Asian Cultures and Inculturation

We are still in need of more than stereotypes for understanding what may be called Asian cultural traits. Some of the stereotypes were created by foreign dominators to suit their own interests. One current stereotype is the difference between materialist and spiritual societies. Pre-industrial societies were regarded as more spiritual. This reinforced the notion of the spirituality of the Indian pre-industrial past. It was a sort of compensation for the humiliation of the present. Gandhi even took pride in the absence of technological change and attributed it to the wisdom of the forefathers, "who knew that, if we set our hearts after such things, we would become slaves and lose our moral fibre".(10)

Gunnar Myrdal in his Asian Drama explains Indian "spirituality" as due to a lack of sufficient calories! Non-violence in Indian culture is particularly related to cow-protection, and, in the form of ahimsa, the Buddhists and Jains have made a general ethical value of it. Possibly it was meant to discourage inter-tribal warfare and encourage the expansion of settled agriculture and trade. Buddhism and Jains are known for their origin from new urbanization in the Ganges valley based on iron, the widespread domestication of the horse, and the extension of plough agriculture. The reaction of the new sects is understandable against the background of the concept of matsyanyaya, or the large fish devouring the small fish, known from the Mahabharata and Manusmriti and Dharmashastras. The competition for power ended in the 4th century B. C. with the emergence of the Mauryan empire, which during the reign of Asoka comprised almost the entire subcontinent, and the emergence of Buddhism, which reflected his concern for safeguarding his acquisitions against prospective rivals. Hence, history has little to vouch for the non-violence and spirituality of the Indian culture.(11)

The above considerations are important for any meaningful study of the issue of inculturation. The concept of "culture" that a national bourgeoisie tends to cultivate is often the same as that which the Catholic Church holds because of its own bourgeois composition. This is a "museum" or "entertainment" concept of culture, and not that of culture as "manifestations" of the life-style of people. Which such a concept of culture, one fails to grasp that culture is "living" and that any contribution to it should help the people to cope with their present life-challenges.

All efforts at inculturation of the Church will have to keep these considerations in mind. Inculturation cannot be imposed by force, and much less by a clergy that is alienated from the masses of the people by its training, its institutional affiliations and its association with extra-territorial mentors. This is an area for the church leadership in Hong Kong to reflect seriously on. There may be a need of greater involvement on the part of the clergy in the life-concerns of the common and marginalized people, and this should be done by soiling their hands and feet. Inculturation will then take care of itself.(12) Only then will the true meaning of mission be restored and genuine witnessing of the Good News captivate more hearts.(13)

Even if the Catholic Church wishes to persist in its managerial attitude, particularly with its West-based and centralizing Roman curia, it should by now take serious note of the failure of its global machinery to raise the membership of the Catholic Church in Asia to more than an insignificant percentage of its millions. Even poverty has not been a sufficient motivation for Asians to accept the westernized brand of Christianity. And it is less likely to be an attraction in the post-colonial period with greater sensitivity to national cultures. Hence, the West-based, West-trained, or West-influenced Church managers may have to learn carefully the Asian cultural traits that make Asian cultures immune or resistant to the Westernized package of Christianity.

10.Quoted by R. Thapar, Ancient Indian Social History (Delhi, 1978) 17.

11.R. Thapar, op. cit. 46, 54, 308.

12.cf. Aloysius Pieris, An Asian Theology of Liberation, (New York, 1988) 38ff.

13.Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, (Michigan, 1962).