Skip to main content

How to Reduce Inequality

How can Scripture Engagement activities reduce inequality within a society? If you Google this question you find that no one is writing on the issue. Either inequality or Scripture engagement will be crossed out. Within SIL the literacy department is more interested in how to reduce inequality. Education is something that can be made available to all, whatever their background.

There is one thing to think about, though. Disadvantaged communities are often lacking Scriptures because:

  • The Scriptures haven't yet been translated into their language
  • Parts of Scripture are available in book format, but the people can't read
  • Parts of Scripture are available in book format, but they haven't been distributed to that village yet
  • Parts of Scripture are available in digital format but people don't have smart phones
  • etc.
An increasing focus on digital engagement doesn't necessarily help, unless careful research shows that e.g. feature phones are to some extent available in rural parts of the country, and people can use them to get hold of Scripture.

The catch-phrase 'Bible Poverty' is sometimes used to promote Bible translation and Scripture engagement work throughout the world. To me this highlights the fact that the economically disadvantaged are often lack Scripture also. What is your church doing to alleviate Bible poverty?

In the developed world what are we doing to make Scripture available to the refugees living amongst us? How can we make these available in a culturally sensitive way?

Comments

  1. See also my more recent post on Holistic Mission for further ideas on this topic.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Flow Chart for Bible Translation (a Relevance Theory Approach)

One of the current theories behind modern translation work is Relevance Theory. [1] Here is a flow chart that explains the process often used to produce a draft when using such an approach: *Make sure your translation committee makes the decision as to what kind of translation they want. A domesticated translation is one that submits to dominant values in the target language [2] whereas a foreignized translation is one that is happy to import foreign terms and ideas from Hebrew, Greek, or the language of wider communication such as the Greek term baptizo . The chart looks something like this: Text                                   Communicated Ideas                  Context A sower went out to sow  A farmer went out to sow grain   People scattered/threw seed etc. The text has very little information, but behind i...

Asking the Right Questions in Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement Planning

If you want to get useful answers you have to ask the right questions. Do you agree? Yes, of course you do. In the Bible translation world we often ask a very narrow question when planning for the next stage of work: 'What would you like to see translated next?' Now, if you simply want to translate, and that's it, that question is fine, but what if you want to see some kind of result from your translation work? What if, for instance, you want to see transformation occur? Then a more powerful question to ask the community and positive stakeholders in the project would be: 'What kingdom goals would you like to see reached?' These kingdom goals should meet felt needs of the community - they should solve problems that are apparent to most or all in the community. See below on how those can be met. If that's too abstract, then try, 'What kinds of things, in your extended family, do you tend to worry about?' This will help establish some felt needs, from which...

A Plea Regarding Footnotes in Bible Translation

Recently I was giving input to a team who had worked on Psalms. I noticed that in several places they had included footnotes referring to the New Testament use of those Psalms. One example was a footnote in Ps 34:20 'not one of [his bones] will be broken' that referred to John 19:32, 33, 36 where this prophecy is fulfilled. Now, obviously this is a useful link for readers, but it is better to put it in John's gospel referring back to Psalms. Why? Because the New Testament is (to some extent) a commentary on the Hebrew Bible, whereas the reverse is not true (the Hebrew Bible never refers to the New Testament). There are often two possible ways of reading a Psalm: In its original context, and  As interpreted by the New Testament writers. This is quite important, as the Hebrew Bible belongs to two faith communities, the Jews and the Christians. (Muslims too, to some extent, though they refer to the Torah and the Psalms only). If we translate the Bible in such a way that it onl...