Week 4 - Bevans, Ch.4 (Translation Model)

Translation model never changes content but seeks to adapt message to a particular cultural context. Translation is concerned with meanings, not just words and grammar. This model starts with the essential doctrine, views culture and experience as subordinate and sees all cultures as "similar." Critiques include seeing cultures as all similar, defining what exactly is the gospel "above" culture and its tendency to use propositional truth claims instead of "God's presence." Hesselgrave believes God's use of symbols makes them universal. Pope John Paul II was a "translation" model advocate and sensitively warned to not give people "culture" rather than the gospel.