THEOLOGY 4:

• LIVING THE CHRISTIAN VISION IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD:

Harmony with the Human Community:

Called to Dialogue

UST – Institute of Religion

 WHAT IS DIALOGUE?
HOW DO WE PERFORM
DIALOGUE WITHIN THE
PHENOMENON OF
GLOBALIZATION?
 WHAT IS
GLOBALIZATION?
Globalization that results
“to an accelerated
development through
space and time”
compresses time, space
and consciousness of
peoples from different
parts of the world.
Logan, Ikubolajeh B. Globalization: The Third World State and Poverty-Alleviation in the
Twenty-First Century (Aldershot Hants, England: Ashgate Publish Ltd.) 2002 HC 59.7 .G51 2002
 The Catholic Church’s document
“Dialogue and Proclamation” defines
what dialogue is all about. It states:
Secondly, dialogue can be taken as an
attitude of respect and friendship, which
Firstly, at the purely human level, it means
permeates or should permeate all those
reciprocal communication, leading to a
activities constituting the evangelizing
common goal or, at a deeper level, to
mission of the Church. This can
interpersonal communion.
appropriately be called "the spirit of
dialogue”.
 Dialogue is recognized as part of the comprehensive
evangelizing mission of the Church. It is characterized by
reciprocity and mutuality between dialogue partners who
are different from each other.

In the praxis of mission in the contemporary times,

openness and respect are the desired dispositions.

Dialogue may lead us towards achieving harmony.

 “The pilgrim Church is
missionary by her very
nature, since it is from the
mission of the Son and the
mission of the Holy Spirit
that she draws her origin, in
accordance with the decree
of God the Father.” (AG 2).
- God the Father of all, has called all men to
share in his life and love through his son Jesus
Christ.
- The risen Christ and his Spirit are active in the
world making this love a present and growing
reality, making all things new.
- This same love urges us on to dialogue with
people of other religions, because we have,
especially since Second Vatican Council, an
increasing awareness of the positive role of
other religions in God’s plan of salvation. (FAPA,
P198)
In Asia mission and evangelization has to be through the “triple dialogue”,
that is, dialogue with culture, religion and the poor. (FAPA 222)
 Dialogue with Culture
Asia/Philippines: Melting Pot of Different Cultures
“International migrants come from all over the world
and travel to all parts of the world. As a result, people
from different cultures not only are in much closer
contact today, oftentimes they are forced to live
alongside each other.” (Antonio Pernia)

In Asia, people live together alongside the diverse

religions and cultures. In the Philippines just like other
Asian countries, ethnic minorities and groups are ever
present.
 The reality of mega-migration results to
multiculturality. Besides the pull factor such as
work opportunity, other people migrate because
they are forced to (push factor) because of
poverty and of violence such as wars. These
forced migrants are called refugees.

The question that we have to post is:

As Christians what should be our
attitude in a multicultural world?
CULTURE
• Latin verb colere such as inhabit,
cultivate, protect, honor with worship.
(Agcaracar P35)
• “Culture is conceived as the way of life
of a social group, not of an individual as
such. It is the way a society copes with
its physical, social, and ideational
environment. In other words, culture is
a society’s regularized or standardized
design for living.” (Luzbetak 1970: 111)
 The process by which culture is passed
on and is learned is called enculturation
which is “a very long process of growing
into the culture to which he or she
belongs” (Standaert p11).

Beliefs, experiences, principles, values

and memories are shared as a result of
common enculturation.
 The way we eat, sleep, speak, think are some of the ways in
which we can trace the existence of culture. Culture, therefore
is a particular group of people’s way of life. “The ways or
patterns of life, acquired by learning which characterize a
human community.” (Standaert)

Culture is “a partially conscious and partially

unconscious learning experience whereby the
older generation invited, induces, and compels
the younger generation to adopt traditional
ways of thinking and behaving. Enculturation
is primarily based on the control that the older
generation exercises over the means of
rewarding and punishing children.” (Harris)
 Culture can be discerned in various levels
this is according to Standaert:
Second, is symbol, such
The third characteristic
as their myth, rites of
of culture is that it is
passage at birth, puberty,
always changing.
marriage, birth, greeting
Cultures do evolve and The last characteristic is
First it is through action, each other. Part of
this is due to that within a culture
such as clothing, or symbol is language which
demographic there can be several
means of transport. is elementary to culture
development, economic subcultures.
that when another
laws, climactic changes
language is present,
or human or
another culture is
technological progress.
present.
B. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
The Gospel must be
inculturated in the people
and that Christ must find
a home in the culture of
the people. If culture is a
way of life one has to be
slow in one’s judgment
because culture mirrors
the behaviour and belief
system of a group of
peoples or community.
“Ritual behaviors, religious
institutions, and sacred texts all find
their wherewithal in the bailiwick of
culture.” (Stanley Skreslet P97)
The Gospel, then, has to purify a culture while culture has to enrich the Gospel.
There must be a mutual enrichment between the Gospel and culture between
faith and culture. Stanley H. Skreslet, Comprehending Mission (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2012), 97.
 “In order that they may be able to
bear more fruitful witness to Christ,
let them be joined to those men by
esteem and love; let them
acknowledge themselves to be
members of the group of men among
whom they live; let them share in
cultural and social life by the various
undertakings and enterprises of
human living; let them be familiar with
their national and religious traditions;
let them gladly and reverently lay bare
the seeds of the Word which lie
hidden among their fellows. (AG 11)
A. Scriptures and the Church on
Dialogue with Culture
The world culture in the general sense
refers to all those things which go to
the refining and developing of man’s
diverse mental and physical
endowments. He strives to subdue the
earth by his knowledge and his labor;
he humanizes social life both in the
family and in the whole civic
community through the improvement
of customs and institutions; he
expresses through his works the great
spiritual experiences and aspirations of
men throughout the ages; he
communicates and preserves them to
be an inspiration for the progress of
many, even all mankind. (GS 53-62)
Human and world flourishing is the
goal of cultures. Thus, culture not
only could cultivate but also can
mediate the Christian faith to
others.

“Culture also includes religion as

one of its elements. Religion is the
animating principle of culture.
Culture is like a body, with religion
as its soul.
“The work of evangelization carried out
by the church is a continuation of the
incarnation, and, therefore, Christianity
must assume whatever is good in the
different races and cultures is compatible
with the essential message of the gospel”
• “The spirit sows the ‘seeds of the word’
present in various customs and cultures,
preparing them for full maturity in
Christ.” (RM 28)
B. Inculturation and
Interculturality
 “The theological foundation of
inculturation is the incarnation.
The basic argument is that just
as Jesus Christ, the Word of
God, became incarnate in a
human culture, in the Jewish
milieu, the gospel of Jesus Christ
should be allowed to be
inculturated (or incarnated) in
the local culture or context
(Matt 5:17; Acts 10:34).”
In this process of inculturation a people receives the Word, makes it the principle of their life,
values, attitudes and aspirations. In this way they become the Body of Christ in this particular
time and place—a local church....
The community discovers a new identity, losing Inculturation is not mere adaptation of a ready-
nothing of its cultural riches, but integrating them made Christianity into a given situation, but
in a new whole and becoming the sacrament of rather a creative embodiment of the Word in the
God’s liberating love active among men… local church.

This is the basic and fundamental process of inculturation Incultuartion is the discovery of
the seeds of the Word which lie hidden in the given cultures and living traditions. The mutual
exchange of their discoveries among the local churches will lead to their enrichment as well
as that of the universal Church. (FAPA I, 227-228).
“The incarnation of Christian life
and of the Christian message in
a particular cultural context, in
such a way that this experience
not only finds expression
through elements proper to the
culture in question (this alone
would be no more than a
superficial adaptation) but
becomes principle that
animates, directs and unifies
the culture, transforming it and
remaking it so as to bring about
a ‘new creation’. – P. Arrupe
 “Christianity is itself enriched upon
entering new cultural phases and
regions, acquiring surplus meaning in
loyalty and conformity to its tradition.”
Christianity is itself enriched upon entering new cultural
phases and regions, acquiring surplus meaning in loyalty
and conformity to its tradition (Shorter P 13)

Bishop Joseph Blomjous used the term interculturation in 1980

“The period of 1960-1980 can be considered as the main
transition period from the traditional Mission to the new Mission
of the future. It has been characterized as the period of
‘inculturation’, though the better term would be ‘interculturation’,
in order to express that the process of inculturation must be lived
in partnership and mutuality. It seems that we are now living in
the peak of this movement, the critical phase which demands
from us a real decision for profound and courageous reform. P13
“The incarnation tells us that God is not
afraid of using cultures to communicate
with us.”
• “While multiculturality and cross-
culturality content themselves with the
uniqueness of each culture,
interculturality goes beyond by putting
premium on what is common among
people; thus it enhances mutual
enrichment, appreciation, and
collaboration that would create new
synthesis.” (Agcaracar)
 “Go to the people, Live among them, Learn from them,
love them. Start with what they know, build on what they
have.”

As mission and evangelization considers cultures Paul VI

has this to say “Evangelization loses much of its force and
effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the
actual people to whom it is addresses, if it does not use
their language, their signs and symbols, if it does not
answer the questions they ask, and if it does not have an
impact on their concrete life.” EN 63
 Successful
inculturation demands
from those involved in
the process mature
freedom in the Spirit
which is characterized
by docility and trust in
His guidance…
Dialogue in a Multicultural World
“The Christian
doctrine of
creation maintains
two truths, that
creation originates
from God and that
creation is
nevertheless other
than God.”
This diversity,
nonetheless, should
be celebrated as God
shows his generosity
by entering into the
different cultures.
Cultures, other than
Christian culture, in
themselves bear the
ray of truth.
“Indeed Galilee, lying along the border, was identified with
rejection insofar as those persons who live in borderlands
assimilate a multiplicity of racial, cultural, and religious
influences from “across the border”. Borders are generally
regarded as seedbeds of impurity.”

The multiculturality of the world because

of migration can be an avenue for greater
space for evangelization “a privileged locus
of the new evangelization.” It is in the
diversity that we can have dialogue with
different cultures.
 Go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit…
(Mt. 18:19)