Decolonising ethics in Bible Translation: A coloniality of structures and an expanded ‘contextual translation’

Description

My talk brings decolonial thinking and theology to the question of ethics in Bible translation. I start my discussion with a few models on ethical approaches to translation which primarily focus on a text-context binary, where the argument has emphasized a need to expand focus on texts to taking contexts into consideration, thereby leading to ‘contextualized translation’ and a ‘contextualized translation ethics’. However, bringing decolonial approaches to questions of ethics, I propose that rather than continuing to call for an inclusion of linguistic and cultural contexts, there is a need to expand and connect contexts when considering Bible translation. My argument therefore is that it would be worthwhile to expand our definition of ‘context’ and that ‘an expanded contextualized approach’ to Bible translation opens up new questions for a commitment to translation and ethics.

Period	28 Oct 2025
Held at	Bible Translation Conference Committee, United States, Texas
Degree of Recognition	International