Inculturation from a Scriptural Perspective
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Date
1998-02
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
This essay is a reflection on the issue of inculturation. It is good to keep in
mind that inculturation has always been in the heart of the church, right from the
beginning. Of the many examples available to show how seriously the Church has
taken this issue of inculturation, I have picked two: (I) the Church of the Apostles
whose story we read in Luke-Acts; and (2) the Church of Africa.
Also, there is considerable weight given the issue of inculturation at Tangaza
College, where I am presenting this essay as a partial fulfillment of the degree
Bachelor of Arts and Religious Studies awarded by the Catholic University of Eastern
Africa (CUEA). This stimulated my interest in the subject, and I began reading more
on this topic. While reading, I came to realize that there is a development of theology
called "Theology of Inculturation.' This theology attempts to reflect inculturation in
the areas of Liturgy, Christ°logy, Christian Anthropology, only to mention a few.
So far I have not seen any literature which reflects on inculturation as seen
from a Biblical perspective. All the same, I learned much from Fr. Nicholas
Foggliaco.' Fr. Lacomara2 also reflects in his classes how inculturation has been used
in the development of Israel's faith in the One God. From them I learned that there
are many other ways we can use Scripture to reflect on the issue of inculturation.
Encouraged by what they taught me, I thought it wise to reflect on my own about a
topic of inculturation to see what other themes I could uncover in Scripture. Since
Scripture is a wide field, I limited myself to the New Testament, and even more specifically, to the Book of Luke-Acts. Hence this essay reflects "Inculturation in the
light of Luke-Acts." In the first chapter, I define inculturation. Also, I tried to see
how we can talk about inculturation today, when things change so fast and cultures
are changing. And if we can rightly speak of inculturation at all, who are to be
involved in these efforts in our Church of Africa today.
The second chapter has three parts, following the divisions of Luke's Gospel:
The Infancy Narrative, The Ministry, and The Passion, Death and Resurrection of
Jesus. Through this process, I have come to reflect about the 'Incarnation as a divine
step to inculturation.' The second chapter shows further that inculturation is "letting
our daily lives be transformed by the Gospel and giving of a new expression to the
Gospel in our daily lives.'3
In this attempt, Luke the Evangelist has been my resource theologian. I
reflected on the theme of inculturation in the story of Jesus that Luke presents in the
Gospel and the birth and development of the Church in the Book of Acts. Hence the
outline of the second chapter is as follows:
* Incarnation as a divine step to inculturation. This is the main theme of
the chapter.
* Theology of inculturation in the Book of Luke-Acts. Focusing on Luke
as a theologian of inculturation in addition to being a historian and
apologist of the Christian faith.
* And through the stages mentioned above: infancy, ministry, and
passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the essay reaches its
goal in exemplifying Incarnation as a divine step to inculturation.
The third chapter concentrates on how the Church has carried out the divine
plan to save all humankind by adopting inculturation as a vessel for communicating
this salvation to the people of the nations. Outstanding in this work of saving
humanity is the Holy Spirit who is the key agent of inculturation. Through the human
instruments of Peter, Paul, Bamabas, and other disciples, the Spirit communicated the
saving message of God to the Gentiles and enabled them to accept this message as
their Good News. This has all been possible by the use of inculturation. In the conclusion I have tried to draw together and show how the Church of
Africa continues the same story of Jesus and the Church of the Apostles in the
furthering of salvation to the people of Africa through inculturation under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit. Hence this essay's title, "Inculturation from a Scriptural
Perspective."
The Bible translation used for quotations in this essay is: The Catholic Study
Bible, edited by Donald Senior, printed by the Oxford Press, New York, 1990.
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Keywords
Inculturation, Scriptural Perspective, Incarnation, Resurrection, Evangelization, Pentecost