Thanks for this history, Brad. It sent me back to rereading some of Schaff, who wondered whether Boethius was a Christian or not. But that may reflect the life circumstances in which he lived, and Schaff looking for some language that was missing in Boethius' time.
I like the sentiment, but what precisely does "translation" equate to in our age? Many of these texts already exist in English, so I don't think you mean translation simpliciter. Surely you're not suggesting we turn Aristotle into a series of Tik-tok videos? Or are you just saying that the "elite" who are actually learned must break down and disseminate these great ideas in ways the average Joe can understand?
Right, very much the latter--in ways that the average Joe can understand *and use*.
I used to write on this idea a lot for The Davenant Institute, which always framed our mission as one of "translation," and emphasized that translating works from Latin to English was only the very first stage of that process (and one that is now largely being done by AI). The more time I spend as a scholar and writer, the more I realize just how many steps of translation there are in the intellectual task--a brilliant research discovery or theological argument has to be mediated down many rungs of the ladder before it is intelligible to most pastors and Christian leaders, much less ordinary Christian laypeople. And that is all the more so in an age when, as with Boethius, the basic philosophical categories that made up the shared intellectual "language" of high culture have been largely forgotten.
Beautiful essay. Thank you.
Thanks for this history, Brad. It sent me back to rereading some of Schaff, who wondered whether Boethius was a Christian or not. But that may reflect the life circumstances in which he lived, and Schaff looking for some language that was missing in Boethius' time.
I like the sentiment, but what precisely does "translation" equate to in our age? Many of these texts already exist in English, so I don't think you mean translation simpliciter. Surely you're not suggesting we turn Aristotle into a series of Tik-tok videos? Or are you just saying that the "elite" who are actually learned must break down and disseminate these great ideas in ways the average Joe can understand?
Right, very much the latter--in ways that the average Joe can understand *and use*.
I used to write on this idea a lot for The Davenant Institute, which always framed our mission as one of "translation," and emphasized that translating works from Latin to English was only the very first stage of that process (and one that is now largely being done by AI). The more time I spend as a scholar and writer, the more I realize just how many steps of translation there are in the intellectual task--a brilliant research discovery or theological argument has to be mediated down many rungs of the ladder before it is intelligible to most pastors and Christian leaders, much less ordinary Christian laypeople. And that is all the more so in an age when, as with Boethius, the basic philosophical categories that made up the shared intellectual "language" of high culture have been largely forgotten.