在网络上为了神学翻译鼓与呼，已经差不多有半年的时间。最近的情况并不太乐观。有些客户因为无法再进入内地工作，于是取消了计划要翻译的项目；有的出版机构因为形势的动荡，已经不容易拿到版权和出版本来商谈好要出版的书籍。
这种情况下，也只能暂且忍耐坚持下去。有些热心的弟兄姊妹常常提出希望参与到神学翻译中。他们的水平和经验各有不同，但是我都欢迎，尽量为他们提供合适的项目，也希望为寒冬过去之后保留一些作品和人才。
不过我仍然坚持从前的判断，免费的志愿者从事神学翻译，是很难培养出高水平译者来的，也很难产生高质量的译作。有位热情要翻译“Redeeming Science”的弟兄，从8月9日开始翻译，刚刚去项目上看了一眼，40天的时间只翻译了2千3百个英文单词，自从9月2日以后，就再也没有动手。大概是开学了，各种事情繁忙起来，虽然我的印象中他并不是学生或者老师。
《坚固的服侍》我自己翻译了10多章，余下差不多10章是其他朋友们翻译的。基本上不管校对的时候是否全文推翻重译，我仍旧署上译者的名字。希望至少这对于参与的人来说是一种体验，知道神学翻译的不易，以后也能为了那些尽心尽意的译者们多多祷告。
今天把众筹翻译《广西宣教史》的经费全部打给了道生。这本书还需要花时间校对，大概只能放到国庆节期间赶工完成了。希望过了国庆，寻找出版社的难题可以有些眉目。
最近又有两位素未谋面的朋友希望参与到神学翻译的志愿工作中。所以昨天花了一天时间整理了“Towers Pointing Upward”一书。所谓整理，是在家用扫描仪上一页一页的扫描，然后OCR识别，再一页一页的校对英文，简单地整理成一个word文档，按照章节分为若干小文件，上传到翻译平台上，建立一个项目。这本书124页，用掉了大概6-7个小时的时间，昨晚从10点直到凌晨1点过，今早从醒来直到午餐之前。我们翻译的很多项目都是我这样一点一点整理出来的，包括《坚固的服侍》，以及许多以PDF形式提供的文档。这都是看不到的辛苦而机械的工作。
“Towers Pointing Upward”，是CIU建校50周年的纪念，讲述了学校前50年的历史。世界上每30个海外宣教士里面，就有一个是在CIU受训或毕业的，这本书讲述了这种宣教DNA的由来。考虑到CIU的中文神学项目和教育学项目都有了许多不太使用英语的学生，所以跨文翻译的下一个志愿者“众译”项目，选择了这本书。我不好自吹自擂地赞扬我的母校，但是我认为每个基督徒都应当读一下这本小书。
此书一共18个章节，欢迎感兴趣的弟兄姊妹参与翻译和校对工作。此书没有什么艰深的神学术语，以动人的故事为主。没有翻译经费，估计也不会有出版社出版，不过您的翻译会鼓励一百多位在CIU就读的神学生和教育学硕士，以及将来的许多潜在的宣教士。
下午继续校对《成圣的福音奥秘》，我觉得应该开一门清教徒神学翻译讲座，素材太丰富了。兹举一例：
Several learned men of late acknowledge no other union between Christ and believers than such as persons or things wholly separated may have by their mutual relations to each other; and accordingly they interpret the places of Scripture that speak of this union. When Christ is called the Head of the church, they account that a political head or governor is the thing meant. When Christ is said to be in His people, and they in Him, they think that the proper meaning is that Christ’s law, doctrine, grace, salvation, or that godliness is in them, and embraced by them, so that Christ here must not be taken for Christ Himself, but for some other thing wrought in them by Christ. When Christ and believers are said to be one Spirit, and one flesh, they understand it of the agreement of their minds and affections – as if the greatness of the mystery of this union mentioned (Eph. 5:32) consisted rather in a harsh trope, or a dark improper expression, than in the depth and abstruseness of the thing itself; and as if Christ and His apostles had affected obscure intricate expressions, when they speak to the church of things very plain, and easy to be understood. Thus that great mystery, the union of believers with Christ Himself – which is the glory of the church, and has been highly owned formerly, both by the ancient fathers, and many eminent Protestant divines, particularly writers concerning the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, and by a very general consent of the church in many ages – is now exploded out of the new model of divinity. The reason of exploding it, as I judge in charity, is not because our learned refiners of divinity think themselves less able to defend it than the other two mysterious unions, and to silence the objections of those proud sophisters that will not believe what they cannot comprehend; but rather, because they account it to be one of the sinews of Antinomianism, that lay unobserved in the former usual doctrine; that it tends to puff up men with a persuasion that they are justified and have eternal life in them already, and that they do not need to depend any longer on their uncertain performances of the condition of sincere obedience for salvation; by which they account the very foundation of a holy practice to be subverted.
这段话一共401个字，一共是6句话，平均句长67，但是不要被迷惑了，最后那句话的长度是127个单词。
我给出前面的译文，作为上下文。请大家试一下最后两句话的翻译：
近来，几位饱学之士认为，除了那些完全分离的人或物因彼此关系而建立的联合之外，基督和信徒之间并没有其他的联合；于是，他们如此解释圣经中谈及这种联合的经节。当基督被称为教会之首时，他们认为这指的是祂是一位政治领袖或统治者。当读到基督在祂的百姓里面，他们也在祂里面时，他们认为正确的含义是基督的律法、教训、恩典、救恩、敬虔都在他们里面，并且被他们所接纳，于是这里基督不能被理解为基督本人，而应当作基督在他们身上所做的工作。当基督和信主的人被描述为同属一灵、成为一体时，他们的理解是，这种说法指的是二者在思想和感情上的一致——仿佛在提到这联合奥秘的伟大之处时 （弗 5:32），不是在刻画这事本身的深刻与深奥，而是一种粗糙的比喻，暗淡而不恰当的表达；又仿佛基督和祂的使徒们在指示教会各种简单易懂的事情时，故意采用了装腔作势、隐晦难明的说法。
在这个上下文中，请问接下来一句，特别是最后一句应该如何理解（提示：explode和divinity大概用法和现在略有不同）：
Thus that great mystery, the union of believers with Christ Himself – which is the glory of the church, and has been highly owned formerly, both by the ancient fathers, and many eminent Protestant divines, particularly writers concerning the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, and by a very general consent of the church in many ages – is now exploded out of the new model of divinity.
如果你顺利地突破了这句话，就可以试着翻译最后一句话了，不是太长，只有127个字而已：
The reason of exploding it, as I judge in charity, is not because our learned refiners of divinity think themselves less able to defend it than the other two mysterious unions, and to silence the objections of those proud sophisters that will not believe what they cannot comprehend; but rather, because they account it to be one of the sinews of Antinomianism, that lay unobserved in the former usual doctrine; that it tends to puff up men with a persuasion that they are justified and have eternal life in them already, and that they do not need to depend any longer on their uncertain performances of the condition of sincere obedience for salvation; by which they account the very foundation of a holy practice to be subverted.