Toward Resolving Ethical Dilemmas in the Construal of Divine Revelation

In the liminal space between statements of faith made by churches and Bible translation organizations, the expectations of financial partners, and the translation approaches taught to translators operating within a variety of modalities is a complex network of connections which contribute meaning to the deeply metaphoric concept of divine revelation. In this short paper, we will focus on how the construal of divine revelation both shapes one’s hermeneutical approaches and creates potential ethical dilemmas regarding the practice of humility, injustices introduced by privileged epistemology, and the further silencing and shaming of already marginalized communities. Through critical engagement and integration of cognitive-linguistic theories of metaphor and cognition with Biblical hermeneutics we will examine how the philosophical perspective of embodied realism contributes practical solutions to these potential pitfalls.

This study employs a multi-disciplinary methodology which blends a qualitative conceptual-integrative analysis of metaphors of divine revelation with philosophical hermeneutics emerging from the embodied cognition hypothesis. Also drawing from applied ethics, this study endeavours to create a set of strategies useful in mitigating epistemic exclusion, supporting community-centred interpretation, and in developing a practice of epistemic humility. This study posits that incorporating a more embodied hermeneutical approach to interpretation in the processes of Bible translation can help in enabling a more ethically robust, identity affirming, culturally dignifying, and spiritually restorative experience for the communities we serve.