Finding the Seeds of the Word

Abstract

Chapter 1 takes a close look at Christianity’s most recent effort to engage local culture directly, inculturation theology, which began as a top-down approach to tame syncretism into a controlled orthodoxy that was respectful of culture, but which in recent decades has evolved into a generative bottom-up method of “making theology” in a way that affirms local beliefs and conditions in ways that are, at the very least, parallel to Christianity and sometimes fully compatible with it. Inculturation is an approach to religion and culture that is unique in that it is a Christian approach with an unusual willingness to seek out and consciously learn from other spiritual traditions.