Theological Decolonization and Training Local Translators

Over the past several years in the United States, one paradigm-shifting theme in Christian higher education has been decolonization, the decentering of white, Western scholarship when it comes to theology and biblical interpretation. Concurrently, in SIL there has been a push toward localization, adopting the perspectives and structures that will allow people in a regional context to function in locally viable ways instead of foreign ones. Although the intent of localization is to reshape numerous areas of operation and organizational culture, when it comes to the area of training, sometimes the default focus has been on getting more “locals” to hold the microphone in training contexts, but not necessarily on evaluating the recommended teaching methods, the content that is considered standard, or the resources recommended to partners. This article summarizes some of the important insights from emerging key voices speaking to the issue of decolonizing theological training in the American seminary context. Reflecting and retooling existing local translator training in light of these insights would further the goals of localization, indigenized translations, and appropriately contextualized Scripture engagement.