Written by a linguist and anthropologist with 40 years' experience in the field of language and religion, this work describes the major components of translating, setting the translating into the context of historical changes in principles and procedures over the last two centuries. With an emphasis on texts being understood within their cultural contexts, one of the reasons for continuing relevance of this book is the broad number of illustrative examples taken from field experience of translators in America, Africa, Europe and Asia.