Inculturation of the Christian Faith: Conservation or Conversation?

Abstract

When theologians are considering the necessary inculturation of the Christian faith in non-Western areas of the world, they often ask “How can the East receive Catholic thinking?”, as though Catholic thinking was already fully expressed (in the West) and only needed to be translated into new languages and in other areas of the world. This paper aims at showing that such a “translation” cannot only be a conservative one — word by word —, but has to enter in dialogue (conversation) with other cultures. The task cannot limit itself to coating the traditional theological themes and concepts into new “robes”, nor even to bringing them into a form which can make sense in another culture. A conversation requires that Christians enter into a deep undestanding of the culture they face and ask themselves if that culture can bring them new lights to their undestanding and expression of the Gospel.

This paper finds a source of inspiration in the works of François Jullien, a French philosopher who was invited to Fu-Jen in 2004. It will try to show how Christians could benefit from the Chinese tradition of thinking, especially in the fields of christology, revelation, sacramentology, moral theology...