James A. Maxey - From Orality to Orality: A New Paradigm for Contextual Translation of the Bible

In the following pages I intertwine two main sub jects: a proposal for an alternative paradigm for Bible translation as contextualization; a discussion of orality and biblical performance criticism as a methodology for biblical studies and its implications for translation. My research is exploratory and my findings are tentative. There is little public discussion of alternative paradigms for Bible translation, especially one associated with contextualization. My field research with translation of oral performances, both with my own and with the Vut community in Cameroon, is in its early stages. There is a need for more experience with oral performances of biblical compositions.

Historically, critics linked Bible translation directly to literacy and evangelism, and (in)directly to colonial agendas. Those involved in Bible translation in recent centuries have often restricted their purview both in terms of communication media and theological imagination. This book asserts that such views are limited and do not reflect the rich theological heritage of Bible translation. Bible translation is presented in this book as an expression of contextualization that explores the neglected riches of the verbal arts in the New Testament. Beyond a historical study of media in antiquity, a renewed interest in oral performance informs methods and goals of Bible translation today. Such exploration is concretized in the NT translation work in central Africa among the Vut people of Cameroon.

Contextualization as discussed in this study appreciates the agency of local communitiesparticularly in Africawho seek to express their Christian faith in response to the results of human impoverishment. An extended study of African theologians demonstrates the ultimate goals of contextualization: liberation and identity. Bible translation exhibits how vernacular languages empower and equip these local communities to establish and maintain their identities by means of their cultures as articulated by their languages and also how such linguistic expression subverts the dominant languages control. Local communities create fresh pathways of not only responses to existing theological questions, but explore new inquiries of God and humanity.

Oral performance draws from all the senses by experiencing communication while performer, text, and audience negotiate meaning. Performance not only expresses identity but shapes it as communities express their faith in varied contexts. It is argued that the New Testament compositions were initially performed and not restricted to individual, silent reading. This understanding encourages a reexamination of how Bible translation can be done. Performance is not seen as a product but a process that infuses biblical studies with new insights, methods, and expressions. In the case study of the Vut people of Cameroon, a New Testament translation project is reviewed as local performers exhibit their cultural values of the verbal arts in presentations of translated biblical passages informed by a renewed interest in the spoken word.