12.00 Fiona Darroch
Rastafarian 'Translations' of the King James Bible
12.00-12.10 Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar
The Construction of Chipaya Origins – Interlacing Andean and
Christian Beliefs
12.10-13.00 Discussion
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-14.10 Alison Jasper
Virgen María: 'The Holy Translator of God’s Desires to Women'
14.10-14.20 Christine Lindner
The Use of Evangelical Literature and Revival Narratives by
Protestant Women in Ottoman Syria during the Mid-nineteenth
Century
14.20-14.30 Michael Marten
Locating Metropoles and Peripheries
14.30-15.00 Discussion
15.00-15.10 David Bebbington
Translating Evangelical Christianity in the Modern World
15.10-15.20 Tim Fitzgerald
Protestant Mission Strategies in Mexico and Vietnam: Religion,
Secular and Profane as Categories
15.20-15.40 Discussion
15.40-16.10 Break
16.10-17.00 Final discussion: Crystallising themes.