shop approach, said Eyre. In places as di-
verse as Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, and
Kenya, translation work is being led by
the local community with support from
Wycliffe staff. This is referred to as the Bi-
ble Translation Movement.
“It’s gone beyond any one organization.
Wycliffe is one piece of it,” Eyre said.
Being a non-profit group, Wycliffe receives
monetary contributions from a few busi-
nesses, corporations and foundations. But
funding lies mostly in the hands of indi-
viduals ranging in the tens of thousands.
About 1,000 churches provide regular con-
tributions as well. Despite translating the
Bible, Wycliffe does not generate profit
from Bible sales.
IMPACT: RELIGION AND
DEMOCRATIZING
CONDITIONS
“The impact of Bible translation is ex-
tremely far-reaching and gets at the foun-
dational areas within the culture and that’s
the kind of thing we get really excited
about — that’s our goal,” Eyre said.
Immersed as it is in so many lives across
the planet, Wycliffe’s impact on the world
is substantial. Bible translation spirals far
back into history and thus its impact lies in
both historical and modern domains. Eyre
referred to the research of a sociologist
named Robert D. Woodberry to address
this further.
Missionary workers, referred to as “Con-
versionary Protestants” (CPs) by Wood-
berry, are often linked to colonialism, but
they may have paved the way for liberal
democracy. Although secular thinkers may
disagree about the extent of this influence,
Woodberry argued that CPs promoted re-
ligious freedom, large-scale printing and
newspapers, colonial reform and educa-
tion for all. Eyre referred to these as the
“democratizing conditions” that allowed
for the spread of democracy across the
modern world. Woodberry accredited par-
ticular importance to Bible translation.
According to Eyre, it is all about “taking
power from the elites and putting it into
the hands of the people”.
To learn more about Wycliffe Canada, visit
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MARCH 2016
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