Hang tight while we fetch the video data and transcripts. This only takes a moment.
Connecting to YouTube player…
Fetching transcript data…
We’ll display the transcript, summary, and all view options as soon as everything loads.
Next steps
Loading transcript tools…
Theological English (0): The Line | Small Stations | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Theological English (0): The Line
Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.
Share:
Video Transcript
hi my name is jonathan dunn
and this is the first in a series of talks
talks [Music]
[Music]
called theological english
i'm a translator of literature this
means i
stand between the
source language and the target language
of a text
that text passes through my mind
through the sum of my experience
into another language
but the point is that it passes
through me
and i would like to suggest that uh
everything in this life
passes through us
or we pass through it
you might think of air when we breathe
it passes through us food when we eat
passes through us conversations when we
hear what other people say passes
through us and we tend in that process
and to expel the rest
uh and i think this is a process very similar
similar
to the translation of a text
it passes through us
and not only do we give that text
meaning in another language but we ourselves
ourselves
but
we like to think of ourselves as authors
authors
we like to think that things begin
with us
when in fact they don't
even life
does not begin with us we receive life
from our parents
and we pass that life
on to our children
so i would say that everything in this life
life
passes through us it does not begin with us
us
but we take a very dim view of
translation we tend to regard it as
second rate inferior
inferior
not as good as the original when
actually the original text so-called
is a form of translation the author is
writing down
their impressions the things they've
learned what they've heard using a
language that they did not invent [Music]
[Music]
but we think of it as being original
only god is original
things only
when something begins with you you are
in effect
talking about a line
and it starts with you and goes on
on
but i would like to suggest that for humans
humans
we are on the receiving end
and things pass
the idea of the line is very interesting
in language
we have uh nouns
uh that can be concepts like love justice
justice
and note that with these nouns we don't
use the indefinite article uh
or an
we talk about love
love
justice these are concepts that are very
often difficult to define to put a line around
but when we talk about objects such as
a book a table
something that we can draw a line around
we include the indefinite article [Music]
[Music]
and we make it countable you can have a table
table
two tables
a book
two books
so when we take something that is around
us and we draw a line around that thing
and we define it therefore we make it
a bottle
a car
all these things are different from
concepts they're
objects that we can conceptualize
and in our mind or on a piece of paper draw
draw
a line
around them
i would like to suggest that in
in
the beginning of the book of genesis
when god created man what in effect he did
did was
was
separate us off from himself he drew a line
line
around us
the name of god in exodus is i am who i
am exodus 3 14 am
am god
god made
made an
man is made up of am the name of god in
exodus 3 14 and
and an
an [Music]
[Music]
the indefinite article for something
that has a line drawn around it now why
did god separate us off from himself
of course we can never be separate from
god we are contained within him but
within him
i think he did this to give us
free will
he made us separate from himself so that
we could make our own decisions make our own
own choices
now i would like to contrast that
with what we do
in the world
we take things that were already here
that already existed
that flow if you like in front of us
and we package them
we draw a line around them it might be a barrel
barrel
a pipe
a bag
so
we imitate god
we make something that flows
continuously like rice or oil
oil into
into
a bag of rice a barrel of oil we do
exactly the same as god
we define
we draw a line around
around
but we don't do this
to give
the things
free will
we do this to trade
trade to
to
make a profit
we actually take things
that are freely there the earth does not
charge us for the products that we use
and we put a price
on those things
in order to make money and i would
suggest that when we
take that
awful role upon ourselves uh
uh
we actually are perverting
perverting things
things
from their true purpose we're putting a
price on them and from that drawing of a line
line
comes all the confrontation and conflict
so
god drew a line
in order to separate us from himself and
give us free will
we draw
a line
in order to
make money
in order to count what is coming in and
what is going out
and it is precisely the way that we draw
a line around something
with metal plastic whatever it is that
we use are
are
definition our
packaging that causes so many problems
to the environment
that pollutes our
our land
land oceans
this line
line
where you are claiming that something
belongs to you
and therefore you can
take possession of it and sell it
to another person
is something we have to move away
away from
and i think that is the purpose of human
life to move
away from the line
it is curious in english
that the ego is represented by the line i
i
capital i
this is a line
it is curious that the number we start
counting from one
one
is also
a line
we make the mistake of not starting
to count from zero we teach our children
not to count
zero one two three but to count
one two three so we again start from the
and i would like in the next
video to look at the ways that there are
in language
of moving away
from the line
which is
in effect
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
Chrome Extension