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Part of
Non-professional Interpreting and Translation: State of the art and future of an emerging field of research
Edited by Rachele Antonini, Letizia Cirillo, Linda Rossato and Ira Torresi
[Benjamins Translation Library 129] 2017
► pp. 195–212

Chapter 10
Simultaneous interpreting and religious experience

Volunteer interpreting in a Finnish Pentecostal church

In this paper, I discuss the volunteer simultaneous church interpreting I conduct as a professionally trained interpreter, using autoethnography as my methodological approach. The aim is to examine how my professional identity and my identity as a Pentecostal Christian coexist in this non-professional interpreting context. Pentecostalism emphasizes personal religious experience, defined as encountering God, making it a salient feature of the social context of the volunteer interpreting context. Therefore, I study spiritual and practical levels of preparation related to simultaneous interpreting at church. In addition, I examine the ways in which a personal religious experience, especially “hearing from God,” can take place while interpreting, which speaks of my active participation in the interpreted service. This paper thus highlights the dynamics of professional and non-professional interpreting as social contexts carrying meaning over to personal practice.

Keywords: church interpreting, autoethnography, Pentecostalism, identity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Pentecostalism and religious experience
  • 4.Interpreting for and through religious experience
    • 4.1Description of the interpreting practice
    • 4.2Preparing to interpret in a Pentecostal meeting
    • 4.3Hearing from God: Religious experience during simultaneous interpreting
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.129.10hok
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