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This chapter follows Desideri back to India after church authorities have informed him that he must cede the Tibetan mission to the Capuchins. Since scholars of Desideri have often seen him as a practitioner of the Jesuit missiological method of “accommodation” or “inculturation” promoted by the Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Roberto de Nobili, this account will dwell on the politics underlying the Chinese and Malabar Rites controversies. By following the various trails that branch from the battle between Desideri and the Capuchins, the reader will be led into the underbelly of these controversies, the cloak and dagger world of Jesuit espionage, and all manner of early modern bureaucratic machinations.

This chapter discusses the impact of demographic change (Southern population growth and Northern population decline) on the form of Christianity that is likely to be practiced in the future and points out that claims that the Southern churches have strayed from older definitions of Christianity are greatly exaggerated. However much Southern Christian types have diverged from older Christian orthodoxies, they have in almost all cases remained within recognizable Christian traditions. The first part of the chapter looks at various aspects of inculturation (interpreting the Christian proclamation in a form appropriate for particular cultures) in relation to determining what are the core beliefs and what are the cultural accidents of Christianity; these aspects include architecture, liturgy and religious language, changes in patterns of worship and their underlying beliefs, and the implications of the emphasis on popular belief and tradition for the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Southern Catholic communities. The second part of the chapter discusses patterns in the emerging Southern churches that go beyond familiar Christian traditions, even as far as a thinly disguised paganism, which is manifested in belief in spirits and spiritual powers (which have their strongest impact on terms of healing and miracles and exorcism) and the concept of spiritual welfare (confronting and defeating demonic forces). The third part of the chapter discusses the cultural conflict over literal interpretations of exorcism and spiritual healing in the Bible, the acceptance by the Southern churches of the Old and New Testaments as documents of immediate relevance, their emphasis on aspects of Christianity that have become unfamiliar, and their revival of ancient customs. Last, the Southern churches – the ‘new’ Christianity – are discussed in terms of their sectarian character, and how this is likely to change in the future as they grow and mature, and become more like the major churches.

In the light of the book's analysis of both the challenges facing the embrace of ecclesial faith and the resources of that faith, this chapter endeavours to express the possibilities for the church in the present. Of particular interest is the capacity of the church to undertake ‘inculturation’ in contemporary culture without the loss of its specific identity. In order to establish that point, the chapter returns to ‘tradition’ with a view to establishing that tradition, grounded as it is in the Holy Spirit, is able to develop, to be about change as well as preservation; tradition, then, can be a stimulus to creativity. The specific examples of possibilities for change that the chapter examines are ministry in the church and the role of women in the church. Concludes with an attempt to nominate the factors – pre‐eminent among which is openness to the Spirit – that might enable the communion of the church not only to develop alternatives to ‘the peril’, but also make more inviting the risk of ecclesial faith.

In 1962, the Southern Rhodesian Catholic bishops appointed a commission to investigate the mission of the Catholic Association and its relationship to other Catholic organizations in the colony. The organization had petitioned the bishops to delete the word “African” from its title and establish it as the “territorial administrative body for all Catholic Action within Rhodesia.” The bishops approved the name change with the proviso that it not “be implied that is to be the parent body of all Catholic Action. This chapter shows the operation of two separate yet intersecting processes: the Africanization of the Catholic Church and the discourse of inculturation. To the extent that VaShona Catholics made the church their own, it was generally over and above the objections of the Jesuit leadership of the Zambezi Mission and usually with their grudging acceptance.

Samuel Ruíz García was consecrated the bishop of the San Cristóbal diocese on January 25, 1960, and remained until 1999 when he reached the mandatory retirement age for bishops. In forty years of wrestling with the problems of Catholicism and the Maya, the bishop pioneered significant changes in the relationship between the non-western Maya tradition and a western-oriented Catholicism. This chapter sketches his evolution from a conservative Tridentine Catholic to a promoter of an inculturated Maya Christianity with a theology based on the wisdom of the ancestors and synthesized in the life and teachings of Jesus. His evolution gives further insight into the evolution of religious worldviews and how they break out of their ethnocentrisms and degenerations when stimulated by cross-cultural experiences.

This chapter describes the Catholic effort of inculturation, the attempt to develop a Catholic theology and church based upon Maya culture instead of the western imposed forms that presently exist. Bureaucratic Catholicism slowly began to wrestle with the problem of inculturation at Vatican Council II and the conferences of Latin American bishops. In the Maya area, groups composed predominantly of Maya Catholic priests met to make explicit an already existing Maya theology. Some Maya parishes have established the permanent diaconate as a hopeful step toward a married Maya priesthood. The question is: Will these efforts be fully recognized and allowed to advance by bureaucratic Catholicism so that a distinctively Maya Catholicism will be fully integrated and accepted as orthodox Catholicism?

This chapter examines the papacy for the Catholic Church, looking into the institutional structures that would guarantee its stability and unity. The discussion deals with Vatican I and Vatican II, Pope Paul VI's style, John Paul II and the global church, new institutions of unity, John Paul II's take on inculturation, ecumenical outreach, the principle of subsidiarity, patristic models, proposals for reform, and the dialectic of centralization and diversity. The chapter holds that developments that have taken place with and since the two Vatican councils can scarcely be reversed. The global Church, in a world of rapid communications, demands a primatial office that holds all local and regional churches in dialogue and reaches out to the whole world with the truth and love of Christ.

Written by Harrington from a Catholic perspective, this chapter notes the presence of the so-called Apocrypha in the Catholic (and Orthodox) Old Testament. Next it explains modern Catholic biblical interpretation in light of official documents from popes (Divino afflante Spiritu), church councils (Dei verbum) and the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Then it shows how Catholics have come to accept biblical criticism as indispensable (but within limits), while insisting also on the importance of the spiritual sense of Scripture, the patristic tradition, and the challenges posed by actualization and inculturation. It illustrates the Catholic approach with reference to Exodus 3–4.

This chapter examines the personal and communal religious practices of Congolese and US Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, asking what leads members to organize daily rituals and annual gatherings differently. It describes how sisters in the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo account for varying forms of community life in the congregation and the cultural and institutional explanations they offer for differences across regions. Contrasting sets of expectations regarding community life among Congolese and US sisters reflect the distinct ways sisters prioritize collective bonds and personal autonomy in both places. They also reveal how members construct and embody their religious selves in relation to other aspects of their cultural and national identities.

The Christian intellectuals and leaders who inherited the mission legacy and its rhetoric and remained within historic denominations occupied a demanding mediating position: interpreting Christian thought to China and Christ into Chinese modes. Zhao Zichen (T. C. Chao) was at the forefront of those conceptualizing and realizing a Chinese Protestant church. Chapter Three discusses Zhao’s 1935 Life of Jesus (Yesu zhuan), a semi-fictional biography written to respond to the call for a new “Chinese Christian Literature.” In its study of this highly readable short work, replete with Chinese literary references, the chapter focuses on the structure of the narrative, on Jesus’ self-understanding as the Messiah and on the role of landscape in the novella.

Michael Barnes, S.J., proposes fruitful parallels between comparative theology and pastoral theology. Both can provide reflection on the inner or contemplative dialogue provoked by the myriad relationships that make up the Church’s “outer life”—relationships with the poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the unbeliever—and that remain essential even alongside efforts to build relationships with those who profess different religious faiths. As Barnes sees it, contextual pastoral responsibility and interfaith engagement are practices of faith characteristic of a Church called to engage in serious witness to and learning from the people among whom we actually dwell. This vital contextualization broadens the context for the work of “reading” in comparative theology: in today’s pluralist world, “living interreligiously” demands attention not just to the traces of divine wisdom revealed in ancient texts, but also to places and monuments, ancient artifacts and contemporary cultural icons that shape and deepen faith within a community, while also instigating conversation and debate beyond familiar boundaries.

After studies in his native Netherlands, the Lebanon and Egypt, the Jesuit, Roest Crollius, moved to Rome where he was based for forty years, mainly at the Gregorian University. From here he became a world traveller to articulate and promote inter-faith and intercultural studies and advise his manifold superiors. Three elements of Christian-Muslim relations are discussed: institutionalised dialogue, research and teaching, and the study of Sufism, with particular attention to Ibn al-Farid, Ahmed Ghazali and Dara Shikoh. During decades spent in pursuit of this work, two further important initiatives are covered: the development of Jewish studies in Rome and the growth of Christian communities in the local culture of the people, for which the term inculturation was coined and defended.

Once the art school of Furen Daxue was established, there was much discussion within Chinese Catholic circles about the merits of producing Christian themes through Chinese art. Some thought the idea was a good one while others thought it was not possible. Yet the development of a Chinese style of Christian art, especially when it comes to Marian images, has been a long-standing feature of the Chinese Catholic Church. To that end then, these artists were not only participating in a proud tradition, they were also connected to the modernizing currents present within Chinese art circles at the time. Several works are discussed, including the devotion known as Sheshan Shengmu.

The chapter discusses what a contemporary Anthropology of Catholicism would look like, both through and beyond the ‘sacramental imagination’, as a political and institutional form, a contested set of practices, and an embodied and ethical orientation to the world. Through a discussion of ethnographic works on Catholicism both new and old, this chapter reflects both on what is distinctive about Catholicism as a ‘religious’ form, and how a focus on Catholicism can open windows onto areas of debate within the discipline of anthropology more widely.

This chapter looks at a particular instance of the local production of Catholicism in Cameroon by focusing on the agency of a ritual specialist and promoter of inculturation, Father Hebga, a Jesuit charismatic priest, who negotiates the related contradictions through ambiguous processes of religious and cultural hybridization. The leading pastoral concern at the heart of his praxis is the satisfaction of the needs of the faithful searching for healing in the framework of the catholic charismatic renewal. As one of the pioneers of Catholic charismatic renewal in Sub-Saharan Africa, Hebga’s agency mediates between the institutional constraints of the church hierarchy and the religious needs of the masses. The wider ideological framework is the discourse of Inculturation which has dominated theological debates in Africa Catholicism since the 1970s. In this context we see how Father Hebga operates as a cultural broker of postcolonial discourses, vying to restore the dignity of Africans violated by symbolic violence associated with the slave trade, colonization and Christian missionization.

The first chapter is concerned with spelling out a theological context common to both a ‘theology for’ and a ‘theology of dialogue’, namely a Church called to witness to its faith. While the ‘new way’ of dialogue is sometimes understood as replacing traditional forms of missionary witness like proclamation, mission remains central to any account of Church and Christian faith. According to Vatican II, the Church is ‘missionary of its very nature’. These familiar words from Ad Gentes, the Council’s decree ‘on missionary activity’, lead to a discussion of the Roman Catholic contribution to the ecumenical consensus on mission which has coalesced around the Trinitarian theme of the Missio Dei. The typically Catholic principle of ‘inculturation’ or translation into new languages and cultural forms is a response to the Father’s work of sending the Word and the Spirit for the creation and redemption of the world, a work in which the Church is invited to participate.