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《圣经》V.S. 《***》
2008-01-02
[2007.12.22][Christmas Specials]The battle of the books
Christmas Specials
The Bible v the Koran
《圣经》V.S. 《***》
The battle of the books
圣书之战
Dec 19th 2007 | WASHINGTON, DC
The business of marketing the Bible and the Koran says a lot about the state of modern Christianity and Islam 《圣经》与《***》的营销行业反映了当代基督教与伊斯兰教的很多状况
Eyevine /Eyevine图片社
CHRISTIANS and Muslims have one striking thing in common: they are both “people of the book”. And they both have an obligation to spread the Word—to get those Holy Books into the hands and hearts of as many people as they can. (The Jews, the third people of the book, do not feel quite the same obligation.)
基督徒与穆斯林有一个突出的共同点：他们都是“酷爱书的人（people of the book）”。而且他们都有将之传扬天下的责任——将这些“圣书”（Holy Books）力所能及地带到更多的人手中，以及心中。（犹太人是第三个“酷爱书的人”，但他们并未觉得自己有同样的义务。）
Spreading the Word is hard. The Bible is almost 800,000 words long and littered with tedious passages about begetting. The Koran is a mere four-fifths of the length of the New Testament; but some Westerners find it an even more difficult read. Edward Gibbon complained about its “endless incoherent rhapsody of fable and precept”. Thomas Carlyle said that it was “as toilsome reading as I ever undertook; a wearisome, confused jumble, crude, incondite”.
传扬上帝之圣言（Word）很难。圣经几乎有80万字，并夹杂着诸多有关“父生子（beget）”的冗长乏味的章节。《***》则只有《新约》（New Testament）的五分之四篇幅；不过一些西方人发现它更难阅读。爱德华·吉本（Edward Gibbo）就抱怨其中“无穷无尽、并不关连的狂想的神话和教训”（语出英国历史学家吉本的名著《罗马帝国衰亡史》第二卷，据中文版（D.M.洛节编本）第五十章355页译出——译注）。托马斯·卡莱尔（Thomas Carlyle）则认为“据我所知，（它）读起来很费劲，只是一堆令人生厌的混乱的杂烩，拙劣而粗糙”（语出英国历史学家、散文家卡莱尔的《英雄和英雄崇拜》（On Heroe），此处据张志民等译本第66页译出——译注）。
Yet over 100m copies of the Bible are sold or given away every year. Annual Bible sales in America are worth between $425m and $650m; Gideon's International gives away a Bible every second. The Bible is available all or in part in 2,426 languages, covering 95% of the world's population.
然而，每年都有超过1亿部的《圣经》售出或发送。在美国，《圣经》的年销售额在4.25亿至6.5亿美元之间；国际基甸会（Gideon’s International，基督教教徒组织。1898年创立。其名源于《旧约圣经·士师记》中的人物基甸。主要从事《圣经》免费分发事宜，以引导更多的人信教——译注）每秒钟就会发放一部《圣经》。《圣经》共有2426种语言的全部或部分译本，覆盖了全球人口的95%。
The Koran is not only the most widely read book in the Islamic world but also the most widely recited (“Koran” means “recitation”). There is no higher goal in Muslim life than to become a human repository of the Holy Book; there is no more common sound in the Muslim world than the sound of Koranic recitation.
《***》则不仅是伊斯兰世界最广泛阅读的典籍，也是最广为吟诵的作品（“古兰”的意思就是“诵读”）。在穆斯林的生活中，没有比成为这部圣书的人类资料库（human repository）更高的目标了；在穆斯林世界，也没有比《***》的吟诵声更普遍可闻的声音了。
Reciting the Koran is the backbone of Muslim education. One of the most prized honorifics in Islamic society is “hafiz” or “one who has the entire scripture off by heart”. Do so in Iran and you get an automatic university degree. The great recitors compete in tournaments that can attract audiences in the hundreds of thousands—the world cups of the Islamic world. The winners' CDs become instant bestsellers.
吟诵《***》是穆斯林教育的基石。在伊斯兰社会，最为人珍视的尊称就是“哈菲兹（hafiz）”，即“能背诵全部***的人”。伊朗也是如此，这类人可以自动获得大学学位。伟大的吟诵者在吸引了数十万听众的比赛——伊斯兰世界的“世界杯”——中同台竞争。获胜者的CD碟片瞬间就会成为畅销货。
The Bible and the Koran have both gone global. In 1900, 80% of the world's Christians lived in Europe and the United States. Today 60% live in the developing world. More Presbyterians go to church in Ghana than in Scotland. In 1900 Islam was concentrated in the Arab world and South-East Asia. Today, there may be as many practising Muslims in England as there are practising Anglicans; though in the 20th century, at least, Islam's expansion has mostly come about through population growth and migration, rather than conversion. Muslim “missionary” activity is aimed more at reinvigorating the faithful, and encouraging them to greater zealotry, than at winning new souls.
《圣经》与《***》都已走向全球。1900年，全世界80%的基督徒生活在欧美，今天，则有60%的基督徒生活在发展中国家。在加纳，走进教堂的长老会教友比在苏格兰还多。1900年时，伊斯兰教集中在阿拉伯世界和东南亚。今天，在英格兰，从事教会活动的穆斯林可能与圣公会教徒一样多；不过，至少在20世纪，伊斯兰教的扩张主要是通过人口增长和移民，而不是经由改宗皈依。穆斯林的“传教”活动更多地着眼于激励其教徒，鼓励他们更加激进，而不是争取新的灵魂。
This mountain of Holy Books is a giant refutation of the secularisation thesis—the idea that religion recedes as the world modernises. “The book lives on among its people,” Constance Padwick, a scholar of the Koran, has written. “For them these are not mere letters or mere words. They are the twigs of the burning bush, aflame with God.” The same can be said of the Bible.
堆积如山的种种“圣经”是对世俗主义论调——随着世界的现代化，宗教衰退了——的有力驳斥。《***》学者康斯坦斯·帕德维克（Constance Padwic）曾写道：“经书继续存在于其民众之中。对他们而言，这些并非纯粹的字母或是单词。它们就是那火焰中显映着上帝的火荆棘的燃枝（源出《旧约·出埃及记》，神化身为燃烧的荆棘，向摩西启示他的使命——译注）。”用在《圣经》身上也尽然。
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It also poses a couple of intriguing questions. Why are today's Christians and Muslims proving so successful at getting the Word out? And who is winning the battle of the books? Is either of the world's two great missionary religions gaining an edge when it comes to getting their Holy Books into people's hands and hearts?
它也带来了几个耐人寻味的问题。今天的基督徒与穆斯林为什么能如此成功地出版他们的圣言？这场圣书之战，谁赢谁输？在将圣书带到人们的手中，以至心中方面，这两大传教教会中是否有一个正处于优势呢？
The straightforward answer to the first question is that Christians and Muslims are both proving remarkably adept at using the tools of modernity—globalisation, technology and growing wealth—to aid the distribution of their Holy Books. “Give me Scotland or I die,” John Knox once cried. Today's faithful aim for the world.
第一个问题的直截了当的答案就是，基督徒与穆斯林都很善于利用现代化工具——全球化、技术以及不断增加的财富——来帮助发放他们的圣书。约翰·诺克斯（John Knox）曾哭喊说：“苏格兰皈依我吧，不然我就会死。”（诺克斯是苏格兰宗教改革家，长老教会的创始人，曾受学于加尔文——译注）而今日信仰的目标是全世界。
The combination of globalisation and rising wealth is proving to be a bonanza for both religions. The most prolific producer of Christian missionaries, on a per head basis, is now South Korea. The biggest Bible publishing houses are in Brazil and South Korea. An interlinked global network of 140 national or regional Bible Societies pools resources to reach its collective goal of putting a Bible in the hands of every man, woman and child on the planet. The American Bible Society, the biggest of the lot, has published more than 50m Bibles in atheist China.
事实证明，对两大宗教而言，全球化与不断增长的财富的两相结合是一大鸿运。如今，按人头计算，韩国的基督教传教活动最多产。最大的圣经出版社则在巴西和韩国。由140个国家或地区的“圣经公会（Bible Societies）”组成的相互联系的全球网络集合各种资源，以实现其共同的目标——让这个星球上的每一个男人、女人以及儿童人手一本圣经。其中规模最大的美国圣经公会已经在无神论的中国印刷了超过5千万部圣经。
Saudi oil wealth is supercharging the distribution of the Koran. The kingdom gives away some 30m Korans a year, under the auspices of either the Muslim World League or individual billionaires, distributing them through a vast network of mosques, Islamic societies and even embassies. Go to FreeKoran.com and you can have a free book in your hands in weeks.
沙特的石油财富也在加速《***》的散发。在世界穆斯林联盟（Muslim World League）或那些亿万富翁私人的赞助下，该国每年出版约3千万部《***》，并通过由清真寺、伊斯兰团体甚至大使馆组成的庞大网络来发放。几周之后，你就可以登录FreeKoran.com网站获得一部免费的***。
Saudi-funded dissemination of the Koran, along with literature promoting the stern Saudi understanding of Islam, may not have much direct effect on Christians, or the unchurched. But it does increase the relative weight, within Islam, of teachings which tend to sharpen the Christian-Muslim divide. For example, traditional Muslim teaching stresses those passages in the Koran which affirm the Christian Gospel and the Hebrew Torah as valid revelations of God and paths to salvation. But there is a harsher, Saudi-influenced view which insists that since Muhammad delivered the final revelation, Christianity and Judaism have lost their power to save.
沙特资助下的***的传播——同时也推销了沙特对伊斯兰教的严肃理解——对基督教或者教会外的人可能没有多大的直接影响。不过，它确实在伊斯兰内部增加了教义的分量，这些教义往往会加剧基督徒与穆斯林之间的分离。比如，传统的穆斯林教义所强调的一些***章节承认基督教福音书（Christian Gospel）和犹太教“托拉”（Hebrew Torah，犹太教律法书，即《摩西五经》，被视为“上帝的立言”——译注）是有效的天启，也是救赎的途径。但是，受到沙特影响的一种更为苛刻的观点坚持认为，自从穆罕默德传递了最后的启示，基督教和犹太教就丧失了他们的救赎能力。
The Muslim diaspora and Muslim missionaries are bringing the faith to previously untouched areas. The Tablighi Jamaat (“the group that propagates the faith”) is a global network of part-time preachers who dress like the Prophet, in a white robe and leather sandals, and travel in small groups to spread the Word. Their annual gatherings in India and Pakistan attract hundreds of thousands.
穆斯林散居者和传教士们正将其信仰带到先前从未接触过的地区。塔布里·扎马特（Tablighi Jamaat，意为“传播信仰的团体”）就是个兼职宣道者的全球网络，他们有如先知一般穿着白色长袍和皮革拖鞋，并以小团体形式活动，传播着真主圣言。他们在印度和巴基斯坦每年一度的集会吸引了数十万人。
Technology is proving to be a friend of the Holy Books. You can consult them on the internet. You can read them on your “Psalm pilot” or mobile phone. You can listen to them on MP3 players or iPods (“podcasting” has given rise to “Godcasting”). Want to “plug into God without unplugging from life”? Then simply buy a Go Bible MP3 player. Want to memorise the Koran? Then buy an MP3 player that displays the words as you listen. Want to network with like-minded people? Then the eBible allows you to discuss biblical passages with virtual friends.
事实还证明，技术也是圣经的朋友。你可以在互联网上查阅经文。你可以在你的“Psalm pilot（一种轻巧的以电子格式播放基督教宗教内容的“掌上电脑（Palm pilot）”型播放器——译注）”或移动电话上阅读经文。你也可以在MP3播放器或者iPods上收听（“播客（podcasting, 该词源出iPod和broadcasting，是指通过互联网以RSS或者Atom Syndication传播音频和视频文件的方式——译注）”已经导致了“上帝播客（Godcasting, 由Podcasting术语演化而得，内容与基督教有关，已成为一个主要的播客门类——译注）”的产生）。想要“不脱离生活又能交接上帝么”？那么，只需要买一部“圣经播放器（Go Bible MP3）”即可。想要记诵***么？那么买一部可以显示所听内容的MP3播放器吧。想要与志同道合者沟通？那么“电子圣经（eBible）”可以让你同虚拟友人一起探讨有关的圣经段落。
Several television channels and radio stations do nothing but broadcast the Koran. At the other end of the technological spectrum, the American Bible Society produces an audio device, powered by a battery or hand crank and no bigger than a couple of cigar boxes, that can broadcast the Bible to a crowd of a hundred.
有些电视频道和广播电台除了播放***，没有任何其它节目。而在技术频谱的另一端，美国圣经公会生产了一种音频设备，采用电池或手摇发电，不过两个雪茄盒大小，就能向上百的人群播放圣经。
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A
well-thumbed Book一本翻烂了的圣经
There is a difference, however, between getting and understanding a Holy Book. Here both Christianity and Islam suffer from serious problems. Americans buy more than 20m new Bibles every year to add to the four that the average American has at home. Yet the state of American biblical knowledge is abysmal. A Gallup survey found that less than half of Americans can name the first book of the Bible (Genesis), only a third know who delivered the Sermon on the Mount (Billy Graham is a popular answer) and a quarter do not know what is celebrated at Easter (the resurrection, the foundational event of Christianity). Sixty per cent cannot name half the ten commandments; 12% think Noah was married to Joan of Arc. George Gallup, a leading Evangelical as well as a premier pollster, describes America as “a nation of biblical illiterates”.
然而，获得圣经与理解圣经是不同的。在这方面，基督徒与穆斯林都碰到一些问题。美国人平均每户拥有4部圣经，但每年仍会购买超过2千万部新圣经。但美国人的圣经知识不甚了了。一项盖洛普（Gallup）民调发现，不足一半的美国人能说出《圣经》第一卷的名称（《创世纪》），只有三分之一的人知道《登山宝训》（Sermon on the Mount）是谁说的（一个常见的答案是比利·葛培理（Billy Graham）。葛培理牧师是美国当代著名的基督教福音布道家，二战后福音派教会的代表人物之一；《登山宝训》，又作《耶稣论道》，是《马太福音》第五章到第七章里，由耶稣基督在山上所说的话。当中最著名的是“八种福气”说，被视为基督教徒言行的准则——译注）；此外，四分之一的人不知道复活节庆祝的是什么（庆祝基督的复活，这是基督教最基本的事件）。六成的人不能说出“十诫”的一半；12%的人认为诺亚与圣女贞德（Joan of Arc）结了婚。福音派领袖、最早的民意调查员乔治·盖洛普（George Gallup）形容美国是“一个圣经盲的国度。”
Muslims greatly prefer to read the Koran in the original Arabic. Yet the archaic language and high-flown verse, while inspiring, can also be difficult to understand even for educated Arabic speakers. And only 20% of Muslims speak Arabic as their first language. Illiteracy rates are high across the Muslim world. Many students of the Holy Book do not understand much of what they are memorising.
穆斯林极其热衷阅读古阿拉伯语版本的《***》。不过，即便对于受过教育的说阿拉伯语的人而言，古老的语言、夸张而振奋的篇章也难以理解。而且，只有五分之一的穆斯林将阿拉伯语作为第一语言。在整个穆斯林世界，文盲率很高。许多学习《***》的学生对他们所记忆的许多内容不能理解。
This needs to be kept in mind when considering who is winning the battle of the books. For some, the question is an abomination. Can't both sides win by converting the heathen? And aren't Christianity and Islam fellow Abrahamic faiths—different versions of the Truth? Others worry that the question is impossible to answer, since there are no systematic figures on the distribution of the Koran, and the battle's front-line cuts through some of the darkest and most dangerous places on the planet. Muslims would argue that their struggle was aimed more at galvanising their own flock than at converting unbelievers. But Islam's relative introversion doesn't make for peaceful coexistence. In many parts of the world, Islamic authorities have reacted furiously to attempts by Christians to entice Muslims to “apostasise” or renounce their faith; in traditional Islamic law, the penalty for apostasy is death; and encouraging believers to apostasise is also treated as a crime.
在论及圣书之战谁赢谁输时，这是需要加以考虑的。对一些人来说，这个问题很可憎。难道就不能是双方都获胜，令异教徒皈依得道？还有，难道基督教与伊斯兰教不是同类的亚伯拉罕（Abrahamic）信仰——只是上帝（Truth）的版本不同而已？其他人则担心这个问题无法回答，因为他们对《***》的散发没有系统的认识。并且，斗争前线穿过了地球上最黑暗、最危险的地区。穆斯林可能争辩说，他们的努力更多地旨在激励自己的教徒而不是让不信者皈依。但是，伊斯兰教的相对内敛并不利于和平共处。在世界的许多地方，伊斯兰当局对基督徒们引诱穆斯林“背叛”或放弃其信仰反应强烈；按照传统的伊斯兰法律，对背叛的惩罚是处死；并且，鼓励信徒背叛也被视为犯罪。
In many parts of the world, battle seems to be in progress. The Saudis will not allow the Bible to be distributed on their soil. Many Evangelical Christians are fixated on what they call the 10/40 window—the vast swathe of the Islamic world in Africa and Asia that lies between latitudes 10 and 40 north of the equator. The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas has even created a masters degree to train missionaries in the art of converting Muslims. Some Evangelicals produce counterfeit Korans that are designed to plant doubt in Muslim minds.
在世界的许多地方，两教之争似乎都在进行之中。沙特不会允许在其国土上发放《圣经》。许多福音派基督徒都相当专注于他们所谓的10/40“窗口”——非洲和亚洲地区位于北纬10~40度之间的大片伊斯兰世界。德克萨斯州西南浸信会神学院（Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary）曾经设置了一个硕士学位，用于培训促使穆斯林改宗的传教士。一些福音派制作伪《***》，用以在穆斯林头脑中根植对圣书的疑问。
And the battle of the books is certainly at the heart of the battle between the two religions. People who get hold of Bibles or Korans may not read them or understand them. Unless they are introduced to the books they will certainly remain heathens. Even an imperfect report on the state of the battle tells us a lot about the world's two great missionary religions.
但两大宗教间争斗的核心肯定是圣书之战。那些拿到《圣经》或是《***》的人可能并不会去阅读或者理解其内容。除非他们被带入了圣书之中，不然他们肯定仍然是异教徒。即便是关于双方争斗势态的一份并不完美的报告也让我们得知许多有关世界上这两大传教教会的情形。
The Christians entered the 21st century with a big head start. There are 2 billion of them in the world compared with 1.5 billion Muslims. But Islam had a better 20th century than Christianity. The world's Muslim population grew from 200m in 1900 to its current levels. Christianity has shrivelled in Christendom's European heart. Islam is resurgent across the Arab world. Many Christian scholars predict that Islam will overtake Christianity as the world's largest religion by 2050.
进入21世纪，基督徒在一开始就有些盲目自大。与15亿穆斯林相比，全世界现有20亿基督徒。但是，伊斯兰教20世纪的表现比基督教更出色。全球穆斯林人口从1900年的2亿增加到目前的水平。在基督教世界的欧洲中心，基督教已经萎缩。而伊斯兰教在整个阿拉伯世界得以复苏。许多基督教学者预言，到2050年，伊斯兰教将取代基督教成为全世界最大的宗教。
More recently, though, Muslims complain that the “war on terror” is making it much more difficult to spread the Koran. Contributions to Muslim charities have fallen since September 11th 2001. Several charities have had their funding disrupted. Missionary organisations such as the Tablighi Jamaat are under investigation by Western intelligence services, on the grounds that they may be way-stations to jihadism. And Muslims confront much bigger long-term problems in the battle of the books.
不过，最近穆斯林们抱怨“反恐战争”使得传播《***》更加困难。自2001年“9·11”事件后，穆斯林慈善机构收到的捐献已经减少。一些慈善机构都已经财政破产。诸如塔布里·扎马特这些传教组织都受到西方情报机构的调查，理由是它们可能是“圣战主义”的中间站（way-station）。此外，在这场圣书之战中，穆斯林面临更大的长期性问题。
The first is Christianity's superior marketing skills. Its religious publishing houses are big businesses. Thomas Nelson, which was once owned by a former door-to-door Bible salesman, was bought in 2005 for $473m. And secular publishing houses have also got religion: HarperCollins bought Zondervan, a religious book publisher, in the late 1980s, and now most mainstream publishers are trying to produce their own Bibles. As a result, all the tricks of the publisher's trade are being applied to the Bible.
首先是基督教高超的营销技巧。他们的宗教出版社都是大企业。曾一度为一名从事上门推销的前圣经销售商拥有的托马斯·纳尔逊出版公司（Thomas Nelson）2005年销售额达4.73亿美元。而且世俗出版社也已经变得热心起来：哈柏·柯林斯出版社（HarperCollins）在20世纪八十年代末购并了宗教出版商桑德凡（Zondervan）公司，如今大多数主流出版商都在尝试制作他们自己的《圣经》。结果，出版商的贸易伎俩全部都应用到了《圣经》上。
Consider product proliferation. Thomas Nelson publishes 60 different editions of the Bible every year. The Good Book now comes in all colours, including those of your college. There are Bibles for every sort of person, from “seekers” to cowboys, from brides to barmen. There is a waterproof outdoor Bible and a camouflage Bible for use in war zones. The “100 minute Bible” summarises the Good Book for the time-starved.
看看产品的扩散情况。托马斯纳尔逊公司每年出版60个不同的《圣经》版本。如今的《圣经》（Good Book）上覆盖了所有的标志，你们大学的也在内。还有适合于各类人的《圣经》，从“探索者”到牛仔，从新娘到酒保。有户外防水《圣经》，还有战争地区使用的伪装《圣经》。《一百分钟圣经》（100 minute Bible）为那些时间紧迫的人概述了《圣经》的内容。
Consider user-friendliness. There are prayer books in everyday vernacular or even street slang (“And even though I walk through/The Hood of death/I don't back down/for you have my back”). Or consider innovation. In 2003 Thomas Nelson dreamt up the idea of Bible-zines—crosses between Bibles and teenage magazines. The pioneer was Revolve, which intercuts the New Testament with beauty tips and relationship advice (“are you dating a Godly guy?”). This was quickly followed by Refuel, for boys, and Blossom and Explore, for tweens.
在方便易用上，市面上存在着各种以日常白话或者街头俚语出版的祈祷书（如，“即便我悠悠而过”/“死亡之谜”/“我不放弃”/“因你有我倚靠”）。再看看创新方面。2003年，托马斯·纳尔逊公司想出了一个“圣经杂志（Bible-zine）”的构思——圣经与青少年杂志的糅合。首创刊物是《Revolve》杂志，在《新约》中插入美容知识和约会建议（如，“你在和一个正派男孩约会么？”）。很快，《Refuel》杂志和《Blossom and Explore》杂志也跟风而至，前者的目标读者是男孩，后者则包括男孩和女孩（《Revolve》杂志针对的是年轻女孩——译注）。
There are toddler-friendly versions of the most famous Bible stories. The “Boy's Bible” promises “gross and gory Bible stuff”. The “Picture Bible” looks like a super-hero comic. “God's Little Princess Devotional Bible” is pink and sparkly.
还有最著名的《圣经》故事的“儿童友好（toddler-friendly）”装。《男孩的圣经》（Boy's Bible）有成为“粗俗而血腥的某种圣经”的可能。《图片圣经》（Picture Bible）看起来像是本超级英雄漫画。《上帝的小公主灵修圣经》（God's Little Princess Devotional Bible）则是激进而煽情的。
There are about 900 English translations of the Bible, ranging from the grandiloquent to the colloquial. There are translations into languages, such as Inupiat and Gullah, that are spoken by only handfuls of people. Bob Hudson, of the American Bible Society, wants everybody on the planet to be able to claim that “God speaks my language”. A couple of eccentric geeks have even translated the Bible into Klingon, a language spoken only by scrofulous space aliens on “Star Trek”.
《圣经》大约有900种英语译本，范围从浮华做作到通俗白话。还有其它语言的译本，如只有一小撮人会讲的因纽皮特语（Inupiat, 即爱斯基摩人语，居住于阿拉斯加西北部及北部海岸——译注）和嘎勒语（Gullah, 一种以英语为基础、结合了西非地区词汇的混合语。美国南卡罗来纳州和乔治亚州诸岛以及附近大陆的前奴隶及其后代操这种语言——译注）。美国圣经公会的鲍勃·哈德逊（Bob Hudson）希望地球上的每一个人都能宣称“上帝说我的语言”。一些古怪离奇的人则已将《圣经》译成了一种只有《星际旅行》（Star Trek, 指的是全部设定在同一个虚构宇宙中的六代电视科幻电视系列剧（总共726集）、十部电影、上百部小说、电视游戏以及其他虚构作品，该宇宙是由吉恩·罗登贝瑞（Gene Roddenberry）于1960年代初期到中期所创造——译注）中患病的太空外星人才讲的克林贡语（Klingon）。
Publishers are producing sophisticated dramatisations of the Bible with famous actors and state-of-the-art sound effects. Zondervan's “The Bible Experience” features every black actor in Hollywood from Denzel Washington to Samuel L. Jackson. Other outfits are making films that dramatise Bible stories as faithfully as possible.
出版商正在将《圣经》制作成精致的剧本，由著名的演员出演，并配有最顶级的音响效果。桑德凡出版社的《圣经体验》（The Bible Experience）就是由好莱坞的黑人演员出演，如丹泽尔·华盛顿（Denzel Washington）和塞穆尔·L·杰克逊（Samuel L. Jackson）。其他人则在尽可能忠实地将圣经故事拍成电影。
And then there are the spin-offs. A “fully posable” Jesus doll recites famous passages of the Good Book. There are Bible quiz books, stuffed with crosswords and other word puzzles, and Bible bingo games. There are Bible colouring books, sticker books and floor puzzles. There is even a Bible-based juke box that plays your favourite biblical passages.
此外，还有衍生品。一种“完全能装腔作势”的耶稣玩具娃娃能吟诵《圣经》中著名的段落。还有圣经谜题书，里面全是填字游戏和其它字谜，还有圣经宾果（bingo）游戏。此外还有圣经填彩书、贴纸书以及地板拼图。甚至还有一种基于《圣经》的投币式自动播放点唱机，可以演唱你最喜欢的圣经段落。
Muslims have also gone into the Holy Book business, but nowhere near as enthusiastically as Christians. This is partly because their commercial publishing houses are smaller and less sophisticated, but also because Muslims believe that the Koran is the literal word of God—dictated to Muhammad (who was himself illiterate) by the Angel Gabriel and then written down by Muhammad's followers. “The Koran does not document what is other than itself,” one scholar notes. “It is not about the truth. It is the truth.”
穆斯林也已经从事圣书行业，不过远不及基督徒那么积极。这部分是因为他们的商业出版社规模较小，不够先进，但也因为穆斯林相信，《***》是真主之言的文本文字——是天使加百列（Angel Gabriel）口授给穆罕默德（他自身就是个文盲），然后由穆罕默德的信徒们书写下来的。一名学者指出，“《***》除了自身外，并未留下什么别的注解。它的内容并非是关于真理云云，而就是真理本身。”
Thomas Nelson /托马斯·纳尔逊出版公司
This makes Muslims uncomfortable with translations. The Holy Book says sternly that “we have sent no messenger save with the tongue of his people.” Today most Muslims tolerate translations—there are now more than 20 English translations—but do so reluctantly. Most translations are as literal as possible. Pious Muslims are expected to learn God's language.
这就让穆斯林们对翻译心存不安。那本圣书中明言“除了借他的舌外，我们没有派出任何别的使者。”今天，大多数穆斯林会默许翻译——目前的英语译本超过20种——但并非那么情愿。大多数译本都是尽可能地从字面上去翻译。伊斯兰教希望虔诚的穆斯林学习真主的语言。
The second advantage the Christians have is America. The world's richest and most powerful country contains some 80m Evangelicals. It supports more missionaries, more broadcasting organisations and more global publishers than any other country. Despite some countries' oil wealth, the Koran's heartland is relatively poor. The Arab world has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world, with a fifth of men and two-fifths of women unable to read. It also has one of the lowest rates of internet usage.
基督教的第二个优势就是美国。这个全球最富裕，最强大的国家有大约8千万福音派教徒。比起其它任何国家，它更加支持传教、广播机构以及国际出版商。尽管一些国家石油财富巨大，但《***》的中心地带仍相对贫穷。阿拉伯世界是世界上文盲率最高的地区之一，五分之一的男性和五分之二的女性不识字。它也是全球互联网使用率最低的地区之一。
The third big advantage is the West's belief in religious freedom—guaranteed in America by the constitution, and in Europe by an aversion to religious persecution caused by centuries of it. The heartland of Islam, by contrast, is theocratic. The Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Call and Guidance employs 120,000 people, including 72,000 imams. Saudi Arabia bans non-Islamic worship and regards attempts to convert Muslims to another faith as a criminal offence. Pakistan has witnessed the attacks on Christian missionaries. Sudan punishes “religious deviation” with imprisonment.
基督教的第三个优势就是西方国家信奉宗教自由——在美国有宪法保障，在欧洲则有几个世纪以来对宗教迫害的反感保证。相反，伊斯兰教的核心地带则是神权政治。沙特政府的伊斯兰事务、基金、宣传和指导部（Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Call and Guidance）雇用了12万名职员，包括7.2万伊玛目（伊斯兰教教职称谓，阿拉伯语意为领袖、师表、表率、楷模等——译注）。沙特禁止非伊斯兰教的礼拜，并视使穆斯林皈依其它信仰的企图为刑事犯罪行为。巴基斯坦也已经有基督教传教士受袭。苏丹则会对“宗教偏离”处以监禁。
Christian Evangelists complain that this creates an uneven playing field: Muslims can build giant mosques in “Christian lands” while Christians are barred from distributing Bibles in Saudi Arabia and Iran. But uneven playing fields tend to weaken the home players. Open competition is a boon to religion: American Evangelism has flourished precisely because America has no official church. And theocracy is ultimately a source of sloth and conservatism. “The Book and the Koran”, by Muhammad Shahrur, which tried to reinterpret the Koran for modern readers, was widely banned in the Islamic world, despite its pious tone and huge popularity.
基督教福音派抱怨这造成了一场不公平的竞争：穆斯林可以在“基督教的土地上”修建大型清真寺，而基督徒在沙特和伊朗却被禁止散发《圣经》。不过，不公平的竞争往往削弱了国内的参与者。开放的竞争是对宗教的一种恩赐：正是因为美国没有官方教会，美国福音教会得以蓬勃发展。此外，神权政治终究是懒散与保守的一大源头。穆罕默德·沙哈鲁尔（Muhammad Shahrur）所著的《〈圣经〉与〈***〉》（The Book and the Koran）试图为当代读者重新诠释《***》，它虽然用语虔诚，人气也高，但在伊斯兰世界却广泛被禁。
This state-of-the-battle report comes with a health warning. Predicting the fate of religions is unwise, for they can burn or gutter in unpredictable ways. But two things are certain in the battle of the books. The first is that the urge to spread the Word will spark some of the fiercest conflicts of the 21st century. The area that is being most heavily fought over—sub-Saharan Africa—is a tinder box of failed states and ethnic animosities. The second is that the Bible and the Koran will continue to exercise a dramatic influence over human events, for both good and ill. The twigs of the burning bush are still aflame with the fire of God.
这份战况报告带来了一个健康警告。预测宗教的命运是不明智的，因为它们可能以无法预见的方式兴衰生息。但在这场圣书之战中，有两点可以肯定。其一，传播圣言的冲动将在21世纪触发一些激烈冲突。目前争夺最为激烈的地方——撒哈拉沙漠以南非洲——也是失败国家与种族仇恨云集的“火药筒”。其二，无论福祸好坏，《圣经》与《***》将继续对人类活动产生重大影响。那火荆棘里的细枝依然燃烧着上帝（真主）之火。随机文章：
天文学家追踪到曾经杀死恐龙的小行星 2007-09-12中国：从制造大国到信息强国 2007-09-11银行：游戏玩大了 2007-08-24亚洲之贫富：富者愈富 2007-08-13美国：绿色行动的苍白背影 2007-08-08
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Blog：荷猪的吐司盒子2008-01-03 03:13:18
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big head start = 在起跑点遥遥领先
“盲目自大”有批评的意思，根据原文“在起跑点遥遥领先”完全没有批评的意思。
《圣经》V.S. 《***》
Koran 是伊斯兰教的可兰经