LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 18:7 July 2018
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
         Dr. S. Chelliah, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com is included in the UGC Approved List of Journals. Serial Number 49042.


HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001




BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!


REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES


  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.
  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.
  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2016
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA


Custom Search

Comprehending the Universal
Through Culture Specifics -
An Analysis of Interpreting the Bible in Diverse Cultures

Dr. Edward E. Dudek


Universal Commonality and Diversity in Cultures

While recognizing the great diversity among human societies, there are many basic human similarities and common human aspirations and values. Each culture approaches life differently, yet life is based on certain universals, such as the need for food and water, shelter, relationships with others, and social organization (2014 Moreau, 2).

Christians believe that though the Message communicated by the Cross is expressed in and constrained by human language, it is uniquely God speaking to people (2009 Hiebert, 30-31). Christians believe that when God chose to communicate Himself to humanity, He did so within the context of human language and culture, in particular historical and sociocultural contexts. For example, He revealed Himself to Abraham and spoke through the prophets in specific languages and in ways that were culturally understandable for those people. God’s greatest self-revelation, the Incarnation, took place within all the particularities of a specific time and culture. (Tennent, 325)

The Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and the fruit of the Spirit, as well as many similar statements, appear to be the supra-cultural will of God for human conduct. Kraft observes that they are phrased at a level of abstraction that largely removes them from specific application to the original societies in which they were given.

Furthermore, as one moves from specific cultural applications of supra-cultural truth (as with the head-covering command) back toward the most general statements of the truth, the statements require less understanding of the original cultural context to be accurately understood. In this way they have more immediate (though general) meaning to us in another sociocultural context. (2013 Kraft, 110).

In this article, originally a part of my doctoral research, I seek to discover and determine the supra-cultural indicators or qualities of major parts of Christian concepts of sanctification/spiritual transformation. My visit, tour and research in Israel and Greece helped seeing portions of the Bible through the eyes of people closer to Jewish and Greek culture, as well as studying that message with a Greek and Hebrew cultural understanding.


This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Dr. Edward E. Dudek Faculty Bethany Global University Bloomington, MN 55438 USA ed.dudek@bethanygu.edu


Custom Search


  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.