Inculturation

© Lúcio Mascarenhas. URL: http://www.geocities.com/livrant/inculturation.html
This document is part of series defending Catholicism and Inculturation against Fundamentalist & Liberal Protestant attacks. Modernism, a Liberal Protestant ideology, (e.g., "Vatican II" & the Antipope "John-Paul II") claim Inculturation as license for Paganization. Fundamentalist Protestantism (e.g., Herbert William Armstrong, etc.) pretends that Inculturation is proof that Catholicism is pagan.

What is the meaning of the term "Inculturation"? The closest I can find are these:
  1. The adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture.
  2. The process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of another group.
  3. The modification of the culture of a group or individual as a result of contact with a different culture.
  4. The process by which the culture of a particular society is instilled in a human from infancy onward.
  5. The adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture.
[See "Inculturation", "Enculturation" & "Acculturation" in Dictionary.com]
There are many Bible & Patristic texts which justify the legitimacy of Inculturation in Catholicism. My favorite is St. Paul to the Corinthians:
"Else if thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that holdeth the place of the unlearned say, Amen, to thy blessing? because he knoweth not what thou sayest" — St. Paul the Apostle, 1 Corr. xiv, 16
My other favorite is Pope Pius XII's Evangelii Præcones.

It is for this reason that I agree — within the limits of Catholic Orthodoxy — with the proponents of Inculturation in South Asia, such as Brahmobandab Upadhyay and others (including those of St. Mary's Tope, Trichinopoly) that Christianity must be truly indigenized to be able to relate to the natives in an idiom that they can recognize, own and admit.

Today, in the context of the Modernist Apostasy, "Inculturation" is a cover or justification for an outright paganization. This is not true Inculturation.

In all parts of the world, the Modernists are rapidly perverting their willing dupes into local paganisms, such as Shintoism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Vodunism, Mohammedanism, etc. This is not really "Inculturation", but Paganization.

In doing so, the Modernists merely follow in the age-old steps of their spiritual ancestors, the reprobate Israelites, so prone and eager to wander and stray from God; precursors such as the followers of Balaam, Numbers xxv, and the figurative sisters, Oolla & Ooliba, Ezechiel xxiii, figurative of the wayward Kingdoms of Israel-Sichem & Juda.

Christianity has always insisted on rejecting the false and assimiliating the good. Modernists pretend that they invented "Inculturation", but that is yet another of their innumerable lies.

In order to prove the legitimacy, and even more importantly, the limits of legitimate "Inculturation", I provide quotes from the Holy Bible and from the Magisterium of the Church.

Bible Texts

  1. "I fed you with milk, not solid food; for until now you were not able to digest solid food, nor are you yet able." — St. Paul the Apostle, 1 Corr. iii, 1-3
  2. "Yet one fault pray the Lord to pardon in me thy servant. My master will still be going up to offer worship in the temple of Rimmon, leaning on my arm for support. At such times, if I do reverence, as my master does reverence, in Rimmon's temple, the Lord grant me pardon!" "Go on thy way," said Elisha, "and peace go with thee." — Conversation of the Syrian Eunuch Naaman with the Prophet Elisha, 4 Kings v, 18-19

Church Texts

Texts from "The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church" edited by J. Neuner, SJ & J. Dupuis, S.J., 1973 © Theological Publications in India, St. Peter�s Seminary, Bangalore, India. PIN 560 055.

  1. Letter of Pope Gregory the Great to the Abbot Melitus, a message for St. Augustine of Canterbury:
    "Tell Augustine:

    "That he should by no means destroy the temples of the gods but rather the idols within those temples. Let him, after he has purified them with holy water, place altars and relics of the saints in them. For, if those temples are well built, they should be converted from the worship of demons to the service of the true God. Thus, seeing that their places of worship are not destroyed, the people will banish error from their hearts and come to places familiar and dear to them in acknowledgment and worship of the true God.

    "Further, since it has been their custom to slaughter oxen in sacrifice to the demons, they should receive some solemnity in exchange. Let them, therefore, on the day of the dedication of their churches, or on the feast of the martyrs whose relics are preserved in them, build themselves huts around their one-time temples and, celebrate the occasion with religious feasting. They will sacrifice and eat the animals not any more as an offering to the devil, but for the glory of God to whom, as to the giver of all things, they will give thanks for having been satiated. Thus, if they are not deprived of all the exterior joys, they will more easily taste the interior ones. For surely it is impossible to efface all at once everything from their strong minds, just as, when one wishes to reach the top of a mountain, he must climb by stages and step by step, not by leaps and bounds . . .

    "Mention this then to our brother the bishop, that he may dispose of the matter as he sees fit according to the conditions of time and place..."
  2. Instruction, 1659, of the Holy Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to the Vicars Apostolic of Tonkin & Cochinchina under Pope Alexander VII:

    "Do not in any way attempt, and do not on any pretext persuade these people to change their rites, habits and customs, unless they are openly opposed to religion and good morals. For what could be more absurd than to bring France, Spain, Italy or any other European country over to China? It is not your country but the faith you must bring, that faith which does not reject or belittle the rites or customs of any nation as long as these rites are not evil, but rather desires that they be preserved in their integrity and fostered. It is, as it were, written in the nature of all men that the customs of their country and especially their country itself should be esteemed, loved and respected above anything else in the world. There is no greater cause of alienation and hatred than to change the customs of a nation, especially when they go back as far as the memory of ancestors can reach. What then if, having abrogated them, you attempt to replace them with the customs of your country imported from abroad. Never make comparisons between the customs of these peoples and those of Europe; on the contrary show your anxiety to become used to them. Admire and praise whatever merits praise. As regards what is not praiseworthy, while it must not be extolled as is done by flatterers, you will be prudent enough not to pass judgment on it, or, in any case, not to condemn it rashly or exaggeratedly. As for what is evil, it should be dismissed by a nod of the head or by silence rather than by words, without losing the occasions, when souls have become disposed to receive the truth, to uproot it imperceptibly."
  3. Pope Pius XII Encyclical Summi Pontificatus, 1939:
    "She (the Church) has repeatedly shown in her missionary enterprises that such a principle of action is the guiding star of her universal apostolate. Pioneer research and investigation, involving sacrifice, devotedness and love on the part of her missionaries of every age, have been undertaken in order to gain a deeper appreciative insight into the civilization and customs of diverse people so as to put their intellectual and spiritual endowments to account for a living and vital preaching of the Gospel of Christ. All that in such usages and customs is not inseparably bound up with religious errors will always be the object of sympathetic consideration and, whenever possible, will be preserved and developed.... Those who enter the Church, whatever be their origin or their speech, must know that they have equal rights as children in the house of the Lord, where the law of Christ and the peace of Christ prevail."
  4. Pope Pius XII Encyclical Evangelii Præcones, 1951:
    "When the Gospel is accepted by diverse nations, it does not crush or repress anything good and honorable and beautiful which they have achieved by their inborn genius and natural endowments. When the Church calls and guides a people to a higher refinement and a better way of life under the inspiration of the Christian religion, she does not act like a woodsman who recklessly cuts down and devastates a luxuriant forest. Rather she acts like an orchardist who grafts an excellent scion upon the wild stock so that later on fruits of a more tasty and richer quality may issue forth and mature.

    "Although human nature by Adam�s unhappy sin has been tainted with a hereditary blemish, it still keeps in itself something that is �naturally Christian�. If this is illumined by divine light and nurtured by God�s grace, it can in time rise to genuine virtue and supernatural life.

    "Accordingly, the Catholic Church has neither scorned nor rejected the learning of the nations, but rather has freed it from, all error and alloy, and then sealed and perfected it by Christian wisdom. The same holds true for the fine arts and culture, which in some countries have reached a high degree of perfection. The Church received them in sympathy, encouraged them assiduously, and lifted them up to a peak of beauty never, perhaps, previously excelled. So too, with regard to particular customs and traditional institutions of peoples. The Church did not simply suppress them but in some way sanctified them. Even in the matter of local feasts, she merely altered their meaning by transforming them into commemorations of the martyrs or into occasions for celebrating the mysteries of the faith."

Inculturation & Romanism

Romanism, conformation to the creed and praxis of the Particular Roman Church, is another Catholic doctrine besides Inculturation, and, indeed, takes precedence (The Catholic Doctrine of Romanism).

Romanism is best described by the phrase, "Praestantia ritus Latini", or the "Pre-eminence of the Latin Rite".

While it is true that Our Lord Jesus Christ did not directly mandate any particular language as the primary language of the Church, and indeed, initially, Catholics were permitted to conduct their public liturgies in their native tongues, He did empower the Church with a broad range of powers, besides endowing it with the Living Guidance of the Holy Ghost, under whose auspices, the pre-eminent Church of Rome, whose faith is always the norm for the Christian, has rightly imposed the Latin language as the universal language of the Church, and the Roman Rite as the normative rite of the universal church.

This process was given its final touches by the Holy Ecumenical & General Council of Trent, and by Pope St. Pius V's Encyclical Quo Primum, which is legislation normally binding on every Catholic and for all time from then onwards.

This action constitutes "Developmental Progress", which, by definition, is irreversible, although Popes are free to make exceptions for whatever reason, as Popes have done in legitimizing several different rites over the last five centuries or so.

As such, Inculturation, though legitimate, cannot be invoked to touch the Roman Rite and or to modify it, thereby making it different in every particular church. But Inculturation can legitimately be used only for popular Catholic life, devotions and popular liturgies, without touching the Latin Mass, the Roman Rite.
This document is part of series defending Catholicism and Inculturation against Fundamentalist & Liberal Protestant attacks. Modernism, a Liberal Protestant ideology, (e.g., "Vatican II" & the Antipope "John-Paul II") claim Inculturation as license for Paganization. Fundamentalist Protestantism (e.g., Herbert William Armstrong, etc.) pretends that Inculturation is proof that Catholicism is pagan.

 
PUBLISHED on the Internet: Tuesday, April 9, 2002. Revised, Feb. 2004 & Oct. 2006.
 

P U R P O S E

Written with the purpose of educating people in matters concerning the Catholic Resistance to the Modernist Apostasy, and based on the principles elucidated by the Church, that the truth is never afraid, and that the Church is never afraid of the Truth, and on the principles elucidated by Frs. Rumble & Carty and by Fulton Sheen in his essay, "The Art of Controversy". — Benedicamus Deus, Lúcio.

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Lúcio Mascarenhas

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