by emma | Jul 16, 2006 | Books, Words
“All translation is inherently mistranslation. The particular genuis of a language cannot be carried over into another. By this criteron every translation is an adulteration of the original, a watering down, a reduction. And if the language being translated is the word of God, and translation by its very nature is falsification, then we’d better not do it.
Oh?
Preference for the literal has a long life. But I have come to believe that it is an unthinking preference. My experience… cautions me that the peril of the literal is that it ignores the inherent ambiguities in all language, takes the source language prisoner and force-marches it, shackled and chained, into an English that nobody living speaks. The language is lobotomized – the very quality that gives language it’s genuis, it’s capacity to reveal what we otherwise would not know, is excised.”
An excerpt from Eat This Book, by Eugene Peterson.
(Interested in the title of this post? It is a quote by Luther, grandfather of reformation translators. Not what you expected, eh?!)
by emma | Jul 12, 2006 | Faith
A generation is rising up…
Over the last few weeks I have had numerous conversations with a variety of people about the state of Christianity in Northern Ireland and in this generation in particular. Some of those conversations were promted by SonShine week in Ahoghill, others by StreetReach in Belfast, and others by the Twelth celebrations taking place. Generation 24 is here…
This generation has a faith that is different to that of our parents. It questions. It searches. It doesn’t settle for second-hand knowledge. Whereas our parents generation by and large accepted what they were taught – and why shouldn’t they, they had no reason not to trust – our generation does not. It doesn’t accept something just because it’s what we’ve always done, what our parents/grandparents believed. The ‘church’ has become tainted… child abuse in the Catholic church, gay clergy in Anglican church, affairs, arguments over styles of music, baptism, etc… for many it is no longer acceptable to trust what the church teaches simply because the church teaches it. We ask questions… Why do we do it this way? Why shouldn’t we do it that way? Whats wrong with this? My generation is one that is searching for answers, but will not accept off-pat answers and cliched responses. We want an authentic faith… we want God, not religion.
Sometimes that searching gets us into trouble… Sometimes we may be viewed as irreverant for questioning the church, or as having no respect because we don’t wear a suit and tie to church. But our heart is in the right we place. Like David in the Psalms, we want to know God the way our forefathers in the faith did – intimately.
“I know, dear God, that you care nothing for the surface – you want us, our true selves!” 1 Chron 29:16 TM
For more on this topic…
Leadership Journal has a great article on leadership styles in Boomer churchers and GenX churches here.
by emma | Jul 11, 2006 | Everything Else
I have been quiet for 9 days. For several reasons. One, I was doing SonShine week in the Wash Basin all of last week, so I was only free long enough to sleep really. Check out details (pictures to follow) at http://washbasin.blogspot.com. Over the last week and a half, I have many ideas of things I would like to blog on… but just haven’t got round to it. Then I broke my computer (PC) screen… it’s now fixed. So I shall post some thoughts shortly. Also a big thanks for the new book to Scott (check my links to visit him)… loving it!!
by emma | Jul 2, 2006 | Everything Else
Saw Mr Foy Vance play at Summer Madness last night (went purely to see him)… he was incredible. Hadn’t seen him play in about a year, so it was a welcome suprise to find him back in Northern Ireland… about time too, come back more often Foy!! Some great new tracks, some bragging about tracks on Grey’s Anatomy (I shall try to give a heads up when they’re on in the UK), a superb new E.P…. I am a very happy girl…
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