Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 90 No. 3, 2020.
Review article
A Reflection on Possible Evangelisation as Inculturation in the Context of Postmodern Culture
Davor Šimunec
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This article wants to reflect on possible evangelisation as inculturation in the context of postmodern culture by starting with two important documents that touch upon that issue: the pastoral constitution of the Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, and the apostolic exhortation of Paul VI on evangelisation in the contemporary world, Evangelii nuntiandi. Apart from a more general determination of culture as an overall and specific agent in a society, the article poses the question of a real possibility of Christian inculturation into the so‑called contemporary postmodern culture, insofar as it is marked by the aggravating difference in relation to, for instance, traditional cultures that somewhat allowed the missionary inculturation (accommodation) at the beginning of the 17th century, as it has been done by missionaries Robert de Nobili and Matteo Ricci. If the so‑called postmodern culture could be characterised as non‑culture, due to its criteria plurality and its unclear self‑evaluation of something possibly (and culturally) true, good, and beautiful, that does not have to be authentically reflected in the reality (in fact, quite the opposite), the author argues that there are difficulties of evangelisation in finding links of true inculturation in the postmodern context. This is why the contribution of pope Francis is precious. In his exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, he emphasises, despite the contemporary aggravating situation, the importance of dedicated authentic‑evangelisational, personal, and concrete activity towards the world that, even in the postmodern atmosphere of dynamic‑variable social reality, can bring out who knows what kind of new links to which the Christian message might be attached in the sense of inculturation.
Keywords
Gaudium et spes; Evangelii nuntiandi; Evangelii Gaudium; evangelisation.
Hrčak ID:
250188
URI
Publication date:
29.11.2020.
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