Inculturation in the Collective Memory of the Church

Abstract

The paper consists of three sections. The first section deals on the Christian Experience and Tradition. It underscores the significance of the foundational liberative experience, the collective memory that keeps it alive, and the interpretative process that unfolds it at the level of praxis. The second section explores the place of inculturation in the collective memory of the Church. It asserts God as the pioneer of inculturation, presents St. Paul as an admirable model, traces the path of the Fathers of the Church and of the early ecumenical councils. The later part of this section outlines the implications of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council for inculturation and how this theme has been further developed in the post-conciliar documents of the Church. The final section spells out a few insights that emerge from the study of inculturation in the collective memory of the Church.