Theological Translatability, Inspiration, and Authority in Religious Traditions

Table of Contents

Global South and Theological Translatability
Inspiration
Degrees of Authoritativeness of Scriptures
References

Global South and Theological Translatability

The field of global politics is in constant change and adaptation to new realities and contexts. Because of it, various political terms and concepts have outdated, modified, novel, or deceptive meanings. A striking example of such descriptive and interpretive inconsistencies and contradictions is the “first-world countries” term (Kenton, 2022, para. 3). A similar one is the Global South, which can be defined as a semi-geographical and semi-political concept. It describes several diverse socio-economic global cultural regions below the Mediterranean Sea and the equator consisting predominantly of emerging nations. Interestingly, religions, especially world ones, have similar problems of conflicting definitions and interpretations. There is the concept of theological translatability designed to describe the quality of the meanings of religious ideas, entities, rules, doctrines, plots, and myths to be transferred identically from one culture to another.

Inspiration

The genesis and nature of human inspiration is a major topic in almost every religion because of its connection with emotion, reason, spirituality, creativity, and art. In Christianity, it is divine intervention in the thought of one, God’s guidance provided to an individual, during which the person becomes the transmitter or organ of the idea or vision of God (What is Biblical … inspiration, n.d.). Inspiration in Islam means both one-sided and indirect contact between God and a human being and a state of spiritual closeness with Allah (Inspiration, n.d.). In Hinduism, it is a gift given by “Maa (Mother) Saraswati” to a person for practicing the activities and crafts that she represents (Maa Saraswati, n.d., para. 1). Buddhist inspiration is the motivational drive, positive force, and enlightenment generated by watching “a constructive encouraging example” (Berzin, n.d., para. 3). The Buddhist definition is the only one that does not involve any divine conceptual element.

Degrees of Authoritativeness of Scriptures

Degrees of the authoritativeness of scriptures is another thing that has a different meaning in these three religions. Islam strictly requires that people build their lives following Muslim sacred texts; written words take precedence over oral sayings and personal experience (Gross, n.d.). The Bible has slightly less authority and value due to the idea of free will (Gross, n.d.). Scripture has the status of a fundamental, paramount source of mythology, traditions, and truth in Hinduism (Gross, n.d.). The Tripitaka texts and individual experiences are equal in the Buddhist paradigm (Gross, n.d.). These sacred writings are of advising nature and not instructing.