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American Society of Missiology
Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture
Book by Sanneh, Lamin O.
255 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1989
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283 people want to read
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December 31, 2018
Definitely in the top 3 books I've read so far this year (out of 22). I'll eventually post an extended review that I have to do as an assignment for class.
Lamin Sanneh's "Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture" is a landmark study in the ways that the Christian faith has spread across the globe from the early days of the Church to the present age. Sanneh declares that Christianity's first language is "translation" (116). Throughout the book Sanneh demonstrates how Christianity has translated itself; this does not merely refer to linguists adapting the Bible to the Xhosa or Micmac languages but also to Christianity's encounter, interaction with, and adaptation of other systems of thought such as Gnosticism (21-23). Sanneh writes “Translatability gives pluralism a concrete indigenous expression” (56). Sanneh explains that the apostle Paul "saved the gospel from cultural determinism" while retaining "the particularity of culture as necessary for launching Christianity in the world" (39). Paul sought to show how Christianity responded to both the expectations of Jews and the ideas that were prevalent in Greek thought and that by doing so, Christianity began to welcome cultural pluralism into itself; just as Christianity benefited from the insights of Eastern Church Fathers such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Basil of Caesarea in antiquity, so too has it benefited from more modern and far-flung figures such as the Japanese Christian thinker Uchimura Kanzo and the Ghanaian theologian Kwame Bediako (39, 70).
Sanneh, a former Muslim, highlights the different missionary approaches between Christianity and Islam. One strategy, that favoured by Islam, is diffusion, whereby "religion expands by means of its founding cultural warrants and is implanted in other societies primarily as a matter of cultural adoption" (33). Orthodox Islam insists that the words of the Qur'an must be preserved in the original Arabic and its insistence on a single sacred language has allowed Islam to create a unified culture (although what of the Sunni-Shia schism?), but this also results in Islam being a far greater proponent of "cultural imperialism" than Christianity because it cannot incorporate a plurality of cultures into a single Islamic religion (158-60, 254).
The other missionary approach, championed by Christianity, is translation, whereby the faith is "vernacularized" so as to become understandable to the indigenous culture (33-34). Translation has had enormous ramifications for indigenous cultures as a shared language is foundational for creating a common culture, as was the case for Armenian nationalism (76-77). Critics of Christianity accuse it of imposing itself upon indigenous cultures along with "commerce" and "civilization," but Christian missionaries have also been intentional about learning about and from the foreign peoples they have ministered to, so much so that in hundreds of cases they have created and developed alphabets for indigenous languages so that natives have access to the Bible in their mother tongue; Islam has no such appreciation or concern for local cultures (57). Sanneh, in explaining one Muslim’s reluctance to record aspects of Hausa history and culture, states “Muslim religious scholars like al-Hájj ‘Umar would much sooner stake their fortunes on the Arabic heritage of Islam than cultivate the vernacular as the basis of Islam’s outreach. In that view Africa’s ancient heritage lacked moral merit and justified the drive to complete the Muslim takeover” (159). Thus, Islam had a dismissive stance towards Africa’s cultural contributions; rather than fruitfully interact, Islam sought to replace Africa’s cultures with itself.
Protestant and Catholic missionary strategies diverge on what to translate. Protestant Christianity, upholding the Bible as its primary authority, has typically been more wary of tolerating Christian-indigenous religious syncretism (though it is virtually impossible not to be syncretistic in some sense). Roman Catholicism, confident that God has preveniently been working across cultures, has been more open to baptizing pre-Christian elements of indigenous culture through inculturation (Sanneh also notes that Catholics translated the Church’s catechism into indigenous languages 4, 275-76). For instance, ancestor worship can be reinterpreted or “translated” into the veneration of Catholic saints. Missionaries to Africa were able to translate the biblical "Yahweh" into the God of the ancestors of the Africans but in the African spiritual realm, their God was tolerant of other deities, even relying on them as mediators between God and humans (similar to the intercession of the saints?), whereas Israel’s Yahweh declares “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (194). Sanneh continues "The exclusive notion of Western Christianity was replaced with the inclusive rule of African deities, an inclusiveness that deepened the pluralist ethos of the gospel" (194). While recognizing both the value of inculcating pluralism and the tendency of Western Christianity to be overly dismissive towards Majority World expressions of the faith, Protestants committed to biblical authority are naturally uneasy about permitting potentially syncretistic indigenous beliefs to be woven into the Christian tapestry.
Interestingly, Sanneh, a Roman Catholic, does not offer a typical Catholic critique of the Protestant principle of "sola scriptura" but instead sees it as a validation of indigenous language because "the mother tongue acquired the significance of a revelatory medium...carrying the implication that the God at work in that medium is the God of other idioms" (243). In translating the Bible into indigenous languages, Protestant linguists effectively declared that God was not limited to a single language (such as Arabic in Islam) or European languages (English, French, German, etc…) but that indigenous people could encounter God through Scripture in their own language. As well, "the sola scriptura principle helped to uncouple the Bible from the traditions of Western commentaries, and thus from Western value judgements. The biblicism of Protestant missions ironically helped to suppress the perpetuation of Western cultural values" (243). Direct access to the Bible allowed indigenous peoples to study and meditate on the Word without the impediment of long-ingrained Western interpretations of Scripture.
"Translating the Message" written by a native of Gambia, forces (particularly Western) readers to reconsider “the missionary impact on culture,” particularly in the Global South (and especially in Africa). Lamin Sanneh contrasts both Islam’s reticence to vernacularize itself with Christianity’s zeal for translation as well as the differences between Catholic and Protestant missionary efforts. Additionally, Sanneh highlights how Christianity’s commitment to translation lays the basis for cultural pluralism.
Lamin Sanneh's "Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture" is a landmark study in the ways that the Christian faith has spread across the globe from the early days of the Church to the present age. Sanneh declares that Christianity's first language is "translation" (116). Throughout the book Sanneh demonstrates how Christianity has translated itself; this does not merely refer to linguists adapting the Bible to the Xhosa or Micmac languages but also to Christianity's encounter, interaction with, and adaptation of other systems of thought such as Gnosticism (21-23). Sanneh writes “Translatability gives pluralism a concrete indigenous expression” (56). Sanneh explains that the apostle Paul "saved the gospel from cultural determinism" while retaining "the particularity of culture as necessary for launching Christianity in the world" (39). Paul sought to show how Christianity responded to both the expectations of Jews and the ideas that were prevalent in Greek thought and that by doing so, Christianity began to welcome cultural pluralism into itself; just as Christianity benefited from the insights of Eastern Church Fathers such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Basil of Caesarea in antiquity, so too has it benefited from more modern and far-flung figures such as the Japanese Christian thinker Uchimura Kanzo and the Ghanaian theologian Kwame Bediako (39, 70).
Sanneh, a former Muslim, highlights the different missionary approaches between Christianity and Islam. One strategy, that favoured by Islam, is diffusion, whereby "religion expands by means of its founding cultural warrants and is implanted in other societies primarily as a matter of cultural adoption" (33). Orthodox Islam insists that the words of the Qur'an must be preserved in the original Arabic and its insistence on a single sacred language has allowed Islam to create a unified culture (although what of the Sunni-Shia schism?), but this also results in Islam being a far greater proponent of "cultural imperialism" than Christianity because it cannot incorporate a plurality of cultures into a single Islamic religion (158-60, 254).
The other missionary approach, championed by Christianity, is translation, whereby the faith is "vernacularized" so as to become understandable to the indigenous culture (33-34). Translation has had enormous ramifications for indigenous cultures as a shared language is foundational for creating a common culture, as was the case for Armenian nationalism (76-77). Critics of Christianity accuse it of imposing itself upon indigenous cultures along with "commerce" and "civilization," but Christian missionaries have also been intentional about learning about and from the foreign peoples they have ministered to, so much so that in hundreds of cases they have created and developed alphabets for indigenous languages so that natives have access to the Bible in their mother tongue; Islam has no such appreciation or concern for local cultures (57). Sanneh, in explaining one Muslim’s reluctance to record aspects of Hausa history and culture, states “Muslim religious scholars like al-Hájj ‘Umar would much sooner stake their fortunes on the Arabic heritage of Islam than cultivate the vernacular as the basis of Islam’s outreach. In that view Africa’s ancient heritage lacked moral merit and justified the drive to complete the Muslim takeover” (159). Thus, Islam had a dismissive stance towards Africa’s cultural contributions; rather than fruitfully interact, Islam sought to replace Africa’s cultures with itself.
Protestant and Catholic missionary strategies diverge on what to translate. Protestant Christianity, upholding the Bible as its primary authority, has typically been more wary of tolerating Christian-indigenous religious syncretism (though it is virtually impossible not to be syncretistic in some sense). Roman Catholicism, confident that God has preveniently been working across cultures, has been more open to baptizing pre-Christian elements of indigenous culture through inculturation (Sanneh also notes that Catholics translated the Church’s catechism into indigenous languages 4, 275-76). For instance, ancestor worship can be reinterpreted or “translated” into the veneration of Catholic saints. Missionaries to Africa were able to translate the biblical "Yahweh" into the God of the ancestors of the Africans but in the African spiritual realm, their God was tolerant of other deities, even relying on them as mediators between God and humans (similar to the intercession of the saints?), whereas Israel’s Yahweh declares “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (194). Sanneh continues "The exclusive notion of Western Christianity was replaced with the inclusive rule of African deities, an inclusiveness that deepened the pluralist ethos of the gospel" (194). While recognizing both the value of inculcating pluralism and the tendency of Western Christianity to be overly dismissive towards Majority World expressions of the faith, Protestants committed to biblical authority are naturally uneasy about permitting potentially syncretistic indigenous beliefs to be woven into the Christian tapestry.
Interestingly, Sanneh, a Roman Catholic, does not offer a typical Catholic critique of the Protestant principle of "sola scriptura" but instead sees it as a validation of indigenous language because "the mother tongue acquired the significance of a revelatory medium...carrying the implication that the God at work in that medium is the God of other idioms" (243). In translating the Bible into indigenous languages, Protestant linguists effectively declared that God was not limited to a single language (such as Arabic in Islam) or European languages (English, French, German, etc…) but that indigenous people could encounter God through Scripture in their own language. As well, "the sola scriptura principle helped to uncouple the Bible from the traditions of Western commentaries, and thus from Western value judgements. The biblicism of Protestant missions ironically helped to suppress the perpetuation of Western cultural values" (243). Direct access to the Bible allowed indigenous peoples to study and meditate on the Word without the impediment of long-ingrained Western interpretations of Scripture.
"Translating the Message" written by a native of Gambia, forces (particularly Western) readers to reconsider “the missionary impact on culture,” particularly in the Global South (and especially in Africa). Lamin Sanneh contrasts both Islam’s reticence to vernacularize itself with Christianity’s zeal for translation as well as the differences between Catholic and Protestant missionary efforts. Additionally, Sanneh highlights how Christianity’s commitment to translation lays the basis for cultural pluralism.
July 20, 2025
i have a lot to say about this book
March 14, 2020
Overall, really insightful and helpful.
Some highlights:
-Sanneh turns the common trope of “missionaries were proponents of colonialism” on its head and shoes that actually most missionaries were advocates of indigenous language and culture through vernacular translation of the Bible.
-Demonstrates the absolutely crucial role vernacular plays in the transmission of the gospel.
My main problem: Sanneh is perhaps too comfortable with the mingling or African traditional religions and Christianity. At times his language borders too closely to syncretism. Time and again he makes comments along the lines of Africans received “the gospel as confirmation of what they always knew to be the case” (196). While Christianity may have confirmed some things, there is no way the gospel was totally affirmative of their traditional relgion. 1) because there is no way they knew of Jesus and his atoning death. 2) Christianity is an idol destroying religion. The least it would have done is clarify rather than totally confirm.
But overall, Sanneh’s work is great and extremely valuable. Anyone interested in Christian world missions or global Christianity will greatly appreciate it.
Some highlights:
-Sanneh turns the common trope of “missionaries were proponents of colonialism” on its head and shoes that actually most missionaries were advocates of indigenous language and culture through vernacular translation of the Bible.
-Demonstrates the absolutely crucial role vernacular plays in the transmission of the gospel.
My main problem: Sanneh is perhaps too comfortable with the mingling or African traditional religions and Christianity. At times his language borders too closely to syncretism. Time and again he makes comments along the lines of Africans received “the gospel as confirmation of what they always knew to be the case” (196). While Christianity may have confirmed some things, there is no way the gospel was totally affirmative of their traditional relgion. 1) because there is no way they knew of Jesus and his atoning death. 2) Christianity is an idol destroying religion. The least it would have done is clarify rather than totally confirm.
But overall, Sanneh’s work is great and extremely valuable. Anyone interested in Christian world missions or global Christianity will greatly appreciate it.
January 12, 2013
Sanneh’s thesis is stated clearly in the introduction to his work: the translatability of Scripture from Jewish culture’s Aramaic and Hebrew into the Gentile culture’s Greek established a pattern of translation, appropriation, and assimilation of languages and cultures which has theological and cultural ramifications. This pattern of crossing cultural-linguistic borders not only destigmatized the newly translated language by appropriating it for sacred use but also relativized the cultural impact reflected in the languages of earlier translations of Scripture by assimilating them within an every-broadening understanding of the Christian story. Sanneh’s fundamental point is presented plainly in the introduction to the second edition: “Christian Scripture had always been a translated Scripture, with implications for vernacular language and literature” (Sanneh 2009, 9)
Sanneh supports his thesis with a careful, though not always easy to follow historical examination of how translation has, from the beginning of the Christian movement, been a key component of the missional expansion of the church and accompanying expression of theology; further, the impact on indigenous cultures when vernacular translations are completed not only had an impact on Christianity, but global history as well. Pluralism in the church is introduced as a natural development when Scripture is translated into a new language. Pluralism, a natural consequence of affirming “the translatability of the gospel” and subsequent cultural expression of Christianity according to cultural context, revitalized cultures instead of creating “cultural relativism” (Sanneh 2009, 1, 73). The positive aspects of pluralism were not always welcomed in the history of the Church as evidenced by the stance of Tertullian (75-76) and later actions of Cabral (128-130). This principle of pluralism developed by Sanneh challenges the hegemony of any cultural form of Christianity over the contextual expression within any other culture.
In Chapter 2, Sennah gives several examples of how the Hellenic culture of Christianity, a result of the first translation, appropriation and assimilation process between Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek language and culture was later challenged when new languages and cultures were added. I was especially interested in the challenge represented by the development of Slavic languages with the translation/missionary activity of Cyril and Methodius. I was not aware of the significant place the development of Old Slavonic language and translation was in the development of Christianity. I am familiar with the development of the language itself. But as Sanneh is establishing, the development of language for translation of Scripture has wide ramifications. Not only establishing a transnational identity for the Slavic peoples, but also planting the seeds of reformation in Great Moravia that continued to grow through Bohemian Catholic priest Jan Hus and the eventual development of the (Bohemian Brethren) Moravian church, precursors of the Protestant Reformation. The connection between translation and reformation is now much clearer for me.
Chapter 3 in the 2009 edition is dedicated to the development of the “Authorized” (King James Version) and the impact on the development of the English people as a distinct nation and the Anglican Church as solidly within Christianity. Repeating the principle of pluralism within the framework of vernacular translations of Scripture, Sanneh contends “a homegrown Christianity need not be heretical or chauvinistic to be credible” (Sanneh 2009, 120). In the case of the King James Version, Sanneh’s title for the chapter articulates the profound influence vernacular translations can have: “The Witness of God and the Vocation of Nations.” Vernacular translations can be nation-building activities that are more profoundly impactful than ill-fated militaristic crusades.
Sanneh’s thesis is significant because it establishes translation-as-mission within the history of Christian mission. The theological affirmations which emerge from the translatability of Christianity based on the Scriptures themselves, into other cultural expressions, have implications for the Church, for nations and for people groups. Sanneh also connects vernacular translations with undermining colonialism and hastening the collapse of Christendom.
Walls makes a similar comparison on the growth of Christianity when he points to the inclusion of different cultures as a necessary process in the work of salvation of a trans-cultural, trans-generational church (Walls 2002, see "The Ephesian Moment", especially page 74). One significant departure between Walls’ insistence that “cross-cultural diffusion has been necessary for Christianity” (Walls 2002, 67) and Sanneh’s example of Valignano’s impact in Japan, who “was adamant that Christian mission was not the cultural diffusion of Europe” (Sanneh 2009, 131). Instead, Sanneh contends “mission as diffusion is unquestionably the distinguishing strand in Islam, whereas mission as translation is the vintage mark of Christianity” (Sanneh 2009, 34).
Sanneh’s suggestion implies that the gospel itself is not complete until it finds expression in every language – there is no diffusion, but new discovery through translation; Walls suggests that the gospel is complete, but salvation is accomplished through diffusion. To repeat the observation I cited last week, Skreslet insists that diffusion is no longer a satisfactory model for missionary activity and has been replaced by contextualization. The clearest connection with Sanneh is that contextualization is most present in the process of translating both the text and meaning of Scripture into new cultural expressions. Only through this process can we learn what the fullness of the gospel means. To impute meaning into Scripture: “Now (we) know in part, then (we) shall know fully, even as (we are) fully known.”
Works Cited
Sanneh, Lamin O. 2009. Translating the message : the missionary impact on culture. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
Walls, Andrew F. 2002. The cross-cultural process in Christian history : studies in the transmission and appropriation of faith. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
Sanneh writes of “a man called Vuk” (90). He is referencing the Serbian Vuk Stefanović Karadžić who was instrumental in the development of Serbian language, not the Slovak language as Sanneh asserts later in the paragraph. Anton Bernolák (3 October 1762 – 15 January 1813), Catholic priest, wrote the first codified Slovak language in 1787 (the date cited by Senneh for Karadzic’s birth) and the same year he graduated from theology school in what is now Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital city. North’s The Book of a Thousand Tongues, according to the citation, would bear responsibility for the confusion.
Sanneh supports his thesis with a careful, though not always easy to follow historical examination of how translation has, from the beginning of the Christian movement, been a key component of the missional expansion of the church and accompanying expression of theology; further, the impact on indigenous cultures when vernacular translations are completed not only had an impact on Christianity, but global history as well. Pluralism in the church is introduced as a natural development when Scripture is translated into a new language. Pluralism, a natural consequence of affirming “the translatability of the gospel” and subsequent cultural expression of Christianity according to cultural context, revitalized cultures instead of creating “cultural relativism” (Sanneh 2009, 1, 73). The positive aspects of pluralism were not always welcomed in the history of the Church as evidenced by the stance of Tertullian (75-76) and later actions of Cabral (128-130). This principle of pluralism developed by Sanneh challenges the hegemony of any cultural form of Christianity over the contextual expression within any other culture.
In Chapter 2, Sennah gives several examples of how the Hellenic culture of Christianity, a result of the first translation, appropriation and assimilation process between Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek language and culture was later challenged when new languages and cultures were added. I was especially interested in the challenge represented by the development of Slavic languages with the translation/missionary activity of Cyril and Methodius. I was not aware of the significant place the development of Old Slavonic language and translation was in the development of Christianity. I am familiar with the development of the language itself. But as Sanneh is establishing, the development of language for translation of Scripture has wide ramifications. Not only establishing a transnational identity for the Slavic peoples, but also planting the seeds of reformation in Great Moravia that continued to grow through Bohemian Catholic priest Jan Hus and the eventual development of the (Bohemian Brethren) Moravian church, precursors of the Protestant Reformation. The connection between translation and reformation is now much clearer for me.
Chapter 3 in the 2009 edition is dedicated to the development of the “Authorized” (King James Version) and the impact on the development of the English people as a distinct nation and the Anglican Church as solidly within Christianity. Repeating the principle of pluralism within the framework of vernacular translations of Scripture, Sanneh contends “a homegrown Christianity need not be heretical or chauvinistic to be credible” (Sanneh 2009, 120). In the case of the King James Version, Sanneh’s title for the chapter articulates the profound influence vernacular translations can have: “The Witness of God and the Vocation of Nations.” Vernacular translations can be nation-building activities that are more profoundly impactful than ill-fated militaristic crusades.
Sanneh’s thesis is significant because it establishes translation-as-mission within the history of Christian mission. The theological affirmations which emerge from the translatability of Christianity based on the Scriptures themselves, into other cultural expressions, have implications for the Church, for nations and for people groups. Sanneh also connects vernacular translations with undermining colonialism and hastening the collapse of Christendom.
Walls makes a similar comparison on the growth of Christianity when he points to the inclusion of different cultures as a necessary process in the work of salvation of a trans-cultural, trans-generational church (Walls 2002, see "The Ephesian Moment", especially page 74). One significant departure between Walls’ insistence that “cross-cultural diffusion has been necessary for Christianity” (Walls 2002, 67) and Sanneh’s example of Valignano’s impact in Japan, who “was adamant that Christian mission was not the cultural diffusion of Europe” (Sanneh 2009, 131). Instead, Sanneh contends “mission as diffusion is unquestionably the distinguishing strand in Islam, whereas mission as translation is the vintage mark of Christianity” (Sanneh 2009, 34).
Sanneh’s suggestion implies that the gospel itself is not complete until it finds expression in every language – there is no diffusion, but new discovery through translation; Walls suggests that the gospel is complete, but salvation is accomplished through diffusion. To repeat the observation I cited last week, Skreslet insists that diffusion is no longer a satisfactory model for missionary activity and has been replaced by contextualization. The clearest connection with Sanneh is that contextualization is most present in the process of translating both the text and meaning of Scripture into new cultural expressions. Only through this process can we learn what the fullness of the gospel means. To impute meaning into Scripture: “Now (we) know in part, then (we) shall know fully, even as (we are) fully known.”
Works Cited
Sanneh, Lamin O. 2009. Translating the message : the missionary impact on culture. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
Walls, Andrew F. 2002. The cross-cultural process in Christian history : studies in the transmission and appropriation of faith. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
Sanneh writes of “a man called Vuk” (90). He is referencing the Serbian Vuk Stefanović Karadžić who was instrumental in the development of Serbian language, not the Slovak language as Sanneh asserts later in the paragraph. Anton Bernolák (3 October 1762 – 15 January 1813), Catholic priest, wrote the first codified Slovak language in 1787 (the date cited by Senneh for Karadzic’s birth) and the same year he graduated from theology school in what is now Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital city. North’s The Book of a Thousand Tongues, according to the citation, would bear responsibility for the confusion.
April 24, 2021
"The historian is confronted with a signal fact about Christianity in the sense that its continuous translatability left it as the only major world religion that is peripheral in the land of its origin; and yet what it lacks in the predominance of its birthplace it has more than made up for in the late fruits of its expansion." (p. 5)
A remarkable book which has earned its place in the essential canon of writing on Christian missions. There are two interwoven threads which make up the book: a history of the translation of the Bible and reflections on the significance of that story. A major thrust throughout Sanneh's book is to push back the simplistic narratives of imposition and colonialism which dominate current thinking about (especially early modern) Christian missionary activity. There is plenty of room and reason to criticize missionaries, but this book dials that narrative in and shows that the marks against this movement represent mission-gone-wrong rather than an inherent error of the endeavour. Sanneh acknowledges his forbears but truly accomplished something unique here. At the same time, and as is common with such first-words, he surely overstates his case at points. But this is an excellent book which should be of interest to a broad range of readers.
There is an excellent introductory appreciation of Sanneh, written by Wanjiru M. Gitau here: https://lausanne.org/content/lga/2020....
A remarkable book which has earned its place in the essential canon of writing on Christian missions. There are two interwoven threads which make up the book: a history of the translation of the Bible and reflections on the significance of that story. A major thrust throughout Sanneh's book is to push back the simplistic narratives of imposition and colonialism which dominate current thinking about (especially early modern) Christian missionary activity. There is plenty of room and reason to criticize missionaries, but this book dials that narrative in and shows that the marks against this movement represent mission-gone-wrong rather than an inherent error of the endeavour. Sanneh acknowledges his forbears but truly accomplished something unique here. At the same time, and as is common with such first-words, he surely overstates his case at points. But this is an excellent book which should be of interest to a broad range of readers.
There is an excellent introductory appreciation of Sanneh, written by Wanjiru M. Gitau here: https://lausanne.org/content/lga/2020....
January 1, 2018
Lamin Sanneh states that the thesis for this book is that “Christianity identified itself with the need to translate out of Aramaic and Hebrew, and from that position came to exert a dual force in its historical development.” From this starting point, Sanneh goes on to explore the impact of this need for translation throughout the history of missions. This includes the cultural, religious and linguistic translation to the Greeks, Northern Europe and then to Africa.
Sanneh’s focus on translation in missions seems to have informed Jehu Hanciles’ concern for translation. I found this connection intriguing, as both authors are African academics who have contributed an insightful perspective on the history of missions and contemporary issues in contemporary, pluralistic field of missions today.
Sanneh’s focus on translation in missions seems to have informed Jehu Hanciles’ concern for translation. I found this connection intriguing, as both authors are African academics who have contributed an insightful perspective on the history of missions and contemporary issues in contemporary, pluralistic field of missions today.
July 30, 2018
This is an excellent book explaining that the translation of the Bible and all forms of Christian life into local cultural forms has, from Pentecost, been a vital expression of God's way of relating to people. Contra Islam which makes no provision for the translation of the Quran and so calls for the strict Arabization of Muslims everywhere. Thus, the missionary impact of Christian translation has been to empower and value indigenous populations and their cultures as far as the Gospel has been shared. To the extent that mission has been done along the lines of the missio dei this approach is embraced and makes for a culturally rich theology and diverse church.
October 25, 2025
This changed my perspective on missionary Christianity. While I still suspect that it is often a tool of colonialism, Sanneh’s argument that Christianity has helped to preserve rather than destroy indigenous languages rather than cultures was fascinating and compelling. Sanneh argues that Christianity is inherently interested on translation, not just of language, but of culture. As opposed to the Koran, which is always in Arabic, Christianity started out by translating Jewish culture into Greek culture. Missionaries have followed this model — consistently learning indigenous languages and translate the Bible into them in order to be effective.
October 14, 2021
Great basic idea of Sanneh's that the gospel message was being translated (both in terms of language and in terms of culture) even before it was written down in the New Testament books. I don't find his style great - it's wordy and I got a bit bogged down from time to time, but there are some very interesting historical stories about the history of Bible translation, and the impact it has had on different cultures.
January 8, 2023
I'm so glad I finally read Sanneh. I'd seen his work referenced in a number of places (most notably Willie James Jennings excellent 'The Christian Imagination'). I'm fascinated by Sanneh's ideas, by how well he integrates specific examples into a global dialogue, and that he maintains a clear focus on his purpose throughout. It was a bit longer than it perhaps needed to be, but the central ideas and writing are excellent. I'll be reading more of his work.
July 27, 2017
Fascinating read. Sanneh explores how translation has served as a transformative force in Christian missions. By valuing and using local language and culture, missionaries ended up laying the foundation for the subversion of colonialism and birthed indigenous Christian movements. He discusses the great lengths at which this took place in Africa, though he highlights other contexts as well.
March 23, 2023
This was a very hard book to understand because the language is very academic. There were times throughout reading where I could not understand what was being said. However, I do recommend this book for academics because Lamin Sanneh's perspective is helpful in that light.
March 7, 2013
This, I've heard, is basically Lamin Sanneh's PhD thesis. It is heavy reading, but I loved it. He tells the story of Christianity's spread in Western Africa, and corrects the Western bias that it was all done by missionaries. No, he says, people heard something they needed, and the ordinary Africans passed the message along through family lines until now Africa is the most Christian continent. The statistically few missionaries could not have accomplished that.
He also investigates the importance of Bible translation, so that when an African people hear or read the stories of God, they are not hearing of some foreign God with a foreign name, but the assumption is that they are learning new things about the God they have always believed in. They just have not had revealed to them His full character. This relates to Romans, where Paul asserts that God has not left any people without a glimmering of the truth about God.
Where Enlightenment missionaries believed they needed to wipe clean the old beliefs to replace them with faith in the God of the Bible, Lamin Sanneh shows that, in contrast, it was the line connecting what they had known to what they were learning that attracted Africans to the Christian faith.
This is all the more poignant when you know Sanneh's background, from a Muslim family in the Gambia, becoming attracted to Jesus through his study of the Qua'ran, and the lack of welcome he and his family felt in the hallowed halls of European and American seminaries and churches. Still, his faith persists. That is the impact on culture of the message he heard.
He also investigates the importance of Bible translation, so that when an African people hear or read the stories of God, they are not hearing of some foreign God with a foreign name, but the assumption is that they are learning new things about the God they have always believed in. They just have not had revealed to them His full character. This relates to Romans, where Paul asserts that God has not left any people without a glimmering of the truth about God.
Where Enlightenment missionaries believed they needed to wipe clean the old beliefs to replace them with faith in the God of the Bible, Lamin Sanneh shows that, in contrast, it was the line connecting what they had known to what they were learning that attracted Africans to the Christian faith.
This is all the more poignant when you know Sanneh's background, from a Muslim family in the Gambia, becoming attracted to Jesus through his study of the Qua'ran, and the lack of welcome he and his family felt in the hallowed halls of European and American seminaries and churches. Still, his faith persists. That is the impact on culture of the message he heard.
July 25, 2011
One of the more important books in print on the impact of cross-cultural mission, and on the contributions (sometimes inadvertent) of missions to cultural development. According to Sanneh, a Yale Divinity School professor, this took place in large measure partly in response to the vernacularization of the Gospel message through the translation of the Scriptures.
January 14, 2008
Evidence of the supperiority of gospel translation into the vernacular of a host culture as a missiological method.
June 23, 2011
Great book on missions and the implications of Bible translation into the vernacular.
December 16, 2015
I wasnt a big fan of this book, a better book to read in this area would be Theology in the context of World Christianity by Timothy C. Tennent.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews