Hi from the USA, interested in other cultures.

writewords

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Hi.

I am a student of Bible. This includes Bible meets culture as it helps my ministry. Would you please leave a message and tell me about your country and language?

Anyone is welcome to. I am of German decent and researching my family tree. So those of Germanic countries, please contribute. Feel free to PM me.
 

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Most of the European countries can only reminisce about their culture because of the effects of mass immigration, especially the refugee situation, and probably will have a difficult time defining it today. It’s happening right here in the good old USA too. Good luck though, I hope you get several responses... it would be interesting.
 
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thehehe

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I've known German people all my life, as my parents live close to the German border. So I know quite well West Germany, but still it would be better to ask this to real Germans.
Following the different European countries or regions, people did not have the same relationship or troubles with the Bible. Actually, Christianity has never been the same everywhere, people struggled with different things. For example, one of the main reason Lutheranism did not have any great success in France is that Luther's concerns were mostly German, when French people did not stress about the same things.

If you want France's specificities: food -good food- is really important for us, just as elegant fashion (unless in great cities when it comes to fashion). We are very political, even obsessed by it. We actually complain a lot, but for us it has nothing negative; in the same way we are very mocking too - I am. We are arrogant and independent, so we hate when people give us lessons or pretend to know better something than we do, when obviously not. We have a very strong mind of contestation, so there are many demonstrations and sometimes riots, due to our taste for politics too. Haha, looks like we are horrible people, but in fact no! Just as everywhere else, a lot of people are adorable and deserve all our attention, and we are all very different. We are also a lot focused on history, art and literature. Every region is very different, for example if you go Bretagne it will have nothing to do with Alsace or the Mediterranean regions : both for the landscapes, the architectural style or the mentality. Some places will be really medieval, with a lot of medieval castles or churches, some other from the Renaissance etc. People from Alsace, by example, are very germanized and in some places even still talk their own language, Alsacian (which is very close to German). Bretons too have their own language, however nobody knows it despise their pride of it (but Bretons are quite... impossible to describe)!
Our language and our literature is one of our pride. This is one of the reasons French is currently one of the less anglicized languages of the Western world -we dislike when English speaking people try to adapt our language to them, like it is often the case. Even if, and I do agree with them, Québec people think French is becoming a kind of new English and that we should stop it : I simply feel their solution is too drastic.
So as you can see, it is very complicated, full of very different things and styles. One life is absolutely not enough to see everything!
It is really hard to answer to such generalistic questions, what do you exactly want to know?
 
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writewords

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Well, first off, you seem to have a very hostile "tone" with your choice of words, etc., apparently because I'm American. But what you judge without understanding is that my genealogy is very German. Not only that, the language is very important to Theology. This becomes even more true with higher education theological students, especially doctoral students. I am a seminary grad (not doctoral)and am a student of Bible and how it is contextextualized elsewhere. USA is made of many different nationalities, and much more so in the cities. Knowledge of culture helps. I am also interested in celtic cultures as well as Germanic. To be honest though, I really was not too receptive to your post because of the statement you led off with: "That is typically an american sentence..."

I have spoken to many Germanic people on here. All have been cordial. Thanks for your input, but thanks anyway.
I




.


...
 
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thehehe

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Well, first off, you seem to have a very hostile "tone" with your choice of words, etc., apparently because I'm American. But what you judge without understanding is that my genealogy is very German. Not only that, the language is very important to Theology. This becomes even more true with higher education theological students, especially doctoral students. I am a seminary grad (not doctoral)and am a student of Bible and how it is contextextualized elsewhere. USA is made of many different nationalities, and much more so in the cities. Knowledge of culture helps. I am also interested in celtic cultures as well as Germanic. To be honest though, I really was not too receptive to your post because of the statement you led off with: "That is typically an american sentence..."

I have spoken to many Germanic people on here. All have been cordial. Thanks for your input, but thanks anyway.
I




.


...
I am sorry that I have been rude, I wrote without thinking being the accusation of not knowing our culture annoyed me, perhaps because I read it many times on the forum from people who never went in Europe. I should have relaxed, be calm and answer then, so I apologize. I hope too I did not use rude sentences without understanding it, I do it quite often as I don't always know what is rude or not in English, I said horrible things sometimes on the forum without wanting too. Anyway, I apologize, I was wrong. I agree on the point that a language changes a perspective, that is an interesting point, and good luck on your field of study. I hope you will forgive me my inappropriate and childish aggressiveness.
 
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writewords

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I am sorry that I have been rude, I wrote without thinking being the accusation of not knowing our culture annoyed me, perhaps because I read it many times on the forum from people who never went in Europe. I should have relaxed, be calm and answer then, so I apologize. I hope too I did not use rude sentences without understanding it, I do it quite often as I don't always know what is rude or not in English, I said horrible things sometimes on the forum without wanting too. Anyway, I apologize, I was wrong. I agree on the point that a language changes a perspective, that is an interesting point, and good luck on your field of study. I hope you will forgive me my inappropriate and childish aggressiveness.

Most certainly I forgive you. Forgiveness is free. I hope I did not suggest anything that made me sound accusatory about you or your culture. I honestly want to know about it, and actually, I do not know very much at all about France, French people. There is a big German, Irish, and western Europe where I live, so I guess that is part of my interest too. You can be as general or specific as you like about your culture. Sorry if this post jumps around a lot. I'm tired, hard day at work.

Blessings
 
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Kalevalatar

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In Finland, the Bible and our own written Finnish language go hand in hand: "oma kieli, oma mieli" -- own language, own mind. Although Finnish is not Indo-European Germanic but an odd Uralic Finno-Ugric, Finland has always had close historical ties to fellow Baltic Germany, which was the go-to place for Finnish clergy and Academics. During the Protestant Reformation, the most notable Finnish reformers studied in Wittenberg and were influenced by Luther and Melanchton. Mikael Agricola, the Bishop of Turku and de facto Lutheran Bishop for all Finland, in particular took to heart the Lutheran notion of that the word of God should be made available to the people in their own language and set about to write down standard written Finnish, which did not exist before, in order to translate the New Testament (1548) in Finnish. He also wrote a Missal, prayer books and hymns in Finnish for Finns and thus became the father of Finnish language, literature and liturgy.

Since Finnish is a small language spoken by some 5 million people worldwide, all Finnish Christian churches and movements use the same Finnish Bible translation. Finland is historically both (Roman) Catholic (after all, Luther did not set out to create a new Church but to reform the one, holy, catholic and apostolic one), Eastern Orthodox (Re: geography) and Lutheran (since Reformation 500 years ago). Finland was christianized both from the Catholic west -- Sweden and Germany -- and from the Orthodox Kievan Rus/Russia. Many (most even) basic Finnish church terms actually do have (Greek/Latin via) Old Slavic roots rather than Germanic: cross, priest, Bible, heathen. Since Finnish is an oddball language, Finnish God is Jumala, a wholly unique Finno-Ugric word in the world for God. Another quite "Finnish" peculiarity is that Finnish language doesn't have separate third person pronouns for he and she: every person is just "hän". Thus, in the Finnish Bible Jumala, too, is "genderless," if you will.

I'm actually quite proud that our Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Lutheran Finns can -- and do -- come together to read from the one and same Holy Bible of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. :)

Culturally, Finland is a mix of east and west, too. For example, Finnish Easter ("pääsiäinen" in Finnish, compare to "Pascha") traditions have a distinct Eastern/Orthodox flair with catkin willows, pasha and decorated Easter Eggs. Many people don't realize this when they think of the Lutheran Nordic countries (Republican Finland is a Nordic country with fellow Nordic republic Iceland, as oppose to the better known Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden), but the Orthodox Church of Finland, not the majority Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland, is the only "state church" of Finland, due to historical circumstances of Russian revolution when Russia went communist and Finland went independent. The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland separated from the state back in 1869, again, partly because back then, Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy and the head of the state was the Grand Duke, i.e. the Orthodox Russian Emperor, an odd situation.
 
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writewords

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Thank you! Your culture and traditions sound to be very well rooted and patriotic. The academic community there involved in quite a historical heritage with ties to Martin Luther. I know that the doors on Wittenberg which the 95 thesis were posted have been replaced with metal and have the 95 thesis engraved on them. Thank you for sharing.
 
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The Brown Brink

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I live in what's called the rural South, which is the southeast of the United States.
The South is famous for having had slaves, for having lost the Civil War, and also for its Southern Hospitality.

The rural South was friendly.
People smiled and waved at each other.
People talked to each other.
"Neighborhoods" covered miles and miles.
But it's not like that so much anymore.
Neighbors don't often speak to each other.
People don't look at each other.
Drug-addictions create a burden and a threat.

We have dozens of churches, though, in every county. The churches continue to split off and create more churches, too.
I live ten miles from the nearest town but there are two new churches within a mile from my house.
These churches hire men who tell them what they want to hear, of course.
These men say stuff like "Hell is filled with good works."

Here in the South, there is also a resistance to education.
I suppose that this reluctance is merely human, but in the South, many people do avoid acquiring the kind of education they need to function successfully in society.
There is much unhappiness here, due to a lack of skills.
The people here are not bad people.
Many of us are just...challenged.


It is an unfortunate situation, but not entirely unpredictable, perhaps.
The people who settled this region were farm folk.
Farm folk are independent-minded.
They need to LEARN Christian charity, from the Bible.
But the Bible is difficult to read...
The uneducated people here in the rural South hire other uneducated people to TELL them what the Bible says...
They hear stuff like...
"Hell is filled with good works."
And that's what they want to hear...


It is an unfortunate situation, here in the rural South...

We are a contrary people.
 
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