Monica Romano - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Monica Romano

Sinicizing Christianity, 2017

With the exception of John of Montecorvino O.F.M. (1274-1328), who translated the New Testament a... more With the exception of John of Montecorvino O.F.M. (1274-1328), who translated the New Testament and the Psalms into the Mongolian language, the first Christian missionaries arriving in China (Nestorians in the seventh century; Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) did not engage in Bible translation. Their limited knowledge of the Chinese language and the perceived difficulty of the task were among the main reasons for them not attempting it. Additionally, the pastoral and missionary choices made by Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits in China were largely influenced by "the broader context of missionary policy" and "the background from which they came."1 The Catholic Church by and large used to discourage Bible translation into vernacular languages, promoting the use of the Latin Vulgata for Mass and liturgical purposes. Later missionaries in China either had priorities other than Bible translation, or were unable to publish their translation works because of the restrictive policies of the Propaganda Fide.2 As a result, Catholic missionaries only had partial translations and mostly based on the Vulgata up to 1968, when the first complete Bible translated into Chinese from the original texts was published by the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (the Sigao Shengjing 思高聖經/思高圣 经). This edition still remains the most authoritative and commonly used Chinese Catholic Bible because of its accuracy and rigour, especially in formal renderings. By contrast, Protestant missionaries considered Bible translation to be a priority of their missionary activity in China. As soon as they arrived in the country in the nineteenth century they dedicated themselves to translation work, publishing the first complete Bible versions from the original texts in the early-1820s. After various attempts to produce a common Bible for all the

Sinicizing Christianity, 2017

With the exception of John of Montecorvino O.F.M. (1274-1328), who translated the New Testament a... more With the exception of John of Montecorvino O.F.M. (1274-1328), who translated the New Testament and the Psalms into the Mongolian language, the first Christian missionaries arriving in China (Nestorians in the seventh century; Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) did not engage in Bible translation. Their limited knowledge of the Chinese language and the perceived difficulty of the task were among the main reasons for them not attempting it. Additionally, the pastoral and missionary choices made by Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits in China were largely influenced by "the broader context of missionary policy" and "the background from which they came."1 The Catholic Church by and large used to discourage Bible translation into vernacular languages, promoting the use of the Latin Vulgata for Mass and liturgical purposes. Later missionaries in China either had priorities other than Bible translation, or were unable to publish their translation works because of the restrictive policies of the Propaganda Fide.2 As a result, Catholic missionaries only had partial translations and mostly based on the Vulgata up to 1968, when the first complete Bible translated into Chinese from the original texts was published by the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (the Sigao Shengjing 思高聖經/思高圣 经). This edition still remains the most authoritative and commonly used Chinese Catholic Bible because of its accuracy and rigour, especially in formal renderings. By contrast, Protestant missionaries considered Bible translation to be a priority of their missionary activity in China. As soon as they arrived in the country in the nineteenth century they dedicated themselves to translation work, publishing the first complete Bible versions from the original texts in the early-1820s. After various attempts to produce a common Bible for all the