Stuart
C. Bate
Paperback
- 118 pages (January 1991)
Loyola
Press; ISBN: 8876526358
Available
from Amazon.com
Price: $16.50
"Evangelisation"
and "Context" appear to be the two living realities that support the
process of inculturation. In the study of Fr. Stuart C. BATE, OMI, the context
is that of South Africa. The ethnic, cultural and political diversity and
tensions of this part of the African continent make of this particular context a
macroscopic paradigm for Church-contexts in other parts of the world. This was
one of the reasons that recommended the publication of this study in the series
INCULTURATION.
The
second reason is given by the fact that the South African context, precisely in
its relevance for inculturation, has little been studied. The research done by
the author of this work can serve as a practical introduction to the existant
bibliography. Moreover, it gives a comprehensive summary of the various
approaches taken by the Christian Churches in Africa at the present moment. The
themes of "Prophetic Theology", "Black Theology”, "African
Theology" and the "Coping/Healing Churches" are treated in a
competent matter and help to see the Pastoral Plan of the Catholic Church in
Southern Africa in its proper setting.
In
the venture of inculturation, the central point is neither Evangelisation nor
Context but the human person. In order to reach the heart of a people, the
Church does not proceed from one "-ism" to another. The human person
is the way of the Church. A special contribution of the Church in Africa may
well be to bring into focus this scope of inculturation : not the development of
an African humanism but the spiritual and holistic growth of African humanity:
women, men and children fully African and fully Christian.
Arij A. Roest Crollius,
S.J.