As a school chaplain I am blessed to live and work with people from all faith backgrounds, and those who claim no religious faith at all. With this in mind, I strive to make our spirituality program at my school "authentically Christian and genuinely inclusive". Thus, I try to shape our chapel program so that it has something to say to everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike. From our prayers to our Scripture readings to our mediations to our sermons, it is my hope that every member of our school community can find something that speaks to their life, and challenges them to grow spiritually and ethically.
As a result, I frequently try to "translate" Christian texts and concepts into language that speaks more directly to "Religious Others". This is NOT as a substitute for Christian texts and prayers, but as an explanation or interpretation of them. In particular, I like to imagine what Jesus' teachings might sound like if he were talking to postmodern secular people who do not adhere to any formal religion, and who may not have space for "God" or transcendence in their worldview.
This process of secular translation may sound strange or problematic, but I think the very nature of Jesus' teaching asks us to do this work. After all, we do not have Jesus' teachings in the original Aramaic or Hebrew he spoke in, but rather recorded in four different Greek documents (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), all of which translate his speech in slightly different ways. Thus, we do not have direct access to the richness and worldview of Jesus' original Aramaic words, but rather we view his words through the equally rich worldview of Greek language and culture. And then we view that Greek translation of Aramaic through the equally rich worldview of English language and American culture.
So, while every translation or interpretation loses something in the process of converting from one worldview to another, they also gain insights and aspects that were not explicit in the original language and culture. In translating Jesus' teachings from a theistic, religious language into a non-theistic, secular language we are sure to lose key aspects of what his teaching is about. But we are also likely to find new vantage points and depths which are not explicit when we rely on a theistic lens to view them through.
So, how would I translate Jesus’ prayers and teachings into a language without transcendence? Here I want to focus on just a handful of the most central texts we have. Perhaps these could then serve as models for how other teachings could be translated into a more secular language.
First we can start with a teaching that needs no translation, but which makes perfect sense in a number of worldviews: The Golden Rule.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you... So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you." [cf. Matthew 7.1-2, 7.12]
This text really needs no translation. I find that everyone seems to immediately grasp exactly what Jesus is saying here (and then almost as quickly we begin to make excuses for why we don't practice it!). Next, we could look at texts which use ancient metaphors to describe how humans function, and then translate them into more modern metaphors and models. For instance:
"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit... For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in them, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in them." [cf. Matthew 12.33–35]
It would be relatively easy to update this with more modern concepts about plants and humans, and say something like this:
"Make a tree healthy and its fruit will be good. Make a tree diseased and its fruit will be rotten. The quality of a tree is shown in the quality of its fruit... For the results of our inner character flow into what we say and do. Healthy people bring good things out of the wellbeing within them. But diseased people bring evil things out of the sickness within them."
Next, we could look at texts that explicitly reference God, and see if there is some non-transcendent analogue that could be used to get the essential point across. In this case, let us start with where Jesus started, with his announcement of the coming reign of God:
"The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent and believe in the Gospel!" (cf. Mark 1.14)
At first, this proclamation seems replete with transcendent language and Churchy words. How can it carry ANY meaning for a secular person? But then we may note the following: At the most basic level, what is a Kingdom? It is a community where a central person or principle reigns and controls our common life together. So the Kingdom of God is the reign of God in a particular community. And so, what is God? Across many religions, including early Christianity, God is conceived as an Ultimate Reality of pure Love and Compassion. This is certainly the case for early Christians who affirmed "God is Love" (cf. 1John 4). This Divine Love is further exemplified in the life of Jesus himself, who embodied this Divine Love by selflessly giving himself for the good of others (cf. John 13.34-35; 15.12-13).
And so, we can translate "Kingdom of God" as the complete "Reign of Love" in our lives and communities. How do we enter into this Love? By "repenting and believing" in "the Gospel". More Churchy words. But again: They have straightforward non-Churchy meanings, if we dig a little. "Repent" comes from a Greek word "metanoia" which means to go "outside the mind" or "beyond our way of thinking". "Believe" is really a much broader concept in Greek, which not only means accepting certain things as true, but putting heartfelt faith and trust in someone else. And finally, "Gospel" simply means "Good News". It is the Good News that there is a better way to live than the selfishness, fear, greed, and hatred that often characterizes human life. Thus, we could translate Jesus' announcement as:
"The Reign of Love is right here! Knocking on the door! Open your mind, and trust in your heart, because the Good News is that Life can be transformed!"
So far so good. Jesus proclaims the Reign of Love in our world. And we can access that Love by opening our mind and trusting in our heart. Now, let us use secular idioms to look at the core values of Love espoused by Jesus in the "Great Commandments":
Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. [cf. Matthew 22.37–40]
So, there is a lot going on here to translate into a secular worldview. First, let's start with the name of the speaker. Jesus' actual name in Aramaic would have sounded a lot more like "Yeshua" or "Ya'ashua" than "Jesus". It is also the same name that we translate as "Joshua". And since Joshua makes it sound more like Jesus is a regular guy like you and I, let's go with that.
Next, we noticed that Joshua admonishes us to direct our highest love and devotion toward the Source of all Creation, known as "The LORD". Now, this comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, in which "LORD" denotes the mystical and sacred Divine Name "YHWH". And the Hebrew word "YHWH" is in turn is a kind of verbal abbreviation for the phrase "I AM what I AM", which names God as pure Being beyond anything that can be defined (cf. Exodus 3.14). So, perhaps a way of translating this into a non-transcendent and non-personal metaphor would be to say that the LORD is Being Itself or Life Itself. When we "love God" it entails that we fall deeply and passionately in love with Life Itself in all its diversity and beauty.
How are we to love Life Itself? With all our capacities. These are detailed by Joshua as "all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind". These ancient words denote our emotional capacity, volitional capacity, and cognitive capacity respectively. And so we could say we need to love with "all our passion and decisions and intellect".
Modern secular society tends to think more of "values" than "commandments", even though both tell us what we "ought to do" or "should do". So we can change the "greatest commandments" to the "highest values" to better express what Joshua is trying to say. Finally "all the Law and the Prophets" has a distinctively Jewish meaning, and refers to the entire Hebrew Bible as Joshua would have known it. To get across the same idea to a secular reader, we might say that the twin values of loving Life and loving each other are the foundation for all just laws, and the basis for the teachings of the wisest sages, across human history. Thus we could translate the greatest commandments as:
Joshua replied: "Love Life itself with all your passion, in every decision, with your whole intellect." This is the highest and greatest value for humanity. Right behind this comes: "Love your neighbor as yourself." All just laws and every wise sage depends on these two values.
So far, so good. But can we translate Jesus' prayers into anything meaningful for a secular person? Let's see what happens when we translate Jesus' most famous prayer into secular idioms. This prayer is known by many names: The Lord's Prayer (since it was given to us by Lord Jesus) and the Our Father (since these are the two famous words that start the prayer). The most popular version of this famous prayer is the one used in the King James Bible:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power,
And the Glory. Amen.
Now there is a LOT going on here, and many different ways to interpret each phrase. So, I will not belabor the point with a line-by-line explanation. Instead, I will offer a rhyming version of the Lord's Prayer which will show how I approach this prayer in my own devotional life from a theistic and religious perspective.
Our Father over all:
We exalt your holy Name!
Your kingdom come, your will be done,
in earth and heaven the same.
Give us our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts.
Help us forgive our debtors:
Free us all from regrets.
Lead us out of temptation.
Save us from evil and sin.
Bring your Kingdom, by your Power,
for your Glory. Amen
Now, if I were to go one translational step beyond this, and try and give this prayer a secular and non-transcendent meaning, I would start by noting that every petition in a theistic prayer is a kind of wish or declaration of hope, that things may turn out a certain way. It is a way of expressing our highest aspirations for ourselves and our world. We may not have full control, or any control, over how things turn out. But we hope they MAY turn out this way instead of another. And note that every human-- religious or secular-- uses this kind of language of aspiration. It may be as a prayer to God, or a wish that the Universe would work a certain way. But we all know what "may it be" means. Thus we can attempt to write "The Lord’s Prayer" (without a Lord):
The Cosmos we share is vast and beautiful:
May we stand in awe and wonder before it.
May Justice reign in our community,
And may Compassion guide our decisions,
In the real world as in our ideal world.
May we share the resources we need to thrive,
And forgive ourselves and each other,
When we fall short of our ideals.
May we be led to full human flourishing,
And be delivered from death and destruction.
So be it.
Do these sacred ideas translate completely into secular idioms? No. But then again, neither does Hebrew fully translate into Greek, nor Greek into English. Every language-- whether it is a verbal language or a conceptual language-- has strengths and weaknesses. Each language makes certain aspects of Reality more visible, while hiding or obscuring other aspects of Reality. For instance, a language with a complex verbal tense system may give us a precise sense of exactly when an action occurred historically, but as the cost of making that action abstract and disconnected and distant. On the other hand, a language with a simpler tense system may make an action seem immediately present and impactful, but at the cost of locating that action in historic space and time. The strengths of each language are often precisely the source of its weaknesses as well.
In the case of translating the sacred into the secular, it seems that when we imagine Jesus' teachings as if there was no Divine reference point, we begin to grasp a certain Earthiness, immediacy, and existential urgency that is not always apparent when we assume "God" and "Heaven". I would argue this Earthiness, immediacy, and existential urgency is ALWAYS present in Jesus' teachings, but we miss it because we miss what God and Heaven mean in his teaching. We often see these as distant, detached, and even un-concerned with life in this world. I would argue that for Jesus, God and Heaven are always immediate and fully present if we will just realize it. As Jesus says: "The Kingdom of God is at hand!" For many people, translating Jesus' teachings into a secular idiom may help us see just how "at hand" they are, precisely because we misunderstand God as distant.
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