Does S.J. stand for Simplistic Jabbering?

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This from a blog post about English translations of the Latin Mass texts.

I imagine we've been here before. As koine Greek gave way to vulgar Latin, for the sake of the wider mission of the Church, Latin is now giving way to English and Spanish for the same reason. I wonder if some Greek speakers wanted to Hellenise the Latin as the Latinists now feel the need to Latinise English. 'My dear fellow; how can you possibly adequately translate the word logos into anything except, well, logos?!'

Can we ask the Latinisers to take English a little more seriously? Perhaps. During the apartheid era I visited a 'coloured' Catholic diocese where the mother tongue is Afrikaans, 'the language of the oppressor', a sentiment I then shared. When I attended the Eucharist in Afrikaans, my negative perception collapsed dramatically. Here was clear Catholic faith and piety, intense, prayerful, and faithful, 'sanctifying' a despised language.

What further evidence beyond the Incarnation and Pentecost do we need to be convinced that in Christ all languages are sacred and therefore to be trusted?

And the good father totally missed the point of an authentic translation. It's not about Latin being "better" than English. It just so happens that for hundreds of years Latin has been the official language of the Church. We need translations that express these texts accurately in English. Full post here.

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But in proper American (or British, or East Indian, or ?) English; not in Babelfish or Latlish.

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John Schultz


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This page contains a single entry by John Schultz published on June 16, 2007 10:17 AM.

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