Christian Cultural Engagement And Liturgical Inculturation

The following essay situates the issue of liturgical inculturation in terms of the larger question of the relationship between the church and culture, attempting to highlight both the inevitable shaping of the church by its cultural environment and the important mission of the church to work for the transformation of culture. Unlike some recent Roman Catholic approaches to inculturation, which often begin by discussing how the text of the liturgy should be adapted to a given cultural situation, this essay describes a framework in which all aspects of worship can be considered in their cultural context. The greatest challenge facing liturgists today is arguably the challenge of inculturation. The expansion of the church into every neighborhood of the global village and the cultural ferment characteristic of our age challenges the church on every continent to reconsider the relationship of its institutions, theological formulations, and corporate worship to its cultural context. With r…