Inculturation in the West

Inculturation in China

Mutual Adjustment

    Taking the second-century example of the inter-cultural adjustment between the Greek-speaking missionaries and the Latin-speaking people in Western Europe

    Taking the sixteenth-century example of the inter-cultural adjustment between the Italian-speaking *Fr. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and the Mandarin-speaking people in China  

Initial  Inculturation

    This is also called the translation period. For example, Tertullian (c.160-c.225 A.D.) attempted to express the Christian doctrine in Latin in terms of general cultural paradigms. Further, St. Jerome (c. 340-420) translated the Bible into Latin.

    *Rev. Matteo Ricci translated the Christian doctrine into Chinese. He and other Chinese missionaries also expressed Biblical teaching in terms of various Chinese cultural paradigms. Further, Blessed Gabriele M. Allegra (1907-1976) translated the Bible into Chinese in 1968.

Mature Inculturation

    Initial inculturation began when general cultural paradigms were first used to address the Christian faith. But mature inculturation began to take place only when "being" began to be used. As every "thing" in the West is "being", "being" becomes de facto the cultural paradigm of cultural paradigms, i.e., the single most universal unifying metaphysical macroparadgim of Western thought.

     As "being can only come from Being," said St. Augustine (354-430). From St. Augustine to St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), one witnesses the mature inculturation of God's Good News. In Summa Theologiae, we can see the mature inculturation of the Gospel in terms of being and Divine Being. Hence, Western civilization is God-centred, built upon "being" with the Divine Being being the very Foundation, as well as the Alpha and Omega.

   So far, just a few thinkers have responded. Hence, a lot more work needs to be done for the mature Chinese inculturation of the Gospel to take place. Indeed, for such a movement to begin en masse, Westerners, in particular Chinese Westernized (as a whole for a century), have to first discover or re-discover metaphysically and experientially that every "thing" in the more-than-three-millennia-old Chinese civilization is "qi" as such.

   Apparently, the inculturation of the Chinese civilization seems to be only at the beginning at the stage of Mature Inculturation. Realistically, the present seeds-sowing sub-stage may easily take a few decades to more than a century. On the other hand, the Risen Lord is full of surprises to those who truly serve Him faithfully.

   As a permanent missionary dimension of the Church, the New Evangelization is applied here too as it seeks to reach out to (1) non-believers; (2) believers in need of spiritual growth; (3) lapsed believers.

Transformation of Culture

    As a result, the traditional Western civilization was substantially Christianized with God the Divine Being as the very Centre and the Paradigm leading through varying beings, such as her calendar, holidays, philosophy, religion, spirituality, cosmology, worldview, ideology, conscience, lifestyle, psychology, sociology, education, ethics, law, economics, medicine, history, science, arts, architecture, music, and politics, etc. 

Renewal of Culture

    Among others, the present New Evangelization is about the spiritual renewal of Western countries whose traditional religion is Christianity. In other words, the Pope is very concerned about the new re-Christianization or re-evangelization of the God-centred Western civilization which has been significantly de-Christianized, resulting in a deep crisis in the ongoing post-Christian era.

    Apparently, there are many ways to renew the Divine-Being-centred Western civilization. One central way is to renew its concept of "being" and "Divine Being". For example, as "being" has become too transcendent, abstract, irrelevant, obsolete, static, non-interactive, and non-radiant, etc., so has the perception of the Divine Being to many people in the West today. In the current inter-cultural dialogue between the Chinese and Western civilizations, perhaps the concept of qi is of great inspirations.

Future Renewal of Culture