Linguistic Locality and the Anti-Institutionalism of Evangelical Christianity
Linguistic Locality and the Anti-Institutionalism of Evangelical Christianity
The Summer Institute of Linguistics
This chapter is a broad introduction to the work of SIL International, formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an organization with over five thousand members working in hundreds of different language communities around the globe. The SIL’s work usually centers on translating the New Testament into local vernacular languages. SIL evangelistic goals and methods are contextualized through the lens of another major movement in mid-twentieth century missionary evangelism, the Church Growth movement. SIL theorists of translation, especially Eugene Nida, tried to create a translation methodology (called “dynamic equivalence translation”) that would at once domesticate biblical language in receptor communities while also sparking Holy Spirit–inspired critical reflections on local traditions that would produce conversions. Accessing the linguistically defined subjectivity of speakers was key to the model.
Keywords: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Bible translation, Eugene Nida, dynamic equivalence translation, missiology, Church Growth, liberalism, evangelicalism, linguistic subjectivity
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