UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

INSTITUTE OF RELIGION

THEOLOGY 4
Living the
RISTIAN VISION IN THE
NTEMPORARY
H C
W
:C
RMONY WITH THE
ORLD
D UMAN OMMUNITY ALLED TO IALOGUE
LESSON 1: DIALOGUE WITH CULTURE
DIALOGUE WITH CULTURE
 DIALOGUE WITH CULTURE

Share your experiences on the following statement:

Asia and the Philippines is a

melting pot of different cultures
 DIALOGUE WITH CULTURE

STUDY
Grounding the lesson in real life situations, acknowledging prior beliefs
and questions, addressing current issues and realities…

1. We, especially here in Asia and the

Philippines live in a society that is very
culturally-diverse.
2. What are the difficulties and
challenges of this kind of situation?
3. As Christians, how are we going to
relate with different cultures?
 DIALOGUE WITH CULTURE

RESEARCH
Approaching the subject from different angles and opinions, appraising
the views of various disciplines and perspectives...

You will be divided into groups. Each group will

choose a particular cultural or subcultural group
currently found in the Philippines/Asia (e.g. conyo
culture, LGBTQ+ culture, call-center culture; woke
culture, K-Pop culture, gamer-culture, jejemon
culture, etc.… Note: religions/sects are not to be
included as this is to be covered in the next lesson).
They will present about that culture/subculture and
its present relationship with the Christian faith.
 DIALOGUE WITH CULTURE

ANALYSIS
Articulating and reflecting about the question together with the help
of other disciplines AND IN THE LIGHT OF CHRISTIAN FAITH…

How do Christians view other cultures? How are

we called to relate with these cultures?
Globalization that
results “to an
accelerated
development through
space and time”
compresses time,
space and
consciousness of
peoples from different
parts of the world. In what ways do we now experience a
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 “Flattening of the World”?
“The dialogue of salvation was opened
spontaneously on the initiative of God: "He (God)
loved us first;" it will be up to us to take the
initiative in extending to men this same dialogue,
without waiting to be summoned to it.” (ES no. 72)
 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
Firstly, at the purely human level,
friendship, which permeates or
it means reciprocal
should permeate all those
communication, leading to a
activities constituting the
common goal or, at a deeper level,
evangelizing mission of the
to interpersonal communion.
Church. This can appropriately be
called "the spirit of dialogue”.
Where there is no dialogue, misunderstanding, conflict
 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 pose is:

As Christians what should be our
attitude in a multicultural world?
A. Culture as a Way of Life
 • 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 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 as their myth, The third level is and
rites of passage at characteristic of
birth, puberty, culture is that it is
always changing. The last
First it is through marriage, birth, characteristic is
greeting each other. Cultures do evolve and
action, such as this is due to that within a
Part of symbol is
clothing, or means language which is demographic culture there can
of transport. development, be several
elementary to culture economic laws,
that when another climactic changes or
subcultures.
language is present, 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 Inculturation 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 “Christianity is itself
context, in such a way that this experience not enriched upon
only finds expression through elements proper entering new cultural
to the culture in question (this alone would be phases and regions,
no more than a superficial adaptation) but acquiring surplus
becomes principle that animates, directs and meaning in loyalty
unifies the culture, transforming it and and conformity to its
remaking it so as to bring about a ‘new tradition.”
creation’. Arrupe
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….. pg 229
 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.
 DIALOGUE WITH CULTURE

ACTION
Applying new knowledge to praise (worship - to adore and praise God),
to bless (morals - to bless God by being a blessing to others), to preach
(doctrine - to share and proclaim faith)…

Going back to the different subcultures that you tackled at

the beginning of the lesson, think of ways you bring the
message of Christ closer to these subcultures? What can
they contribute to Christianity and what can Christianity
contribute to them?

Deadline:
You will find the submission link
in Blackboard Learn