«For ein ukjend Gud»

Religionsteologiske implikasjonar i arbeidet med omsettinga av Gud til santali

Abstract

Thakur Jiu is a very old term for the remote Creator God among the Santal people group in North-East India. When Norwegian missionary Lars O. Skrefsrud (1840-1910) came to know about the Santal myths and traditions, he brought the term into the discussions on how to translate the Hebrew and Greek terms for God into Santali. This sparked an intense discussion among the di"erent mission agencies and missionaries. This article presents the arguments that were used in the discussions. Primarily we have looked into the theological motivations for Skrefsrud’s viewpoints. From this historical description we then move into a broader discussion about translating the biblical terms for God. The discussion emphasises theology of religions, including biblical perspectives and anthropological issues. !e belief in a remote and distant Creator God outside and above all that exists is very common in old ethnic cultures both in Africa and Asia. Can we infer from this that there is some sort of primitive monotheism?