Theology and politics of conversion: An analysis of translations of the New Testament into indigenous languages of Mexico

Translations of the New Testament (NT) into indigenous languages have been fundamental in the strategy of contemporary US Protestant mission aiming to convert native people from their religion and from Catholicism in Latin America. The primary targets of my investigation are the NT translated into Mixtec and into Nahuatl in Mexico by the North American Christian-Evangelical institution Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) or Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT). I aim to undertake a systematic philological c ontextual analysis of translated fundamental Christian concepts of conversion: sin, repentance and salvation with affiliated notions and Christology. An investigation of the practice of the missionary-linguists in relation to the process of translation a nd linguistic fieldwork leads to a consideration of the phenomenon of political Evangelical-Protestant Christianity and mission in a modern, post-colonial context. In addition to analysing theological aspects of a US Protestant missionary organisation, I will examine the intended cultural transformative effects of the Bible translations on the indigenous cognitive and linguistic system by SIL/WBT ? the politics of conversion i.e. the intended acculturation of indigenous religion and language. Translations of the NT into indigenous language imply that a global religion, e.g. a form of US Evangelic Protestant Christianity as represented by SIL/WBT, becomes localised. The missionary activities of SIL/WBT not only challenge the Hispanic ideological hegemony o f the Catholic Church, but also the cultural heritage of local native traditions, religions and identities. Hence, there is a question of how Bible translators of SIL/WBT want to affect not only religion and cultural identity but the indigenous religious languages as well. The relations between SIL/WTB and the Catholic Churchand (New-) Pentecostal Charismatic mission institutions in the studied region will therefore be taken into account.