The Inclusive-Language Debate: A Plea for Realism [Paperback]

D. A. Carson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998 | ISBN-10: 080105835X | ISBN-13: 978-0801058356

A balanced and thorough look at the use of inclusive language in Bible translation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080105835X
• ISBN-13: 978-0801058356
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,126,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

D. A. Carson (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author or coauthor of over 45 books, including the Gold Medallion Award-winning book The Gagging of God and An Introduction to the New Testament, and is general editor of Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns and Worship by the Book. He has served as a pastor and is an active guest lecturer in church and academic settings around the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool-Headed Treatment of a Hot-Button Issue, March 13, 2002

By 

David R. Bess (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Inclusive-Language Debate: A Plea for Realism (Paperback)

Since the news of the release of the TNIV by the International Bible Society and Zondervan, conservative Christians have been inflamed once again over their staunch convictions on this polarizing issue. One camp believes that modern scholars are being motivated by a feminist agenda to re-write the Word of God. Another camp believes that complementarian Christians are promoting their own specialized agenda in their opposition to "gender accurate" translations. Carson does a fine job of diffusing the issue by allowing persons in both camps to understand one another better.

This book basically has three sections. The first section describes the crisis that occurred in 1997 when the IBS and Zondervan initially announced plans for a "gender-accurate" update of the NIV. It details the positions of both sides with fairness, including the hasty compromise agreement reached in Colorado Springs. The second section is difficult reading, for Carson describes extensively the painstaking process of Biblical translation from Hebrew/Greek into English. The third section is a rather brief but extremely beneficial summary of the ongoing controversy regarding gender-accurate translations.

Carson, as a complementarian, does not endorse all gender-neutral translations, but neither does he condemn them all. Rather, he sees benefit in judicious use of gender-accurate translation when necessary to communicate the initial meaning of the ancient text. He sees value to the NIVI (Gender-neutral translation of the NIV in Great Britain), but highlights instances in which gender translation has been done poorly.

I recommend this work highly to anyone, particularly a pastor or a Bible teacher, who is struggling with the recent flood of gender-accurate translations. Carson's goal is to bring understanding and reconciliation to Bible-believing Christians who are divided over this issue of Scriptural semantics. He has assisted me in my own struggle, and will likely do the same for many other believers.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool-headed Book on a Hot Topic, October 23, 2003

By 

David C. Hoffner (Hebron, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Inclusive-Language Debate: A Plea for Realism (Paperback)

Aside from political correctness (which is not a good enough reason), are there credible linguistic reasons for producing a gender inclusive translation of the Bible? The answer to that question is hotly debated within evangelical circles of Christianity. This book was written five years ago, but the issue hasn't died. In fact, I read this book because my pastor alluded to the debate over the recent release of the TNIV New Testament.

This book by Carson is a great starting point if you would like to know what the fuss is all about. The reader can follow up the more current developments on either side by reading an abundance of articles posted on two websites: www.tniv.info & www.cbmw.org/tniv. (The former is pro-TNIV and the latter is not.)

But back to this book. The book is academic level reading. The reader will be much helped if he/she has already had exposure to foreign languages. As is to be expected of an author entering a debate, the pacing is methodical. Each chapter develops an aspect of the argument and covers the various fields of evidence. Carson deals with a large number of verse references, as do many of the books on this topic.

One of my favorite chapters is #3: `Translation and Treason'. I spent a year in Germany as a teen, so I had experiential understanding of what Carson refers to as `the impossible task of translation'. I know jokes in German that just don't work in English. One can't translate them and preserve the humor. (One can't translate American puns into French or German either; which is something Columbia clothing company needs to think about on their tags.) This is just a basic illustration of a more fundamental point: ANY translation of the Bible from its original languages doesn't live up to the original. Contrary to what people may expect, there are no one-to-one correspondences for every word in every language. So translators face innumerable difficult choices, including gender usage.

I believe this book lives up to its sub-title. It is a well-reasoned, cool-headed look at the issue. One of the reasons I would recommend this book to all sides is that the author is a `complementarian'. (In other words, he agrees with the conservative faction that there are different biblical roles for men and women.) However, he counters many complementarians who argue that inclusive language is of necessity a bad thing. A good, balanced look at the issue.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good first look at this hot topic., January 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Inclusive-Language Debate: A Plea for Realism (Paperback)

Donald Carson's attempts to shed a cooler light on what he calls the "Bible Rage" (his analogy to "Road Rage") that has resulted from discussions of inclusive language translations of Scripture, begins with detailed reports of meetings he did not attend, including the play-by-play of who said what to whom. His report of the fireworks at these meetings may generate more heat than light, but it does serve to frame the issues. It does not, however, resolve or clarify them. What does shed clarifying light -- and it is significant enough to make the book a worthwhile purchase -- is the author's grasp of the principles of translation and the dynamic nature of languages, that make translation from one language to another an under-appreciated and very difficult task. His premise is that since languages change over time, ancient canonical texts written in Hebrew and Greek, and set in specific times and cultures, cannot be translated verbatim into any modern language with exactness. Consequently, translators must make choices regarding the best sense of words, tenses, cases and genders. (Carson charts a number of examples of languages with as many as 9 genders!). Translators don't just translate words, the communicate meanings. Carson concentrates a bit too much on the spat over inclusive language Bible translations within the Evangelical churches in the early chapters. Of value in these chapters, are the comparative wordings of particular verses from some of the more popular bibles, which add real color to the picture Carson paints to illustrate his point. He also gives abundant examples from both Greek and Hebrew vocabularies and shows how each word could have several different "accurate" meanings, even within the same context. For my taste, there are considerably more examples than are necessary for the author to make his point, some of which is rendered arcane by the use of examples from a dozen or so obscure languages known only to a few linguistic scholars and inhabitants of remote tribal villages. Inclusion of this information makes it seem the author couldn't decide if he was writing for the English-speaking of the world or those who are experts in biblical languages. The former will find this unnecessarily confusing, while the latter will find some of it rather pedestrian. Unless you are a language expert, read the first few pages of chapter 1, the 2nd half of chapter 4 and all of chapters 3, 9 and 10. Scan chapters 2, 6 and 8. Skip 5 altogether. It will be more readable and you'll gain a good understanding of both the issues in the debate over inclusive language, and the scope of the difficulties translators face in resolving those issues.