Towards A Science of Religious Translation: Reflecting on the 4th Chinese National Seminar of Religious Translation

The 4th Chinese National Seminar of Religious Translation was co-hosted by China Association for Comparative Studies of English and Chinese and Chinese National Society of Religions from 1st to 3rd June 2017 in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. Forty scholars delivered speeches on religious translation related to five religions (Bahaism, Taoism, Buddhism, Islamism and Christianity) and six languages (Hebrew, Greek, Tibetan, Korean, English and Chinese). The variety of the speeches made it possible to figure out the construction of a system of the science of religious translation. The system contains history and methodology. The research contents of the history of religious translation are the history of events of translation, important translators, scriptures and religious classics. The study of methodology includes the principle, ways, adaptations, readers and strategies of religious translation. What distinguishes the science of religious translation from the translation of other fields are two special qualities: religiosity and sociality.