New Job
Horrah! I have been offered and accepted an adjunct faculty position at a nearby Christian college teaching undergraduate business statistics and assisting with the students' bachelors theses.
I received my teaching supplies yesterday and along with the stats and questionnaire research books I received a copy of the Bible, nicely bound in "Italian duo-tone" with the college's logo embossed in the lower-right. Rather beautiful actually.
TNIV
Aaarrrrrggggggg!!!
I think this is pretty telling about the character of the college, actually. Clearly they love the
scriptues. That they would give a copy to an adjunct professor of statistics is evidence of that. They obviously think of themselves as Bible-based, and based on the translation they want the Bible to be accessable to everyone. This is an attempt to put it in the best possible light.
But what's up with the weak translation? I think the accessibility arguement is inappropriate for a college setting. I think at the college level, people should be expected to have a fairly high comprehension level and be able to discern nuance, which is considerably flattened in a translation like TNIV. Not that I would have the college logo embossed on copies of the Greek New Testament to hand out as gifts, well...maybe I would.
Ad Fontes!
I received my teaching supplies yesterday and along with the stats and questionnaire research books I received a copy of the Bible, nicely bound in "Italian duo-tone" with the college's logo embossed in the lower-right. Rather beautiful actually.
TNIV
Aaarrrrrggggggg!!!
I think this is pretty telling about the character of the college, actually. Clearly they love the
scriptues. That they would give a copy to an adjunct professor of statistics is evidence of that. They obviously think of themselves as Bible-based, and based on the translation they want the Bible to be accessable to everyone. This is an attempt to put it in the best possible light.
But what's up with the weak translation? I think the accessibility arguement is inappropriate for a college setting. I think at the college level, people should be expected to have a fairly high comprehension level and be able to discern nuance, which is considerably flattened in a translation like TNIV. Not that I would have the college logo embossed on copies of the Greek New Testament to hand out as gifts, well...maybe I would.
Ad Fontes!
posted by Kletos Sumboulos at 4:21 PM
4 Comments:
Kletos, congrats on the new position. What is it that you don't like about the TNIV? I find it to be one of the most accurate contemporary translations available. I teach as an adjunct, too, and I find that my students really seem to connect to the TNIV.
When you found your college, brother, can I be an adjunct? The idea of a leather bound Greek NT (Nestle's or Aland's?) is making me drool! (Or is that covet?) My two copies of the Greek NT are rather shabby looking (not that I've been using them recently, but from prior loving usage).
I'll tell you what's up with the TNIV:
Revivalist Christian colleges have pretty much all accepted the position of "egalitarianism" -- that male-female roles are, or should be, completely interchangeable.
This position marks a strange common ground between the general academic culture, in which the old medieval tradition of celibacy is being recreated through divorce, co-habitation, and homosexuality so that married professors with children are a small minority (check the local faculty listing at a secular u. and you'll see). The other side is the revivalist tradition which has a robust tendency toward perfectionism (we're already like the angels in heaven, not marrying or being given in marriage), flourishing resentment of any idea of social hierarchy (all those high-falutin' Episcopalians), and nihilistic disregard for tradition/culture ("christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship"). Put 'em together with the revivalist tradition of pragmatism and lack of respect for fusty disciplines like philology and you've got the TNIV, embossed with a college seal.
When I read stuff like this, I'm so happy to be teaching at a secular university -- not that I'd turn down a job at a Christian college if I was just starting out!
What is for me a vague feeling of unease, in the capable hands of Professor Atwood becomes a cogent argument. Thank you for reading and commenting, Dr. CPA.
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