Inculturation

[Br_Joshua_Seidl]

My thoughts here are to discuss or ask about the concepts of “Inculturation” as it applies to Church documents and practices. My brief description of inculturation is a mutual embrace of Church and local culture (not to be confused with a compromise).

Inculturation is the possitive opposite of the destructive policy of “assimilation.”

The term has been in official Church document since Vatican II, but I think it is frequently not understood, or not pursued in the best of ways.

My own personal interest is in dealing with Native American concerns and Church. These are often seen as two things – but inculturation makes the two one in the same Native and Catholic (e.g. Irish Catholic, German Catholic, etc.).

The discussion does not have to be only on Native issues. I mentioned Indigenous cultures because that is my particular area of familiarity on inculturation.

Thank you

 

[johnnycatholic]

Hmm. This is an interesting topic. I have no idea how i would go about “inculturating” as a missionary. It seems that since Catholicism is the fullness of God’s truth, the best thing to do would be to see what a people is lacking that their own faith does not provide and show them how God’s one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church can provide it for them. Sometimes people need food or hospitals in poor countries. In this country, often people just need hope and a belief that they are loved and their suffering has meaning. When you start filling these gaps in people’s lives and they start filling their lives with mass and the sacraments, i think inculturation occurs. Is that the sort of comment you were looking for?

 

[Br_Joshua_Seidl]

Hmm. This is an interesting topic. I have no idea how i would go about “inculturating” as a missionary. It seems that since Catholicism is the fullness of God’s truth, the best thing to do would be to see what a people is lacking that their own faith does not provide and show them how God’s one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church can provide it for them. Sometimes people need food or hospitals in poor countries. In this country, often people just need hope and a belief that they are loved and their suffering has meaning. When you start filling these gaps in people’s lives and they start filling their lives with mass and the sacraments, i think inculturation occurs. Is that the sort of comment you were looking for?

Thank you. Yes, you responce is one form of commentary I am looking for. I agree that filling these gaps of poverty and so forth helps. Then if they take in Mass and Sacrametns, that they are able to do it in thier language, and that these Sacred values will enter into their cultur — but not in a way that coerces them to abandon their culture.

Missionary goals at one time worked on en-culturation or assimilation — rather than IN-culturation. The former condemns the local culture, the later permits the Gospel to enter the culture.

Not all missionary endeavors involve impoverished populations, by the way. That is often times the image and the case we are aware of. Early ventures into China, for example - attended greatly to the Royal Houses of China. These would have (and eventualy did) show hostile suspicion on the later missionaries than came to opress or set down Chinese culture (assimilation to Western culture as a pre-requisite to converting to Christianity).

But, in the case of poverty based missionary work, yes - meeting dire social and health needs is important. this can be done insisting that their lives will improve and salvation is theirs only if they abandon their culture and adapt to the culture the missionary came from. OR - inculturation - They can improve thier poverty and accept Christ via thier own traditions and languages.

An example: A group of Italian missionaries set up a seminary in a certain far east Asian country. In the early days they fed the native seminarians wheat based pasta and cheese. The seminarians became very sick. Most were lactros intolerants (haveing out grown their use of milk - and no local dairy culture existed) and because the weat raised their blood sugasrs and brought on some anxiety and depression.

Eventualy the missionaries agreed the Asian seminarians did not have to become Italians first - then Catholic (inculturation).