Teachers as Translators in Asian Religious Education

Abstract

In the last few centuries, Christianity has grown noticeably in the Asia-Pacific region. The New Testament as a collection of texts taken from another time, another place, and another culture is therefore no longer relevant only to the “traditional West.” This chapter argues that if a diachronic historical text is used for teaching life and values, then the curriculum orientations and contents will be shaped characteristically by the translation paradigm that is applied to the translation of that text. The author will substantiate this argument by drawing upon the practical translation and teaching experiences derived from working with The Epistle to the Romans of Apostle Paul. The epistemic and spiritual differences conveyed through the Linguistic Translation Paradigm (LTP) and the Cultural Translation Paradigm (CTP) will be contrasted. We will also demonstrate the principles of intercultural curriculum design and intercultural pedagogies that can magnify the educational and inter-perspectival impacts of using a classical text. The aim is to show religious curricula based upon a canonical text can all the same be inquiry driven and concept based, rather than dogmatic in orientations. Since the study of a diachronic historical text can engage the learners deeply with inter-perspectival value clarifications, the ability to reflect and free oneself from “borrowed values” is at least part of the achievable joys for most learners. When so taught, The Epistle to the Romans can help learners to appreciate God’s Grace and simultaneously do their own inward philosophical “housekeeping” as sovereign subjects scripting their own lives and choices. The CTP path is not easy. It is, however, possible. It shall be of some liberating and ethical benefits to the Asia-Pacific region in general, if more educators are becoming aware of their essential role as intercultural translators when they teach.