Inculturation is a term used in Christianity, especially in the Roman Catholic Church, referring to the adaptation of the way Church teachings are presented to non-Christian cultures, and to the influence of those cultures on the evolution of these teachings.
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The coexistence of Christianity and other cultures dates back to the apostolic age. Before his Ascension, Jesus instructed his disciples to spread his teachings to the ends of the earth (Mk28,28; Mk16,15) but did not tell them how.[1] Saint Paul's speech to the Greeks at the Aeropagus of Athens (Acts 17:22-33) could be considered as the first inculturation attempt. The speech was not well received, according to verse 32: "Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked".[2] Around the year 50, the apostles convened the first Church council, the Council of Jerusalem, to decide whether to include Gentiles and inculturate Gentile culture.[3][4] The Council confirmed that Gentiles could be accepted as Christians.
Cultural conflicts between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians continued until Christianity incorporated the Greco-Roman culture.[5] Similar inculturation occurred when the Roman Empire ceased and the Germanic and Medieval cultures became dominant, a process taking centuries.[6] Early practitioners of inculturation in the history of missions include St. Patrick in Ireland and Sts. Cyril and Methodius for the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe. After the schism of 1054, the Roman Catholic Church was largely restricted to the Western parts of Europe. Attempts failed to broaden the sphere of influence to the cultures of the Middle East with the crusades and the Latin Empire in Constantinople (1204-1261). The Protestant Reformation generated a division in the Western Church. However, at the same time, Spanish and Portuguese discoveries of the Americas, Asia and Africa broadened contact with other cultures and civilizations.[7]
After the discoveries of new territories and the Council of Trent (1545-1563) the movement became more systematic, when the Roman Church had to ponder how and to evaluate elements of ancient non-Christian cultures. Notable figures were, among others, José de Anchieta for the indigenous people of Brazil, Thomas Stephens (Jesuit) in Goa, Roberto de Nobili in Southern India, Alexandre de Rhodes in Vietnam.
The Jesuits Matteo Ricci, Adam Schall von Bell and others had successfully introduced Christianity to China. Ricci and Schall were appointed by the Chinese Emperor in Peking to be court mathematicians, court astronomers and even Mandarins. The first Catholic Church was built in Peking in 1650.[8] The emperor granted freedom of religion to Catholics. Ricci had adapted the Catholic faith to Chinese thinking, permitting among others the cultic veneration of ancestors, which he described as a mere cultural practice. The Holy See disagreed, deeming the veneration an act of worship and hence idolatry, and forbade any adaptation in the so-called Chinese Rites controversy in 1692 and 1742. The Chinese emperor felt duped and refused to permit any alteration of the existing Christian practices. The Church experienced missionary setbacks in 1721 when the Kangxi Emperor outlawed Christian missions.[9] According to Franzen, "The Vatican policy was the death of the missions in China." [10]
Pope Leo XIII fostered inter-cultural diversity, leading to the reintegration of the Armenian Catholic Church into the Catholic Church in 1879. He opposed efforts to Latinize the Eastern Rite Churches, stating that they constitute a most valuable ancient tradition and symbol of the divine unity of the Catholic Church. His 1894 encyclical Praeclara Gratulationis praised the cultural and liturgical diversity of expressions of faith within the Church . In Orientalum Dignitatis he repeated the need to preserve and cultivate diversity and declared different cultures to be a treasure.[11] He opposed the latinization policies of his own Vatican and decreed a number of measures which preserved the integrity and distinctiveness of other cultural expressions.[11]
While Pope Pius IX and Pope Pius X tended to be slightly more Latin oriented, Benedict XV was especially concerned with the development of missionary activities, which had suffered so much during World War I. Inculturation meant to him first of all the development of domestic clergy. On November 20, 1919, he appealed to the Catholics of the world, to support missions and especially the development of local clergy, favouring a de-Europeanization of the Catholic missions.[12] Pope Pius XI followed suit by promoting local clergy so the local cultures were better recognized. He held a mission congress in Rome in 1922 and personally consecrated each year bishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America.[13] At his death 240 dioceses and administrations were in the hands of domestic bishops.
In 1939 Pope Pius XII, within weeks of his coronation, radically reverted the 250 year old Vatican policy and permitted the veneration of dead family members in China.[10] The December 8, 1939 isuance from the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith issued at the request of Pius XII stated that Chinese customs were no longer considered superstitious but rather an honourable way of esteeming one's relatives, and therefore permitted by Catholics.[14] The Church began to flourish again with twenty new arch-dioceses, seventy-nine dioceses and thirty-eight apostolic prefects, but only until 1949, when the Communist revolution took over the country.[15]
The introduction of the Gospel means inculturation and not the destruction of local cultures. Pius emphasized this because not all seemed to understand this point. He wrote in Summi Pontificatus that a deeper appreciation of various civilizations and their good qualities is necessary to the preaching of the Gospel of Christ.[16] And in his 1944 speech to the directors of the Pontifical Missionary Society, he said:
Inculturation was addressed in his encyclicals Evangelii Praecones and Fidei Donum, issued on June 2, 1951 and April 21, 1957, respectively. Pius increased the local decision-making of Catholic missions, many of which became independent dioceses. Pius XII demanded recognition of local cultures as fully equal to European culture.[18][19] Continuing the line of his predecessors, Pius XII supported the establishment of local administration in Church affairs: in 1950, the hierarchy of Western Africa became independent; in 1951, Southern Africa; and in 1953, British Eastern Africa. Finland, Burma and French Africa became independent dioceses in 1955.
John Paul II addressed the issue in several encyclicals and public appearances. The term was used again by the encyclical Redemptoris Missio of John Paul II in 1990.
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