Tricia Stringer is Chief Strategy Officer for Word Collective. Tricia is a Bible translation consultant and has worked among oral peoples for over 25 years. She founded Multiplying Hope, a ministry that equips traumatized communities with mental health tools, and currently leads the development of the Fia Project’s oral exegetical materials. She also pilots trauma-informed translation projects.
A Hospitality of Consultation: Reflections on Bible Translation Consulting from a Storying Perspective
Abstract
Some translation scholars have been reflecting on what it might mean to reframe the task of translation through the metaphor of hospitality. Storying practitioners are uniquely qualified to contribute to the discussion. Story crafting, story consulting methods, and healthy environment building in storying already include basic hospitality principles. This paper will address the question of how aspects of hospitality in storying might contribute positively towards naturalness, accuracy, community engagement and impact in a Bible translation project.
The paper outlines characteristics of hospitality and gives examples of how each is embodied in the storying world, and how that might influence current translation consulting. Examples will come from reflections on my journey to becoming a Bible translation consultant.
The paper offers reflections on how storying practitioners, especially during the consulting phase of a BT project, could contribute to the understanding of hospitality’s relationship to accuracy in translation, emphasizing the idea that a ‘hospitable’ community in a BT project could directly affect quality, accuracy, and ultimately future Scripture engagement by the target language community.
Finally, this paper will propose a hospitality of consultation which engages in every stage of a Bible translation project, as it does in certain Bible storying projects.
About the Author
The Fia Project