Dialogue With Culture

Dialogue With Culture

• "Dialogue and Proclamation" is a document by the Catholic Church.
• Dialogue involves reciprocal communication, respect, and friendship.
• Desired dispositions: openness and respect.
• Christ and the Holy Spirit continue their work in the world.
• Triple Dialogue in Asia focuses on culture, religion, and the poor.
• Mega-migration leads to multiculturality and involves large-scale movement of people.
• Push factors force people to leave, creating refugees.
• Pull factors offer opportunities.

Culture as a Way of Life

• Culture comes from the Latin word "colere," meaning to inhabit, cultivate, protect, and honor with worship.
• Culture is a social group, not just individuals.
• Society's regularized or standardized design for living is culture.
• Culture is a way of life.
• Enculturation is passing on culture, learning culture, and older generations teaching younger ones.
• Examples of enculturation include sharing beliefs, experiences, principles, values, and memories.
• Characteristics of culture: action (clothing, transportation), symbol (myths, rituals, traditions, language), change (evolving), and subcultures.
• Ethnocentrism: one's culture is superior to others.
• Cultural relativism means understanding culture based on its own values.
• The gospel and culture influence each other positively.
• The gospel purifies, and culture enriches.

Scriptures and the Church on Dialogue With Culture

• Religion animates culture.
• The spirit sows "seeds of the word" in cultures.
• Inculturation adapts faith to different cultures.
• Inculturation comes from incarnation (Jesus becoming human in a culture).
• Christianity is not limited to one culture which allows discovery of the seeds of the word.
• Making the gospel their own enriches culture.
• Inculturation is a two-way process for faith and culture.
• Joseph Blomjous describes mutual exchange between faith and culture.
• 1960-1980 saw traditional missionary work evolve into a new way of evangelization.
• Inculturation = interculturation (better term).
• Multiculturality and cross-culturality is the uniqueness of each culture.
• Interculturality is what is common among people (collaboration).
• Paul VI stated evangelization should consider people's culture and language.
• Dialogue in a multicultural world indicates that God shows generosity by entering into different cultures.
• Diversity becomes opportunities for dialogue and evangelization.

Dialogue With Religion

• Mega-migration leads to multiculturality and multireligiosity.
• Elements of evangelizing mission: interreligious dialogue (respecting other religions) and proclamation (spreading christian message).
• Religious pluralism accepts many religions, respecting them while maintaining one's own faith.
• Religious relativism believes no religion is more true than another, and all beliefs are equally valid.
• Proselytism involves converting others' religions.
• Nostra Aetate asserts the church respects what is true and holy in other religions.
• Dialogue involves interreligious relations with other faiths, directed at mutual understanding and enrichment.
• Dialogue is an integral element of the church's evangelizing mission.
• Divine providence provides help for salvation to those who have not come to know God.
• Seeds of the word are traces of goodness in different cultures, religions, and belief systems, even if they do not fully align with Christian teachings.
• Four forms of dialogue: Life (living together in harmony), action (working together for social and economic development), theological exchange (discussing respective religions), and religious experience (sharing spiritual experiences).
• Quote: “There will be no peace among the nations, without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions”.

Dialogue With The Poor

• Poverty is being a pauper or poor person.
• Poverty is a lack of means to provide for material needs or comforts.
• Types of Poverty: poverty of the soul (lack of purpose), poverty of the spirit (total dependence on God), and material poverty (lack of sufficient material means).
• Old Testament prescribed reducing poverty.
• In the sabbatical year (seventh year), people were required to let the land rest, forgive debts, and free slaves.
• In the jubilee year (fifty years), land was returned to its original owners.
• Jesus lived in poverty.
• Jesus' parables revealed His attitude toward the poor.
• Malnourishment lacks proper vitamins and minerals (diseases).
• Chronic hunger sees starvation and the immune system failing.
• Causes of hunger: corruption, exploiting limited resources, unfair/high interest on foreign loans, and politics.
• Moral response to hunger: subsidiarity (decisions made by lowest authority), solidarity (unity), and managing earthly goods efficiently.
• Participation in the Eucharist: becoming the bread of life for others and becoming Christ's hands and feet to those in need.
• "A place at the table" includes families & individuals, the government, community organizations/faith-based institutions, other institutions that help society stand with the poor, and the marketplace/institutions of business, commerce, and labor.
• Preferential option for the poor is a principle in Christian social teaching that emphasizes giving special attention and care to the poor and marginalized.
• Those excluded = leftovers.
• Integral liberation, according to Pope Paul VI, means faith should lead to real changes in society.
• Integral liberation is transforming humanity from within, making it new.
• The poor are also instruments of evangelization.
• Healthy neighborhoods ensures people are neither too distant nor too involved with each other.
• Evangelii gaudium, by Pope Francis, calls for a church that is active and engaged with the world.
• The goal is to become "a church bruised, hurting, and dirty".