Contents of Faith in Transfer

This open-access volume explores translations of catechisms produced during the Early Modern period (14501800), a type of text now increasingly recognized as pivotal for understanding cultural translation. Bringing together case studies from across Europe's 'peripheries' (with a particular focus on the 'Celtic fringe' and the Baltic-speaking regions) and from areas affected by European colonial ex-pansion (such as Greenland, Central America, and India), the volume reveals how Christian de-nominationsCatholic as well as Protestantadapted catechisms for diverse audiences. Translation in this genre often entailed far more than linguistic transfer: 'translators' became 'redactors' and 'authors', reshaping texts to suit new cultural and theological contexts. The audiences of the catechism translations presented include members of the same or a different Christian denomination as well as non-Christian mono- or polytheistic communities with or without elaborate literacy: the multiform strategies of translation or adaptation therefore chosen provide not only important linguistic data, but also fascinating insights into complex processes of accommodation. The creativity of the translators contributed to the shaping of written registers, language standardization, lexical innovations, and even the introduction of literacy.

This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access An interdisciplinary perspective at the intersection of translation studies, religious history, and linguistics Contexts of translations for Christianized cultures and the proselytization of non-Christian and non-European cultures Studies on several minority languages

Autorentext

Elena Parina is Professor for Celtic Studies at the Institute of English, American and Celtic Studies at the University of Bonn.
Dagmar Bronner was research fellow at the Department of Celtic Studies at the Institute of English, American and Celtic Studies at the University of Bonn.

Inhalt

Editors and Authors.- 1. Contents of Faith in Transfer: Texts and Contexts of Early Modern Catechism Translationsa Brief Introduction.- 2. Is It Possible to Translate the 'True' Faith? Translating Catechisms between Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy.- 3. Beyond Catechisms: Na all fod un Ffydd onyd yr Hen Ffydd and the Welsh Mission.- 4. Heretics and Infidels in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Brittany: An Imported Issue?.- 5. The Translators' Dilemma: The Genesis of the Scottish Gaelic Shorter Catechism.- 6. 'For the Better Edifying of All Degrees': Continuity and Innovation in the Language of Manx Catechisms.- 7. Exploring Linguistic Choices in Early Modern Greek Translations of Bellarmino's Catechisms: A Comparative Analysis of Creed Renditions.- 8. Translation Quality Assessment in Theological Translation: The Case of the 1585 Middle Ukrainian Translation of the Little Catechism by Peter Canisius.- 9. Basque Catechisms in the Early Modern Period.- 10. The Earliest Catechisms in the Baltics: Cultural Influences and Translation Issues in the Sixteenth Century.- 11. Early Baltic Catechisms in the Transition from Paganism to Christianity: Showcasing an Interdisciplinary Research Project.- 12. Quick and Easy: A Brief Jesuit Catechism for Jewish Neophytes from 1730.- 13. Martin Luther's Small Catechism in Greenlandic.- 14. Naa Upatecam 'The Teaching of (Religious) Knowledge', a Seventeenth-Century Tamil Catholic Catechism by the Jesuit Roberto Nobili.- 15. Catholic Catechisms in Early Modern Japan: Translating the Embodied Practice of Baptism.- 16. Strategies of Persuasion: Pragmalinguistic Translation-Oriented Approaches to the Analysis of the Spanish-Zapotec Catechism of Pedro de Feria, New Spain (1567).- 17. Missionary Early Modern Catechism Translations through the Prism of the Lord's Prayer.