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Protestant Bible Translations in India: an Unrecognized Dialogue?

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Protestant Bible Translations in India: an Unrecognized Dialogue? Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies Volume 4 Article 3 January 1991 Protestant Bible Translations in India: An Unrecognized Dialogue? John B. Carman Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Carman, John B. (1991) "Protestant Bible Translations in India: An Unrecognized Dialogue?," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 4, Article 3. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1041 The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Carman: Protestant Bible Translations in India: An Unrecognized Dialogue? Protestant Bible Translations in India: An Unrecognized Dialogue? John B. Carman Harvard Divinity School DURING MY HRST visit to Kyoto in the question: what does "faith" mean to Chris­ spring of 1980, I was given the privilege of at­ tians? tending a meeting of the committee of scholars supervising one of the two series of transl~tio~s * * * Translations of scriptural texts, both those of Shinran Shonin's works now appeanng m done by members of a religious community and English. Except for Dr. Minor Rogers, an those done by outsiders, constitute a large part American scholar of Shin Buddhism, and my­ of the data of the modern comparative study of self, all the other participants were Shin Bud­ religion. The focus of this short paper is not on dhists belonging to the "Western Temple" translations as finished products but on some branch of Shinran's followers. Dr. Dennis Hi­ implications of the process of translating. I rota, who has contributed several of the draft want to suggest that such translating provides a translations, is a Japanese American. The rest distinctive model for the contributions of of the group were Japanese. The procedure scholars to interreligious dialogue. It is differ­ used by the committee to review a draft, li~e by ent from the model Father DeSmet has given line, and sometimes word by word, remmded us in the previous article on Robert de Nobili me of many Christian projects of Bible transla­ (or Nobili, as he often called himself) and also tion and revision. At this meeting an issue different from the models put forward by vari­ arose that has recurred throughout this project: ous others in Hindu Christian Dialogue: Per- whether the Japanese term shinjin should be spectives and Encounters. translated into English as "faith" or as "true Nobili's accomplishments were remark­ mind," or simply be transliterated, remainin.g. in able. Without the Portuguese protection ac­ the English version as shinjin. Anyone familIar corded earlier Roman Catholic missionaries on with the history of Bible translations will be the coast of India, he managed to settle in reminded of similar debates, which, like this Madurai, become fluent in three Indian lan­ one, spread from the committee room to a guages (Tamil, Telugu, and'Sanskrit), and be­ much broader discussion, sometimes going be­ come an acceptable conversation partner for yond a single religious community. I~deed, al­ many Brahmins. As Farther DeSmet shows, though this project has been conceived and Nobili was able to utilize the concepts of carried out within a particular Buddhist com­ Hindu philosophy to develop basic Thomistic munity in Japan, it comes in response to a need arguments. Whether by the logical force of felt by Shin Buddhists in North America, fewer those arguments or by the force of his person­ of whom in each succeeding generation know ality, he was able to persuade a number of enough Japanese to read the original texts. Brahmins to become Christians, on a scale pos­ They live in a society, moreover, where "faith" sibly unmatched by any other Christia~ mis­ is understood in a non-Buddhist context, sionary before or sin~. The forms of hIS per­ whether Christian or secular. The committee suasiveness were, however, not new. For more meeting of Buddhists in Kyoto had to deal with than a thousand years Indian philosophers of the question of what "faith" means to people different religious persuasions had attempted who speak English, which certainly includes the Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin 4 (1991) 11-20 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 1991 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 4 [1991], Art. 3 12 John Carman to convince one another in a process that re­ derstanding. The contrasting view, voiced by quired careful study of opposing positio~s be­ Robert Baird on behalf of many contemporary fore attempting to refute them. Accordmg to Western scholars in religion, is that scholarly the hagiographies, the hero of a particular en­ study of religion should be co~pletely ~e~a­ counter sometimes received Divine aid. In one rated from evangelism. (See Hzndu-Chnstzan story it was the confidence generated in Dialogue, ed. by Harold Coward, Orbis, 1989, R:lm:lnuja by a dream revelation that con­ pp.217-229). vinced his opponent to concede even before the day's debate began.1 Certainly Nobili pos­ * * * The model of scriptural translation I want sessed a large measure of such confidence, but to commend lies somewhere in between these it was not so much a belief in his own skill as other approaches, whether or not we co.ns~der confidence in a universal reason uniting human any of them "premodern." Protestant mIss~on­ beings across linguistic, cultural, and religious ary translators shared Nobili's confidence m a barriers. He could afford to be patient because universal human capacity animated by the Holy he believed that his debating partners would be Spirit. They believed, however, that this was convinced by their own reasoning. the ability; not to win a logical argument, but to DeSmet is not presenting his account for understand and respond to the Biblical mes­ antiquarian reasons. For him Nobili is a model sage. The act of translating assumes the ca­ for modern Christian scholars who want to pacity of those who read the translation to combine scholarship and evangelism in a understand its meaning, and in the era of the scholarly dialogue, and he wants to affirm this printing press this has generally mea~t the pos­ model at a time when it is being challenged, sibility of reading it on one's own wIthout the even by some Roman Catholic priests and accompaniment of an approved commentary. some Jesuit theologians in India. DeSmet What is equally remarkable is the in­ quotes a statement of Jacques Dupuis: "Nei­ volvement of non-Christian scholars in the ther on one side nor on the other process of translation. They are rarely given does ... [dialogue] tend to the 'conversion' of much credit in Western missionaries' reports one partner to the religious position of the on these translations; in many cases we do not other." DeSmet disagrees, and he also seems even know their names. Perhaps the most uncomfortable with Francis' conclusion that striking use of such Brahmin assistants was in Nobili's "belief in the universality of reason is William Carey's ambitious project to translate premodern and ... divides him from most and print the Bible in all the principal lan- modern missionaries and most modern guages of the East.3 . scholars of religion." DeSmet believes that he Carey described his translation method m and his colleagues are still trying to follow No­ preparing the Bengali translation as follows: bili's example. In his final paragraph DeSmet states that what is most worthy of imitation in I employ a pandit.. .with whom I go through the whole in as exact a manner Nobili's approach to dialogue is his "respect as I can. He judges the style and syntax, for other minds' freedom of decision." The en­ and I of the faithfulness of the transla­ tire essay seems to me also to imply that dia­ tion. I have, however, translated several logue is legitimate, and even necessary, in the chapters together! w~ich have not re­ evangelistic effort to seek conversion to Christ. quired any alteratIOn m the syntax what­ Thus he thinks that Dupuis goes too far in ever; yet I always submit this article en­ saying that "Interreligious dialogue constitutes tirely to his judgment. I can also, by hearing him read, judge whether .he a mutual evangelization under the impulse of understands his SUbject by his accentmg the Spirit.',2 his reading properly and laying the. e~­ This "mutual evangelization" is some­ phasis on the right words. If he falls m times referred to in recent discussion as the t~is, I immediately suspect the transla­ aim of dialogue. For those who hold this view, tIon ... 4 scholarly dialogue is important, but only if such dialogue goes beyond the scholarly aim of un- https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol4/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1041 2 Carman: Protestant Bible Translations in India: An Unrecognized Dialogue? Protestant Bible Translations in India 13 More information is given in an anony­ cism, by a publick adve7tisement circu­ mous New England Unitarian pamphlet of lated throughout India." 1825, drawing on a letter from William Ward The criticism came a few years later, from and from the ninth memoir of the translator, very close by, and it concerned the first and published in 1823. The Sanskrit and Bengali most widely used of the translations, William translations were done by William Carey be­ Carey's Bengali New Testament. The criticisms fore he moved to Serampore and joined Joshua were of at least three kinds, and were directed Marshman in teaching at the College of Fort both at Carey's translation and at another William.
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