Inculturation

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 to the evolution of these teachings.
==Background ==
The coexistence of Christianity and other cultures dates back to the apostolic age. Jesus instructed his disciples to spread his teachings to the ends of the earth (Mk28,28, Mk16,15) “before his ascension but did not tell them how. Franzen Kirchengeschichte, 18 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".(ESV) In or 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.McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity (2002), p. 37, Chapter 1 The Early Christian Community subsection entitled "Rome", quote: "In Acts 15 scripture recorded the apostles meeting in synod to reach a common policy about the Gentile mission."McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity (2002), pp. 37–8, Chapter 1 The Early Christian Community subsection entitled "Rome", quote: "The 'synod' or, in Latin, 'council' (the modern distinction making a synod something less than a council was unknown in antiquity) became an indispensable way of keeping a common mind, and helped to keep maverick individuals from centrifugal tendencies. During the third century synodal government became so developed that synods used to meet not merely at times of crisis but on a regular basis every year, normally between Easter and Pentecost." At the Council of Jerusalem in 50, it was confirmed that Gentiles and Jews could be accepted as Christians.
Cultural conflicts between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians continued until Christianity incorporated the Greco-Roman culture.Franzen,319 Similar inculturation occurred when the Roman Empire ceased and the Germanic and Medieval cultures became dominant, a process taking centuries.Franzen 319 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.Franzen 321
==Inculturation after the discoveries==
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, Roberto de Nobili in Southern India, Alexandre de Rhodes in Vietnam.
===China===
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 astronomer and even Mandarin. The first Catholic Church was built in Peking in 1650.Franzen 323 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 to outlaw Christian missions.McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity (1990), p. 328, Chapter 9 The Expansion of Christianity by John McManners According to Franzen, "The Vatican policy was the death of the missions in China." Franzen 324
==Papal teachings==
===Leo XIII===
Pope Leo XIII fostered inter-cultural diversity, leading to the reintegration of the Armenian 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.Duffy 241 He opposed the latinization policies of his own Vatican and decreed a number of measures which preserved the integrity and distinciveness of other cultural expressions.
===Benedict XV and Pius XI===
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 . Franzen 382 Pope Pius XI followed suit, by promoting local clergy, the local cultures are better recognized. To this end he held a mission congress in Rome in 1922 and personally consecrated each year bishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Franzen 385 At his death 240 dioceses and administrations were in the hands of domestic bishops.
===Pius XII===
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. 
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. J Smit, Pope Pius XII, New York 1950 pp. 186-187The 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. Franzen 325
 
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 appreciations into the various civilizations and their good qualities are necessary to the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Evangelii 56 And in his 1944 speech to the directors of the Pontifical Missionary Society, he said: 
* The herald of the Gospel and messenger of Christ is an apostle. His office does not demand that he transplant European civilization and culture, and no other, to foreign soil, there to take root and propagate itself. His task in dealing with these peoples, who sometimes boast of a very old and highly developed culture of their own, is to teach and form them so that they are ready to accept willingly and in a practical manner the principles of Christian life and morality; principles, I might add, that fit into any culture, provided it be good and sound, and which give that culture greater force in safeguarding human dignity and in gaining human happiness. Evangelii 60
Inculturation was addressed in his encyclicals. Evangelii Praecones and Fidei Donum, issued on June 2, 1951 and April 21, 1957, respectively, 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. Audience for the directors of mission activities in 1944 A.A.S., 1944, p. 208.Evangelii Praecones. p. 56. 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 ===
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.
*"The incarnation of the Gospel in native cultures and also the introduction of these cultures into the life of the Church." John Paul II, encyclical Slavorum Apostoli, June 2, 1985, No. 21: AAS 77 (1985), 802-803; Address to the Pontifical Council for Culture plenary assembly, Jan. 17, 1987, No. 5: AAS 79 (1987), 1204-1205.
*"The intimate transformation of authentic cultural values through their integration in Christianity and the insertion of Christianity in the various human cultures." Redemptoris Missio 52-54.
*"It is now acknowledged that inculturation is a theological term which has been defined in Redemptoris Missio 52 as the on-going dialogue between faith and culture." Ethiopia and Inculturation, Brendan Cogavin C.S.Sp.
== Notes and references ==
===General sources===
* August Franzen Church history, Kirchengeschichte, Herder Freiburg, 1988
* Schineller, Peter. A Handbook on Inculturation. New York, 1990.
* Shorter, Aylward. Toward a Theology of Inculturation. Maryknoll, NY, 1988.
== External links ==
* Jesus Living in Mary: Handbook of the Spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort. Chapter: "Inculturation"
* Translation and Inculturation in the Catholic Church by Stephen M. Beall
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