What modern languages to learn?

I anticipate a long schooling career which very well might mean having to take a foreign language. So I was wondering what modern foreign language (German, French, Spanish, etc.) has been the most influential theologically? That is, if a person desired to study theological works more thoroughly in their original languages, which languages would be best to learn?

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Comments

Ben

Well, German is the most important Semitic language, they say...

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/427042#Comment_427042

Ben is being humorous, but German still is the most important 'second' language for non-German theologians.

Frank Hale

"what (or which?) modern foreign language...has been the most influential theologically" really depends on which theology.

For general biblical studies (this being Logos), you cannot beat German. German also works very well for studies of Lutheran theology, and the Reformation in general. But maybe I am biased because although English is my mother-tongue, I started studying German in primary school and continued through college.

For pastoral reasons, you may wish to study Spanish, or Chinese, modern languages with very large numbers of speakers. (I grew up also speaking Spanish, and studied Chinese as a missionary.)

There is a lot of modern Eastern and Orthodox theology in modern Greek or Russian. It really depends on which theology you want to study.

These days, my primary interest is Catholic theology, and I limit modern languages to English, Italian, and Latin (still used for modern liturgy and ecclesial documents; you might enjoy Traupman's "Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency"), with a few things in Greek, Hebrew and German; I am pretty much retired from the missionary field in Asia. Now and then I look at something in French or Spanish.

It can also be helpful to take a couple linguistics courses to look at the phenomenon of human language in general if you anticipate a long career working with multiple languages.

fgh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/427051#Comment_427051

"what (or which?) modern foreign language...has been the most influential theologically" really depends on which theology.

Good post!

Let me add:

Liberation theology: Spanish
Mid-1900's Catholic theology (especially Dominican): French (together with German)

Italian

Nice to see someone mention Italian! It's usually forgotten as a theological language, but when it comes to Catholic theology there are surprisingly many works that have been translated into Italian but not English. Plus all the originally italian works that have never been translated at all (or at least not into English).

Robert Wazlavek

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I figured German would be up there given that whole Reformation thing.