Translating the Message

Lamin Sanneh's groundbreaking study emerged from his observation that Western missionary scholarship had fundamentally misunderstood the nature of Christian mission, particularly in Africa. Writing as a Gambian scholar who converted from Islam to Christianity, Sanneh challenged the prevailing narrative that portrayed Christian missions as merely an extension of Western cultural imperialism. His work arose from the need to correct this scholarly blind spot and to demonstrate how the translation of Christian scriptures into vernacular languages had actually enabled indigenous cultures to flourish rather than destroying them.

Sanneh argues that Christianity's commitment to vernacular translation represents its most distinctive and transformative feature. Unlike Islam, which maintains Arabic as the sacred language of the Quran, Christianity from its earliest days embraced translation as both method and message. This translatability, Sanneh contends, means that Christianity has no fixed cultural form and actually requires cultural adaptation to be authentic. He demonstrates how missionary translation work, often undertaken with indigenous collaborators, preserved local languages, validated indigenous cultures, and provided tools for cultural renaissance and eventual political independence. The book traces this pattern across multiple African contexts, showing how vernacular translations became foundations for cultural renewal rather than cultural destruction.

The work fundamentally reframed academic discussion of Christian missions and remains essential reading in missiology, world Christianity, and postcolonial studies. Sanneh's thesis helped establish the field of world Christianity by demonstrating that the faith's center of gravity had genuinely shifted from West to South through these translation processes, not despite them.

Who should read this: Missiologists, theologians interested in cultural engagement, and anyone studying the relationship between Christianity and indigenous cultures will find this indispensable. Those seeking simple critiques of missionary activity or purely Western perspectives on global Christianity should look elsewhere.