Translation enables the transmission of ideas from one sociolinguistic context to another. It has been necessary since God visited the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and people dispersed because they no longer understood each other. As they moved across the planet they took their languages and cultures with them, and diversity has been deepening ever since. Translation has been part of transferring information—sometimes for better, often for worse.

The rationale for my being invited to join the Fuller faculty in 1982 was to establish a degree program in Bible translation. As a cognitive anthropologist, my research interests and writing have centered on what happens when the expectations of one context do not match with that of another. These mismatches are often cultural, requiring conceptual adjustments for different times and places—like when the Samo people I worked with in Papua New Guinea wanted to know what kind of grass was growing on the hillside above the sea of Galilee when Jesus fed the 5,000—I had no idea, but it was important for them to focus on the miracle and not what people were sitting on. The way people process information is so radically different, making translation a tricky business.

So when people ask me if they can translate my material, I want to know why they need me when God has given them very good minds. My thinking puts ideas into a framework appropriate for people like me but potentially radically different from that of the people who want to translate my stuff. How will “my” ideas relate to their social issues, spiritual understanding, and conceptualization in general? It may be much better for them to connect their ideas to their experience rather than using my material, with all its social and linguistic particularity. It is this “fitting” across the entire scope of human cognition that is my concern. People’s expectations make it very difficult to translate for what a Japanese student called “sense making.” God did this in a miraculous way through incarnation, not just Jesus’ 30-plus years on earth, but an appreciation of the human condition extending from Adam and Eve to the eschaton. Until then, we have a human cognition problem that can be bridged by enabling women and men to adjust their language and culture so they can become more like God wants them to be. Similarly, we should be encouraging students, pastors, and scholars alike to take the ideas from our seminary environment and process them within their own sociolinguistic contexts in order for people who share their “sense making” to appreciate God in their place. They can process familiar ideas in ways that require them to theologize in their way rather than having an intermediated set of unfamiliar ideas and concepts.

Therefore, I usually respond to requests for translation by encouraging people to process my ideas in their own conceptualization for their market—the people who understand those ideas and will appreciate their value because they are at the root of their very being. Translation is always part of the process, from God to human beings. Allowing others to make that leap without having to work with an intermediate set of ideas is my plea—give people the dignity of being who they are before God. Get God into their context without having to deal with outside concerns. They will be much better for doing it and God will be glorified. Doing so will provide all of us with new perspectives, expand our horizons, and enhance our appreciation for God’s greatness. I think this is what the Apostle Paul was getting at in I Corinthians 9:19–23: making conceptual adjustments in order to win all people, thereby learning from them and thus sharing in the blessing. Let’s move beyond translation to relevant conceptualization.

R. Daniel Shaw has been at Fuller since 1982, when he set up the translation program for the School of World Mission (now the School of Intercultural Studies). He teaches anthropology and translation and specializes in research and methods courses, particularly for doctoral students, whom he also mentors.