From Inculturation to Interculturation: The Past and Future of Chinese Catholic Theology

Abstract

The process by which the faith takes root and develops in a country and a culture is always a process of inculturation. However, the question of inculturation is controversial because of misunderstanding of its meaning. There have been three tendencies which have misunderstood inculturation: culturalization of the Gospel, integration to traditional Chinese philosophy and Sinicization, a politicization of theology. This article asserts that inculturation should be understood as “interculturation,” culturalization of the Gospel and evangelization of culture, and that today’s Chinese Catholic theology can only fulfill its mission of interculturation by focusing on the current modernized Chinese culture from a perspective of globalization.