Abstract
This book is an intriguing endeavour: ‘the essentials of Christian faith in narrative form’ (p. xi), but with the added challenge of employing deliberately simple language. Namely ‘Minimal English, words most of which have exact semantic equivalents in all languages’; and the author offers the interesting example of how the word ‘Almighty’ fails to translate the Latin ‘omnipotens’ and the Greek ‘pantocrator’. The point is that all language, including the language of scripture and of creeds, is culturally dependent, and that therefore ‘metaphors need to be understood in cross-translatable words’ (p. 14).
She demonstrates, for example, the importance of grasping ‘Jewish cultural scripts’ and prophetic hyperbole, as for example with the idea of ‘hell’, which Isaac the Syrian (who features prominently in this book) argued could not be anything but a temporary state: we must not confuse exhortation with prediction. To find cross-translatable terms Wierzbicka stresses the importance of words like ‘want’, ‘feel’, ‘do’, ‘know’, and makes the point that Jesus’ language about God seems to have been of this sort. This book clearly raises interesting and important questions, even if not all will agree with the answers; and the author is emphatic in her insistence that, whatever theologians may say, it is possible to speak of God in human terms.
The key chapter in the book is chapter 4, on ‘minimal language’. This is defined as a discourse, where most, if not all, other languages have the equivalent words and grammatical constructions. The ‘Natural Semantic Metalanguage’ has the ‘common core of all languages’, so there is no room in Minimal English for ‘and’, but’, or ‘or’; whereas there is room in its reduced grammar for ‘if’ and ‘because’; and she stresses the importance of ‘semantic primes’ (such as the verb ‘see’) which cannot be defined. After these prolegomena she gets down to writing ‘The Story of God and People’ in 40 chapters. It is not, it must be said, a translation, more a hidden decision about what parts of the Bible to include. So, for example, in chapter 3 she quotes John 4 rather than the more obvious Psalm 23; (it turns out that ‘shepherd’ is not cross-translatable). The Moses story begins, for no very clear reason, at Exodus 3. And, perhaps inevitably, this is a very Christian take on the Old Testament story, with the story of Jesus already introduced into Exodus, and some other excellent stories omitted (such as that of Bathsheba). There are extra-canonical glosses, such as oxen in a cave at Bethlehem; and when we get into the story of Jesus, it is something of a diatessaron, blurring the distinctions between the four gospels. And there is a confusion between Caesarea Philippi and Mount Tabor (p. 142); on the other hand there are some great successes: an ingenious brief account of Paul, for example, and an expression of theism in five short sentences (p. 149). Part III offers a commentary on the story, and it is thoughtfully done, though it wobbles at times between explaining the translation and an apologetic account of what Christians believe.
It is certainly a most interesting endeavour, with perhaps a surprising number of references to Pope Benedict, a gallant attempt at making the faith comprehensible and arguing for its coherence. The book ends with three thoughtful appendices on ‘forgiveness’, ‘love’, and the notoriously tricky ‘hilasterion’. It is a charming read in many places, and worth reading if only for the questions it raises.