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Inculturation |
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Since the age of the Apostles, St. Paul’s address to the Athenians (Acts 17:22-31) has rightly been viewed as a justification for that process of judiciously combining elements of pre- or non-Christian culture with Christian Revelation that Jean Daniélou felicitously termed “cultural borrowing.” (The term in Greek is chręsis, in Latin justus usus: the utilization of pagan elements in pre-Christian thought and culture after purifying them of heathen contamination and reorienting them toward Christian faith.) Not only the principle intimated by St. Paul and clearly enunciated by St. Justin the Martyr – but even some of their very diction – is today still germane in relation to inculturation. Thus the Second Vatican Council acknowledges that in the more widely spread non-Christian religious traditions, “elements of goodness and truth” are present “by God’s Providence” (Decree on Priestly Formation, Optatam Totius, 16), and that “precious elements of religion and humanity” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 92) can be found among those who “acknowledge God.” Indeed, “seeds of the Word” lie hidden in many national and religious traditions (Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes, 11), and it is by these “seeds of the Word” and “by the preaching of the Gospel” that the Holy Spirit calls all men to Christ (Ad Gentes, 15). Although “a ray of that truth which enlightens all men” can be reflected in rules, teachings of ways of life, and conduct among non-Christian religions (Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, 2), it is not only the more or less common elements already present but also the opposing or even contradictory factors that must be taken into account (Nostra Aetate, 2-3, Ad Gentes, 11). Through a sort of secret presence of God, elements of truth and grace are found already among the Gentiles. Evangelizing activity liberates all these elements from evil defilements and restores them to Christ, who is their author. He overthrows the dominion of the devil and wards off the manifold malice of evil deeds. Therefore, all those good elements found in a germinal form in the hearts and minds of men or in the rites and cultures peculiar to particular peoples are not destroyed; on the contrary, they are healed, elevated, and perfected for the glory of God, for the humiliation of Satan, and for the beatitude of men (cf. Ad Gentes, 9). The process of inculturation involves several stages. It frequently begins with adaptation or accommodation, a considerate conformation to the way of life, as far as it is not expressive of non- or anti-Christian sentiments, of the people among whom the Christians live. Assimilation can then follow, in which Christians actively adopt the habits and customs of the culture, while carefully avoiding syncretism, the artificial fusion of fundamentally incompatible religious elements. The final stage is transformation, which converts or transmutes what is good in the culture into Christian values by eliminating elements that are bound up with paganism or anti-Christian religiosity. Theology of Inculturation • The theology of inculturation and evangelization presupposes a theology of the attitude of those within the covenant to those without. Hence the theology of inculturation should be evolved from a theology of the covenant. After the preceding covenants, the New and Eternal Covenant includes evangelization and inculturation as essential constituents, namely, as the means to extend the covenant to all Gentiles (ad gentes). Under the New Covenant the attitude toward other cultures takes on a new dimension. This attitude leads to the utilization (chręsis) of what is found good in the culture. Though foreshadowed in the Old Covenant, this utilization is characteristic of the New Covenant. The theological reason for practicing utilization/chręsis is that all that is true and good belongs to Christ and to his Mystical Body. Utilization is analogous to conversion: Just as in a human being conversion does not destroy nature but heals and cleanses it, so chręsis transforms and reorients what is found good in a culture. However, inculturation cannot be imitated in our own day in the same way in which it was practiced in antiquity in the West. This is because the results of Western inculturation and chręsis, to the extent that they were guided by the Holy Spirit and sanctioned by the Magisterium of the Church, have to be accepted and translated. And on this basis, inculturation remains not only possible and desirable but also needful. Inculturation essentially presupposes contemplation of the divine truth as revealed in Christ (contemplation understood as pure mental gaze on the truth, simplex intuitus veritatis: cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 180, a. 3, ad 1). It is an attempt to express the result of such contemplation in a language that has not yet been Christianized or has become de-Christianized. This inculturation, like chręsis, is the Christianization, the redemption, the baptism, as it were, of non-Christian language, symbolism, art, poetry, and other literature. Inculturation thus understood is distinct from adaptation (which is a theological procedure) and assimilation (which is a psychological means to gain confidence). While inculturation is necessary for the reason given earlier, adaptation is not. It can be very helpful, but there are also situations in which it must be dispensed with, namely, when its practice would cause disturbance instead of confidence. Adaptation as an expression of nationalism or as the adoption of symbols and customs generally known to belong essentially to the non- or anti-Christian sphere is to be rejected because it is a road leading back to paganism. The practice of inculturation, and thus the completion of the Catholic religious system, as Newman puts it, is blocked when Catholicism is deformed by “indigenization” understood as rationalistic adaptation. The introduction of pagan symbols, habits, and the like after Christianization is an offense against the religious feelings of the People of God. See: Buddhism; Evangelization; Hinduism; Islam; Missionary Activity.
Russell Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. Copyright © 1997, Our Sunday Visitor. |
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