This work undertakes a philosophical analysis and study of the thought of John Paul II on inculturation and evangelization. It investigates the development of the Pope's thought on inculturation and argues that inculturation is the central theme that unifies the Pope's encyclical. The relationship between inculturation and evangelization is argued for, with particular attention to the analysis of such themes as: creation as inculturation, incarnation as inculturation, and evangelization as inculturation. The text then argues that the relationships between these themes are not only reciprocal but hermeneutical. It also focuses on the relationship between hermeneutics and inculturation and argues that hermeneutics is the most rational foil for understanding the mechanics and the logic of inculturation. The text shows how inculturation, as proposed by Pope John Paul II, serves as a unifying principle that would usher in a new world order (intellectually and socially). Such world vision would allow for cooperation and unity between nations of varied cultures, and thus, allow for the development of a Christian and world community where peaceful co-existence would be a priority. This is the hope of the Pope's gospel of 'Evangelization 2000.'

The theory and practice of inculturation can be successfully applied and utilized in the American secular workplace subculture to guide the Catholic worker in self-evangelization. Understand the cultural and social forces behind the significant increase in spirituality-seeking activity in American life and the workplace in order to navigate spiritual growth and integration of the whole self. Practice inculturation through the lens of vocation to combat indifferentism and the secular reduction tendencies of the spirituality movement where the Catholic identity may be lost or suppressed. Extract the rich tradition in the Church to guide and assist in utilizing the appropriate Catholic markers when practicing inculturation and ensure retention of the Catholic worker's identity. The Catholic worker, secular workplace, and the Church are enriched in the reciprocal process of incultration.

Drawn from the Conference on World Christianity, this provocatively titled book, invoking images of “culture collision,” “particularity,” and the “global South”, prompts for profoundly new understandings of apparently polar themes: inculturation, universality, and world Christianity. Since the emergence of world Christianity is not an epiphenomenon, but central to the question of how the gospel is good news for today’s world, readers concerned about the theological issues related to the possibilities for a genuinely new evangelization will find this volume. It will also be of interest to students and scholars of African ecclesiastical history, world Christianity, and inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue. Cyril Orji is Associate Professor of theology at the University of Dayton, Ohio, USA. He specializes in systematic and fundamental theology with particular emphasis on the theology and philosophy of Bernard Lonergan, whom he brings into conversation with the works of the American pragmatist and semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce. Dr Orji also collaborates in inter-religious dialogue and the intersection of religion and culture – inculturation, post-colonial critical theory, and Black and African theologies – and engages in communal practices of communicative theology in the development of local/contextual theologies. He has published numerous articles in various peer-reviewed journals, and is the author of A Semiotic Approach to the Theology of Inculturation (2015), An Introduction to Religious and Theological Studies (2015), The Catholic University and the Search for Truth (2013), and Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Africa: An Analysis of Bias and Conversion Based on the Work of Bernard Lonergan (2008).

What is inculturation? How is it practiced and what is its relationship to colonial and postcolonial discourses? In what ways, if any, does inculturation represent the decolonization of Christianity in Africa? This book explores these questions and argues that inculturation is a species of postcolonial discourse by placing it in the larger context of what has now come to be known as Africanism and by showing how the latter - and through it inculturation itself - fully participates in the history of postcolonial struggles for indigenous self-definition in Africa. The thirteen contributors to this volume represent a group of young scholars from the southern, eastern, and western regions of Africa. They come from different disciplines: theology, philosophy, and biblical studies. Although they take different approaches to the question of inculturation, the fact that they engage it at all is illustrative of the methodological significance of inculturation in African theology.

The split between the Gospel and culture is without doubt the drama of our time," wrote Paul VI in 1975. Since that time there has been an increasingly urgent awareness that inculturation is an indispensable task of the church. But inculturation, the dialogue between church and cultures, demands first of all that we who would enter into the dialogue understand what "culture" itself means and what dialogue entails. To that end, cultural anthropologist Father Gerald Arbuckle gives us this important volume. He traces the history of the development of the concept of culture, and the too-often negative, rarely positive effects of encounters between church and culture. He explores how Jesus Christ approached the cultures of his time, and outlines the current treatment of culture and inculturation in church documents and in Catholic theology. He shows that modest progress in understanding has recently staled, and there are even forces working to turn that progress into regress. He concludes with a description of inculturation as it needs to happen 'and a sharp critique of those who resist. With a sense of prophetic hope, Arbuckle seeks to help us bridge the lamentable split between Gospel and culture, the drama that continues to unfold in our time.

Renowned missiologist Henning Wrogemann has written the most comprehensive textbook on the subject of Christianity and culture today. In three volumes his Intercultural Theology provides an exhaustive account of the history, theory, and practice of Christian mission. Volume 1 focuses on hermeneutical theories, concepts of culture, and contextual theologies.

Japan has had three Catholic prime ministers, and its current empress was raised and educated in the faith. How did a non-Christian nation come to foster more Catholic leaders than the United States, particularly when Protestantism is said to define Christianity in Japan and Catholicism is believed to be but a fleeting element of Japan’s so-called Christian century? Far from being a relic of the past – something brought to Japan by sixteenth-century missionaries such as Francis Xavier and then forgotten – Catholicism offered, and continues to provide, an authentic way for Japanese believers to shape their cultural identities. This volume documents the appeal of Catholicism, not only among farmers and fishers but also among scientists, diplomats, novelists, and members of the imperial household who have found in Catholicism an alternative way to keep “tradition” and negotiate modernity since the late nineteenth century.

This compelling account of how Andean Christians have inculturated the Gospel and the challenges that confront them provides a real-world view of the urgent process of inculturation. In the context of pluri-cultural development of the church, this process is one that affirms that both culture and history are transformed by the Spirit of God. Inculturation surveys Andean culture and religious traditions, drawing from day-to-day experience in the transformation of education and social action, personal and communal life, spirituality, and the whole of Christian mission in today's world. It also discusses current evangelization trends worldwide, examining negative as well as positive examples of inculturation, and offers guidelines for future efforts.