Culture is so complicated a system that great efforts have been made by the world to define the term. The definition of culture is the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through inpidual and striving (Larry A Samovar, Richard E. Porter and Lisa A. Stefani 2001: 25). After several-thousand years of historical and traditional precipitate, a culture has evolved into a synthetic complexity with very rich ethnic connotation, which prevents people from other cultures forging a complete fusion into it. Culture permeates into every aspects of the world.
Religion, as a special form of human culture, almost simultaneously emerged from and developed with human culture. Religion, as a part of culture, can be said having the deepest and widest impact on human and our society, which not only affects economy, politics, science, education, philosophy, literature and arts, but also deposits in the deep cultural and psychological structure of human to influence various thoughts of human beings for a long time.
This thesis will contribute to improving reader’s understandings of translated religious scriptures and putting their own views on translating. Meanwhile, those translating strategies will help reduce appearing stiff translating and avoid the phenomenon that more lane words which may mislead readers.
2. Literature Review
Many significant translation theories are originated from translating religious literary works. Faithful translation is an important translation principle. Faithful translation standard refers to translating in accordance with the real meaning of the original sentences or texts (Liu Hongwei 2010: 12). Religious culture is an ingredient of culture, and it is one of the most important factors to influence the process of translating. If one doesn’t understand the religious impacts, he will never perform a wonderful translation work. Christianity, Buddhism and Islam are the three major religions all belonging to the world religion (Yu Ke 2001: 2). Christian culture is deeply embedded in the western culture, while Buddhist is in the Chinese culture. Many Chinese famous scholars all have found the power of religious culture and the methods in translating.
3. The Origin and Transmission of Religious Cultures
3.1 The Definition of Religious Culture
Religion is a special cultural phenomenon appearing in the process of the evolution of human beings, which is an important part consisting of mankind’s traditional culture. Religion influences many aspects in our lives, such as thoughts, consciousness, and living customs and so on. Broadly speaking, region itself is a faith-centered culture. And at the same time, it is a component of the whole social culture. For thousands years, religious culture, as a part of our traditional cultures, plays an important role not only in the spiritual life of congregations but also in the spiritual and cultural life of the community.
Firstly, religion is a special social ideology. Religion is transmitted as a kind of spiritual thing, ideology and a part of superstructure. Religion is a product which is originated from the oppression both from nature and society. Religious consciousness is a vital factor to form and develop religion. Every religion has its own belief, which is a core point of religious consciousness. Secondly, religion is a kind of world view. Religion is a creation of the human mind. Thirdly, religion is also a real social force.
Religion is also transmitted as an organization, a specification and an activity. First, religion, thought and culture rely on each other. On the one hand, the emergence and development of religion rely on certain cultural background to some degree. On the other hand, religious doctrine and ideology have their own influences on the growth of kinds of styles of cultures in the world. Religion has become an important and necessary part of spirit and culture all around the world. It is one of the main carriers of human culture. Second, religion is contradicted with culture. One is between different religions, and the other is between religious and secular culture. In a word, religious culture infiltrates all aspects of our existing world. 浅析宗教文化对翻译的影响及翻译策略(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_58788.html