Abstract
In the last few centuries, Christianity has grown noticeably in the Asia-Pacific region. The New Testament as a collection of texts taken from another time, another place, and another culture is therefore no longer relevant only to the “traditional West.” This chapter argues that if a diachronic historical text is used for teaching life and values, then the curriculum orientations and contents will be shaped characteristically by the translation paradigm that is applied to the translation of that text. The author will substantiate this argument by drawing upon the practical translation and teaching experiences derived from working with The Epistle to the Romans of Apostle Paul. The epistemic and spiritual differences conveyed through the Linguistic Translation Paradigm (LTP) and the Cultural Translation Paradigm (CTP) will be contrasted. We will also demonstrate the principles of intercultural curriculum design and intercultural pedagogies that can magnify the educational and inter-perspectival impacts of using a classical text. The aim is to show religious curricula based upon a canonical text can all the same be inquiry driven and concept based, rather than dogmatic in orientations. Since the study of a diachronic historical text can engage the learners deeply with inter-perspectival value clarifications, the ability to reflect and free oneself from “borrowed values” is at least part of the achievable joys for most learners. When so taught, The Epistle to the Romans can help learners to appreciate God’s Grace and simultaneously do their own inward philosophical “housekeeping” as sovereign subjects scripting their own lives and choices. The CTP path is not easy. It is, however, possible. It shall be of some liberating and ethical benefits to the Asia-Pacific region in general, if more educators are becoming aware of their essential role as intercultural translators when they teach.
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Notes
- 1.
Needleman remarks, “The essential work of man is to cultivate access to the interior self.”
- 2.
The theologian Karl Barth (1968, p. 5) says in the preface to the second edition of his commentary to The Epistle to the Romans, “For us neither The Epistle to the Romans, nor the present theological position, nor the present state of the world, nor the relations between God and the world, is simple. And he who is now concerned with truth must boldly acknowledge that he cannot be simple.”
- 3.
In this chapter, we will use the 26th edition of Nestle-Aland as the Koine Greek source text (Douglas 1990).
- 4.
For instance, Wills (p. 177) observed in “Appendix: Translating Paul” that “Krister Stendahl and John Gager both tell us that modern translations, even those that seem most ‘objective’ distort what Paul was saying. Paul’s writings are the first to reach us from a follower of Jesus. It is hard to avoid anachronism when we try to reenter Paul’s world – to avoid terms that did not exist for Paul, terms like Christian, church, priests, sacraments, conversion. All such terms subtly, or not so subtly, pervert what was being said in its original situation.”
- 5.
As the theory goes, it is called “dynamic equivalence.”
- 6.
In Derrida’s own view, “Il n’y a pas de hors-texte” should be understood as nothing is apart from context (Smith 2007, p. 23 & p. 41).
- 7.
Chen (2012) has elucidated on the nature of Shklovsky’s “Defamiliarization” and Brecht’s “Alienation Effect” and the differences between “Defamiliarization and Alienation Effect.”
- 8.
Caird and Hurst (pp. 19–20) have remarked, “To descend into the past is to travel in an alien culture, with the traveler having to guard against two opposite temptations: the temptation to modernize, to regard everything as though it were part of one’s own familiar world, ignoring the underlying strangeness; and the more insidious temptation to archaize, to be so impressed by obvious superficial differences as to ignore the underlying similarity.”
- 9.
Slattery (2006, p. 21) has a sharp observation which says, “I believe that many people are spiritually immature and religiously illiterate. Some live in fear of a vengeful god, a demanding parent, or cultish religious leader. Some have seldom moved out of their psychological comfort zones and physically insular communities to engage people of diverse beliefs, cultures, and perspectives. Others have been indoctrinated by family, spouses, or pastors into destructive behaviors and materialistic lifestyles. Many believers (and nonbelievers) are very sincere, but they have never studied or embraced philosophical investigation, critical evaluation, spiritual meditation, and historical analysis, which are the hallmarks of a theological curriculum in the postmodern era - in contrast to indoctrination and blind obedience to a militant theocracy.”
- 10.
“To engage a work of culture is to participate in an event, in the play of tradition” (Higgins and Burbules 2011, p. 374).
- 11.
Peterson (1997, p. 202) observed, “It [i.e., Language] becomes functionalized when it is used just for information or in getting someone to do something for you. Or, in getting someone to buy something. As Christians we get caught up in that culture, and we start using language, albeit necessarily, in its lowest sense…. I think it’s time for a great recovery of language. We have to recover the nature of our language because words are holy.”
- 12.
See footnote (9).
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Ho, O.NK. (2016). Teachers as Translators in Asian Religious Education. In: Lam, CM., PARK, J. (eds) Sociological and Philosophical Perspectives on Education in the Asia-Pacific Region. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 29. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-940-0_6
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