Foreword to Resilient Faith for the Korean Translation

In fall 2019 I received an email from a representative of Scripture Union. Much to my surprise, the email informed me that I had been invited to travel to Korea under the sponsorship of Scripture Union for a speaking tour. This tour would culminate, the email explained, in a special lecture I would deliver to commemorate the official publication of the Korean translation of my book, Resilient Faith. I was deeply honored to receive such an invitation and gladly accepted it, if for no other reason than to work with an organization of such high stature and clear purpose.

But larger events in the world would soon interfere, requiring us to alter our plans. The sudden rise and rapid spread of the novel coronavirus forced us to delay travel and postpone, though not cancel, the lecture tour. As it stands now, I will be visiting Korea in the spring or fall of 2021. The delay, however, did not mean the publication of the Korean translation of Resilient Faith would be delayed. As I understand it, the translation is still scheduled for release in the fall. This Foreword, therefore, will have to suffice as a written substitute for the lecture I planned to present in fall 2020. I still hope to visit Korea in the near future.

Translation is a curious endeavor. Two assumptions inform nearly every translation project. The first is that the book being translated merits translation. The book is important enough as a book to deserve a wider readership, including people whose primary language is different from the language in which the book was written. The second is that the language into which the book is being translated merits more books. The language is important enough as a language to increase the number of books its speakers have at their disposal, even books that were originally written in a different language. Translation implies that both book and language have value.

The Korean language is the second language into which Resilient Faith has been translated. There may be others, too. I hope so. But the number of translations of this book pales in comparison to the number of translations of the book, the Bible, which is by far the most important book ever written, and in any language. In fact, Resilient Faith has value to the degree that it bears witness as a book about early Christianity to the book. The Bible is ultimate truth. All books should somehow point to it, regardless of their literary genre.

The Christian movement began some 2000 years ago in the city of Jerusalem, the ancient capital of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew; the apostles were Jews; the first followers of Jesus, which numbered into the thousands, were all Jews. Yet when the first generation of church leaders—the apostles and their disciples—wrote the story of Jesus, known as gospels, and authored letters to churches scattered around the Mediterranean world, like the church in Corinth and Ephesus, they wrote these early documents not in Hebrew, the language of the Jews and the original language of faith, but in Greek, the language of the very people they were trying to reach. In short, early Christians were committed to the task of translation. They preached the good news and wrote the good news in the native tongue of cultural outsiders. They believed that Jesus had broken down all dividing walls of hostility (Ephesians 2:11-22), which implied that one culture and language group was in no way superior to another. God speaks in all languages; the gospel crosses all cultural barriers.

This process of translation did not stop there. The New Testament was written in Greek, the language of the Greco-Roman world. But soon the New Testament was translated into Latin, and then Coptic and Syriac and Goth. Christians were not only serious about the truth of the Bible; they were also serious about the value of the language and culture of the people “for whom Christ died,” which is why they so passionately pursued the task of translation. To be sure, there were times when the church got stuck in a language, at first Latin and more recently English. But missionaries, evangelists, and church planters have always refused to accept such linguistic and cultural boundaries. They keep reaching out to new people groups, and they commit themselves to translating the Bible into new languages. They refuse to believe or accept that Christianity belongs to one culture alone. The Great Commission itself will not allow it.

There are some 7,000 languages in the world today, though many of them are dying out. As it stands now, the entire Bible has been translated into 687 different languages. In addition, the entire New Testament has been translated into another 1548 languages, and parts of both Old Testament and New Testament into still another 969 languages. Finally, various biblical stories have been translated into yet another 156 languages. This adds up to 3363 languages, all of which have some written biblical witness. Mission organizations and translators have targeted hundreds of other languages for translation, too. Thus the task of translation continues. Christians still cross cultural barriers, as they first did 2000 years ago.

Resilient Faith is not the Bible! It is just a book, written by a flawed and finite human being. Still, I hope it exercises influence for the good of the kingdom. My calling as a writer and as a historian is to bear witness to the gospel, proclaim the good news about Jesus, and edify the church by teaching Christians about its history, and thus help God’s people reach maturity of faith. Resilient Faith is worthy of translation to the degree that it points to the book, which tells the story of God’s redemptive work in the world.

I very much look forward to visiting Korea, observing the vitality of the Christian movement there. For hundreds of years western civilization played a major role in the expansion of Christianity. But times have changed. The western church is shrinking, its influence fading. But in other parts of the world the church is growing, which is certainly true of the church in Korea. It is now at the forefront of God’s work in the world. I am eager to meet you and to learn from you.

Still, in the end there is no American Christian or Korean Christian. As the apostle Paul put it, there is no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, no slave or free. As followers of Jesus we are all simply Christians. Our citizenship is in the kingdom, as Resilient Faith argues. We bear a new identity as children of God and belong to a new commonwealth. We are members of the global church. We are brothers and sisters, all serving the same Lord.

God bless you.
Gerald L. Sittser