How Non-Catholic Christians in Majority Catholic Nations can Partner with the Historic Body of Christ Where the Church is Seen as a Particular Possession of That Culture
David J. Dawson
July 18, 2023
Challenges for Evangelicals Seeking to Engage Culture Together with their Catholic Brothers and Sisters
Theology of culture deals with the meaning and application of John 17:13-10 – “being in the world but not of it”. It has been necessary to address this question ever since the transition from the covenant-nation of Israel to the international covenant people of the church. How should the people of God relate to outsiders? What are the implications of ultimate allegiance to Christ? Every generation faces these questions in unique ways, from persecution, to privilege to exile (Carson 2008).
This year I celebrated 30 years in full-time missionary service, which has been mostly in majority Roman Catholic contexts. During the sixteen years I spent in Brazil I learned a lot about Catholicism, but as an Evangelical I never felt like a member of a marginalized group in society. The two and-a-half years in Portugal, however, have been the first extensive period in a majority Catholic context where my own faith tradition has little representation or influence. According to a 2011 census, 81% of the Portuguese population is Catholic, with 3.3% consisting of other Christian denominations such as Eastern Orthodox and Protestant (“Population of Portugal 2023 | Religion in Portugal,” 2021)
Intercultural researchers group countries together based on levels of similarity and difference. According to the GLOBE cultural framework, Portugal is part of the country cluster Latin Europe, e.g., Israel, Italy, Spain, Portugal (House et al. 2004). Therefore, my research on Portugal is relatively representative of Latin Europe in general. In many parts of Europe, Christianity has been significant historically but not today, an example being the diminished influence of Mainline Protestantism in Northern Europe. In comparison, Portugal is not only prevalently Catholic in its history, but Catholicism remains one of the most foundational aspects of its culture (Medina 2021).
One of the oldest nations in the world, the territory of Portugal has been maintained secure over 8 centuries (“About Portugal,” n.d.). Having one of the greatest maritime traditions in history, one of the foundational motivations during the Era of Exploration was the spread of the Catholic faith (The Legacy of Henry the Navigator, n.d.). In Latin Europe today, the majority population identifies the Roman Catholic church as an integral part of their cultural heritage. The Portuguese people have witnessed the transition of political power through the centuries while the church remains as perhaps the only constant institutional reference of their culture. Doubtless this is why Christianity is still regarded as a locus of great cultural treasure even in a region of secular modern Europe.
It was during the Roman Empire that Catholicism came to be the official religion of the region that would be Portugal. For many centuries the governing rulers of Portugal and the Catholic Church promoted a symbiotic relationship (Portugalist 2018). The first King of Portugal, Afonso Enriques (1139-85), partnered with the church to expel the Moors from the South of Portugal (D. Afonso 2023). A foundational part of Portugal’s history is the tumultuous partnership developed between antipathetical partners – a secular state and a church with a militant emphasis on the conversion of human souls and its call to universal societal engagement (Franco 2011). This integrated coexistence gave rise to a democratic society that some authors refer to as catolaica (Franco 2011). The paradoxical term comes from the accepted notion that although Portugal has a pluralistic democracy and therefore must integrate all groups, including naturally the majority Roman Catholic tradition (Franco 2011).
Portugal is a collectivist culture, characterized by an emphasis on “community, collaboration, shared interest, harmony, tradition, the public good, and maintaining face” (Anderson et al. 2003). In comparison, individualistic cultures place a higher value on “personal rights and responsibilities, privacy, voicing one’s opinion, freedom, innovation, and self-expression” (Anderson et al. 2003). Portugal also scores high on the uncertainty avoidance parameter related to a group’s inclination to feel endangered by ambiguous situations and to avoid uncertainty (Jackson 2020). Strong uncertainty avoidance indicates an aversion to taking risks, a tendency to favor stability, rules, and consensus (Jackson 2020). Whereas in individualist cultures relationships are voluntary associations, in collectivist societies people are born into relationships they are responsible to preserve all their lives (Moreau et al. 2014). The characteristics of collectivist culture described here represent barriers to religious influence from non-Catholic Christian traditions.
As I reflect on Latin European culture, I believe that an image of Christ and His kingdom has been formed that is overly associated with this context. This paper focuses on how non-Catholic Christians in majority Catholic nations can partner with the historic body of Christ where the church is seen as a particular possession of that culture. According to Richard Niebuhr’s influential taxonomy of Christ and culture positions, the Catholic church adheres to a model he describes as Christ-above-culture, or synthesis. Per Niebuhr’s classification, most non-Catholic Christians do not hold the synthesis view, an increasing number of whom are immigrating to Latin Europe.
A 2022 census shows that for the 7th consecutive year foreign immigration to Portugal has increased, 11.9% more than in 2021 (Lusa, 2023). Brazilians represent 30.7% of the total population of immigrants in Portugal (Lusa, 2023). According to the Aliança Evangélica de Portugal, in 2023 Brazilians represent 81,6% of Evangelicals in Portugal (Brasileiros representam 81% dos evangélicos nas igrejas de Portugal, 2023). Of the next 9 nations from which most immigrants came, the next highest percentage was from the United Kingdom – predominantly secular but historically Protestant (Lusa, 2023). Three African nations are also among the list of 9 that have large Evangelical populations (Lusa, 2023). Only one country on the list was majority Catholic (Italy). It is evident that Portuguese Catholics are increasingly in contact Christians of other traditions, most of whom are Evangelicals (“Population of Portugal 2023 | Religion in Portugal,” 2021).
In this paper I propose that Christians can engage in a healthy and meaningful way in majority Catholic contexts by exploring both traditions’ complementary wisdom on the relationship of Christ and culture. I will address the challenge Evangelicals face in Catholic communities that see Christianity as their particular cultural possession. In the second section, I will explore the historic foundations of the Catholic position on Christ and culture. Third, I will elaborate some Evangelical theologies of culture that foster positive relationship and partnership with Catholics in their heartland. Fourth, I will suggest some specific areas of cultural engagement for Catholic-Evangelical dialogue. And lastly, I conclude with a recommended aim for such dialogue – restoring a culturally pluralistic vision of Christianity.
The Catholic Solution: Christ Both Separate from Culture and Sovereign Over Culture
As stated earlier, most Evangelicals do not hold to Niebuhr’s Christ-above-culture position (1951). Understanding this position is necessary to determine if Evangelicals can engage with culture fruitfully together with their Catholic brothers and sisters. If not, Evangelicals’ only option will be to try and convert Catholics about culture or give up on fruitful partnership. Niebuhr believes that the church above culture worldview has been predominant in church history, manifesting in different forms (Niebuhr 1951). Synthesis is one such form, the greatest example being the Catholic church (Niebuhr 1951). The synthesis seeks a “both-and” solution, maintaining the separation between Christ and culture but insisting that Christ is “as sovereign over the culture as over the church” (Carson 2008). By this conception, there is no authority beyond what has been established by God, and therefore what is Caesar’s and God’s are rendered accordingly (Carson 2008). Central to this position is the conviction that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Almighty Father of all Creation. Culture is understood from the perspective that nature is good and rightly ordered by God, even post-Fall. Therefore, Christ and the world cannot be opposed to each other, nor can culture be the realm of godlessness alone. For as part of the world, culture is “upheld by the Creator and Governor of nature” (Niebuhr 1951).
The synthesist affirms both Christ and culture, confessing a Lord who is “both of this world and of the other” (Niebuhr 1951). This worldview maintains the distinction and paradoxical conviction that Jesus is “both God and man, one person with two ‘natures’ that are neither to be confused nor separated” (Niebuhr 1951). It follows that culture is “both divine and human in its origin, both holy and sinful, a realm of both necessity and freedom, and one to which both reason and revelation apply (Niebuhr 1951). This way of seeing Christ contrasts with a liberal theology that primarily values finding common ground with human culture and seeking fruitful partnership with it. But the synthesist’s appreciation of culture also contrasts with a conservative theology that denounces human culture as utterly depraved and seeks to either combat it or isolate from it (Niebuhr 1951).
Niebuhr finds in Thomas Aquinas “the greatest of all synthesists in Christian history”, representing a Christianity that had “achieved or accepted full social responsibility for all the great institutions” (Niebuhr 1951). The Christ above culture position recognizes the antithesis between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness – between the regenerated believer and the unredeemed sinner. However, a synthesis is attempted between “philosophy and theology, state and church, civic and Christian virtues, natural and divine laws, Christ and culture” (Carson 2008). Aquinas’ approach became that of the Catholic church as well as many other denominations, according to Niebuhr, because of “the intellectual and practical adequacy of his system” (Niebuhr 1951). Although Aquinas’ synthesis was undermined by the Reformation and the Renaissance, it is perhaps the greatest of all comprehensive attempts to combine without confusing the ethics of culture with that of the gospel (Carson 2008).
In his own life and person, Aquinas embodied the “both-and” response to the question about Christ and culture. As a monk avowed to poverty, celibacy and obedience, Aquinas identified with the radical Christians who turned their backs on the secular world. But Aquinas was a monk in the church who became a champion of learning, a preserver of culture, a political philosopher, an advocate for Christian family values, and a governor of church’s relationship to the state (Niebuhr 1951). However, such a synthesis was never easily attained or maintained in Aquinas’ day. The Christ-above-culture approach sought to synthesize church and civilization, this world and the other, Christ and Aristotle…reformation and conservation. It depended on a certain coexistence and uneasy partnership between conservatives and liberals – the protest movements against culture weakening the gospel, and Christians who were highly culturally engaged (Niebuhr 1951). Such a partnership would require an influential radical Christianity protesting Christian institutions that weakened the gospel. And as its counterpart, a culturally engaged church would be needed that was strong enough to walk in unity with its loyal opposition (Niebuhr 1951).
Vatican II in the mid 20th century represented a major move towards engaging modernism and some adjustments to Catholic understanding of the Church and the world. The background was the Catholic Intellectual Renaissance of the 20th which begun in France with theologians reengaging with Aquinas’ thought. This renaissance resulted in large part due to a reengagement with the Thomistic concept of the bonum comune (the common good), part of his both-and theology of culture (Pakaluk 2021). Vatican II maintains Aquinas’ theology of culture as foundational, but recontextualizes it for modernity (Lewis 2021).
A Protestant Theology of Culture That Makes Way for Partnership with Catholics (in their Heartland)
The ability of both Catholic and Evangelical Christians to engage in Western culture is inhibited by the view that their faith can be “tolerated, provided it is entirely private” (Carson 2012). But cohabitating with diverse religious claims today forces Christians of both churches to answer questions of Christ and culture in the public sphere. If culture consists, as Carson states, of “ideas, beliefs, customs, and all the rest” then it includes our faith traditions as well and is something that must be explored afresh by every generation (Carson 2012). The subject of the privatization of religion in secular society is a starting point for Evangelicals to engage in dialogue with Catholics. Evangelicals can learn from Catholics’ value of the collective witness of tradition. And Catholics can learn from Protestants’ realism on the fallibility of human institutions.
Besides the synthesist position we have explored so far, Niebuhr describes two others that belong to the Christ-above-culture pattern – dualists and conversionists (Carson 2012). The dualist holds a Christ and culture in paradox position, that life’s foundational question is making the distinction not between “Christians and the pagan or secular world, but between God and all humankind” (Carson 2012). Christ came to bring reconciliation and forgiveness, and human culture is corrupt. This means all human work, achievement, philosophy, and theology – not only outside the church but inside it as well (Carson 2012). Foundational to the dualist position, is that the Christian does not pass judgement on others, but on all including themselves (Carson 2012). But although the dualist pronounces all human culture to be “godless and sick unto death”, he knows that he “belongs to that culture and cannot get out of it, that God indeed sustains him in it and by it” (Niebuhr 1951). Indeed, if God stops sustaining the world in its sin it would immediately cease to exist (Niebuhr 1951). The tension of this paradox is that of a thinker applying a dialectical to reality, “Living between time and eternity, between wrath and mercy, between culture and Christ” (Niebuhr 1951). The dualist “finds life both tragic and joyful” there is “no solution of the dilemma this side of death” (Niebuhr 1951).
I believe the dualist position holds potential for Evangelicals and Catholics to discuss cultural engagement because it allows both to engage the world with humility. In a time when both Evangelical and Catholic churches face criticism from non-believers we can share the approach of recognizing our faults and repenting. Indeed, the dualists’ position that all Christians are sustained by God in a fallen world can help Catholics and Evangelicals find motivation to serve their communities while realizing the work will never be done this side of heaven. When Evangelicals are the minority faith tradition, the dualist position can help them have a prophetic voice while acknowledging an equal amount of correction is needed in their home cultures.
But I find the conversionist position to hold the most potential for Evangelical minorities to engage fruitfully with Catholic majorities. This is the Christ the transformer of culture position. Niebuhr is not thinking here primarily of individual conversion but the conversion of the culture itself (Carson 2012). The conversionist maintains the radical difference between the work of God in Christ and the work of man in culture (Niebuhr 1951). They neither isolate from civilization nor reject its institutions, accepting their role in society while acknowledging Christ’s judgement of it (Carson 2012). The distinction between dualists and conversionists is their optimism about human culture (Carson 2012). Although redemption is superior to creation, creation is the sphere where God’s works redemption (Carson 2012). The dualist treats the physical world and human nature as inherently evil, resulting in the view that human institutions are a mostly negative force in a fallen world (Niebuhr 1951). However, conversionists affirm that although the fall had physical consequences they are “moral and personal, not physical and metaphysical” (Niebuhr 1951). Human history is the stage of God’s redemptive deeds and human beings’ responses to them. Thus, the conversionist has a more realized eschatology, living more in a divine ‘now’ (Niebuhr 1951). A radical conversionist position would lead to universalism, but Niebuhr’s typology refers to a position that contends on two fronts. The conversionist stands “against the anticulturalism of exclusive Christianity, and against the accomodationism of culture-Christians” (Niebuhr 1951).
I believe the conversionist position has the most potential to help Evangelicals in majority Catholic contexts. While it is a sensitive issue, Evangelicals can help Catholics deal with the marginalization of faith in secular Western society by providing a vision of salt that preserves human cultures, their institutions, philosophy, and art. The minority Evangelical church has a position of blessing from the margins, fulfilling the biblical exhortation to “Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips” (New International Version, 2011, Pv. 27:2). I see parallels in the conversionist and synthesis models in that both seek to engage culture and actively influence it. However, I see the synthesis model’s optimism regarding the degree to which the church and state can be in partnership as lacking historical basis. Often, when the Church had the opportunity of political privilege it succumbed to the temptations towards corruption. I prefer the concept of the church redeeming culture, and the idea that the secular age presents a specific opportunity to do so.
Suggested Points of Catholic-Evangelical Dialogue on Engaging Culture
The effects of the Catholic church’s assuming full responsibility for all the great institutions of society during the era of Christendom are many. During this period, the foundation was laid for the development of arguably the greatest institution in human history. Even after the Enlightenment deposed the Catholic church from its throne at the center of Western society, it possessed an episcopal structure with a few powerful voices that could have dealings with government authorities (Carson 2008). In comparison, Evangelical churches are not attached to such authority structures, and are therefore more likely to respond by unsystematic partial measures over time (Carson 2008). So, regarding the ability to communicate with a clear voice in society, Evangelicals should look at Catholics with admiration. An effectively integrated structure of power depends on its ability to clearly declare its positions. For Evangelical traditions not based on the synthesists approach it seems impossible to have such a clear voice in society. Divided among thousands of denominations, Evangelicals cannot form and communicate unified representative messages. This is a point of dialogue where Evangelicals can communicate their admiration for the Catholic church. To some extent, we may also convey our gratitude for the Catholic church’s representation of Christianity on ethical and moral issues. The presence of a strong Catholic witness in the public sphere -generally conservative related to the nature of Christ and humanity – benefits non-Catholic Christians as well.
The Catholic synthesis successfully imbued Christian values into European society during the era of Christendom. But in the Modern Era many of these values were secularized and the Catholic faith was detached from the historical context in which it took root (Rowland 2003). In Modern Europe, concepts such as human rights and the sanctity of life were taken for grated without reference to the Bible. Some Catholics attempted to rearticulate the church’s message as one of universally held human values, not as God’s one plan of redemption rooted in biblical history. Karl Rahner, arguably the most famous Catholic theologian of the 20th century, largely aimed at “adding new lenses to the Christian telescope so that it could detect the active presence of God both deep within the being of every human and throughout the expanse of history” (Knitter 2002). I am sympathetic to Rahner’s view as a missiological posture. But rather than making the Catholic church’s message more universally communicable, detaching Catholic teachings from the biblical matrix has contributed to a general loss of faith within Europe (Rowland 2003).
The conception of Catholicism as an aspect of Latin European culture has made it resistant to political reform movements arising from the church in other parts of the globe. Liberation Theology arising in Latin America articulated a theology of culture with particular emphasis on the comprehension of diversity. The method of this theology of culture is to insert itself into everyday life and promote holistic development of human beings, socio-political dialogue, and the practice of social justice (Mariano, 2016). These are the characteristics of a religion that liberates people and shows them “the blessed face of history” through the unity between “the political condition of Christianity” and “the pastoral action of the church” (Mariano, 2016). The honor with which Latin Europeans hold the institutions of Catholicism has been a barrier to learning from Latin American Liberation theologians. These exhort the Catholic church worldwide to “prefer to be poor and humble with Christ, (…) than rich and powerful” (Mariano, 2016). The latter position amounts to “agreement with the structures of cultural domination that maintain cultural contradictions of the model of globalization that substitutes human dignity for gain” (Mariano, 2016). Due to a lack of interest in the priestly vocation in Latin Europe, today an increasing number of clerics there hail from Latin America and other regions of the Global South (CNA, n.d.). For the past 70 years this has brought the message of Liberation theology to the doors of Latin European Catholic churches.
As Evangelicals following the example of Christ, we should enter the dialogue related to Christ and social justice with humility. According to the Weberian hypothesis, Evangelical Calvinism is largely responsible for the modern industrial complex, for which many of us take pride. But a more effective posture to the end of Evangelical-Catholic dialogue and partnership would be our humble repentance for preferring to be rich and powerful rather than humble with Christ. And we Evangelicals should reflect on the motivation behind the famous Protestant Work Ethic. Having lost the priestly intermediation of forgiveness of sins and access to heaven, Protestants wondered how they could know they were among the elect. They were instructed to devote themselves to restless professional work as a means for calming their religious doubts” (Kurz, 2021).
Closer to liberation theology in some respects is the conversionist position held by many Evangelicals. Although not one of the hosts of Christian leaders explored by Niebuhr, I consider Abraham Kuyper to exemplify many characteristics of the conversionist position. However, while Kuyper exhorted Christians to influence the spheres of culture, he cautioned them against entangling the church in these endeavors inappropriately (Carson 2008). Unfortunately, many Evangelicals have gone one step too far in this direction, interpreting separation of church and state as a separation between Christians and the state. The result has been that in many Evangelical majority countries both the church and individual Christians have disengaged from influencing society (Carson 2008).
But Evangelicals in majority Catholic contexts do have wisdom to share with their Christian brothers and sisters regarding cultural engagement. Kuyper believed that Calvinism had replaced human priestly mediation with that of Christ, allowing the Christian to look beyond the church to the greater vision of the kingdom (Kuyper 1898, lecture II). The former Prime Minister of the Netherlands believed that in Christ is the redemption of the human race, not just the church, which will be fully manifest at His return (Kuyper 1898, lecture II). The synthesist position limits religion to the sphere of catechism and church calendar events… baptism, burial, and marriage. Thus, the daily life of the Catholic laity was marginalized from the effects of religion. Calvinism taught that the ordinance of God is determinative in all creation – the foundation of all beauty, virtue, ethics, biology, and cosmology (Kuyper 1898, lecture II). This Evangelical motivation for cultural engagement is not a correction to the Catholic synthesis, but it can serve as a point of encouragement as we work together for this end.
My conviction is that both the individual Christian as well as the church should engage in every sphere of society where the gospel can be manifest. An Evangelical dualist position that disengages from societal needs is an inadequate witness to Christ’s kingdom and His love for the world. At the same time, an overly zealous and optimistic conversionist position can turn the ministry of influencing spheres of society into a burden of works. We do well to remember that “all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (New International Version 2011, Rom. 8:14). The mission to transform culture must be taken up with Christ’s declaration that the members of His Body live under the burden dictated by his gentle love (Mat. 11:28), following the Spirit’s lead in simple, daily obedience.
Taking Advantage of Christian Parallels with Pluralistic Ideologies as a Means of Evangelism
I would like to conclude this paper with a specific goal for Evangelical-Catholic dialogue: debunking the caricature of Christianity as foundationally an aspect of Western civilization. Indeed, ever since Paul received the Macedonian call west, we have seen the development of the church in Europe. But the idea that the gospel is an aspect of Western empire is a barrier to today’s young Europeans and their pluralistic ideologies.
In Latin Europe, the synthesist approach fostered a culture heavily influenced by the church over centuries. The legacy of this influence is ambiguous due to the nature of all human institutions, even that one called to represent God’s redemptive plan. And even after a process of secularization Latin Europeans continue to identify the institution of the Church and its teachings and worldview as an integral part of their cultural heritage. Most young Latin Europeans to not adhere to church’s teaching on subjects such as sexuality, the nature of family, and the role of faith in the public square (Francisco Fala Para Dentro Ou Para Fora Da Igreja?, n.d.). But they still want the church to occupy a place in society as a point of moral reference (Francisco Fala Para Dentro Ou Para Fora Da Igreja?, n.d.). It is easy to see this Latin European cultural value as rootedness in the idea of catholicity itself, the singular glory of the church being its unified nature. But a better understanding would be that Latin European Christianity is a particular cultural expression of a greater universality. In the context of historical shifts such as the Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, and post-colonial American-led capitalism, in Roman Catholicism Latin Europeans find a source of transcendental unity, purpose, and identity.
But this perspective obscures a foundational mystery of the Christian faith – the incarnation – where God glorifies contextualization as a primordial aspect of His love. John describes the incarnation as glorious, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (New International Version, 2011, Jo. 1:14). John also describes the incarnation as an expression of love, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (New International Version, 2011, Jo. 3:16). Paul emphasizes the humility of the incarnation, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (New International Version, 2011, Phil. 2:8). The author of Hebrews describes Christ’s coming to earth in human form as the ultimate form of divine communication, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe” (New International Version, 2011, Heb. 1:1-2).
I propose that Evangelicals living in majority Catholic contexts partner with Christ where His Spirit has been at work there for centuries. In his book The Road to Missional, Michael Frost recommends that Christians desiring to impact a nation or community ask, “Where is Jesus already there” (2011). Frost describes this approach:
It is our job as the followers of Jesus to invite people into the new history that God is writing, to show them that the reign of God is unfurling across the world and throughout history, and to invite others to make that story their story. If we don’t even know what has been and is currently happening (…), how can we retell the story with a view to the future God has in store? (2011)
I am most inspired by missionaries to Latin Europe who have rejected a colonizing approach where Evangelicals seek to convert Catholics to Evangelicalism. I find much more compelling the models of Evangelical missions in my context that seek to find where the Holy Spirit is already at work and to partner with Him there.
The Catholic synthesis position undermines unity with the Global church, the majority of which exists outside the Roman Catholic tradition (although global Catholicism is huge). As stated in the introduction, the large number of non-Catholic Christian immigrants to Latin Europe makes this view particularly harmful to Christ’s work there. A lack of understanding of contextualization and resulting cultural diversity as foundational to the gospel undermines the health and influence of the Latin European church.
It is interesting to note that one may assume that the synthesis approach would make it difficult for Roman Catholics to evangelize cross-culturally, however the history of Catholic missions shows this not to be the case. Roman catholic missionaries such as the Jesuits were amazingly successful at making the Christian message relevant and compelling to many diverse cross-cultural contexts from “low” cultures such as in South America to “high” cultures of the far East. Part of the impetus of the Counter Reformation – a term coined by Protestants – was a desire to establish a unified Catholic state after the fragmentation brought by Luther and his successors. In the 15th and 16th centuries an apocalyptic Catholic optimism arose during the unification of the Spanish throne under Ferdinand and Isabel. Any land not inhabited by Christians was declared to be open to “discovery” by pope Alexander (Gordon 2022). Referred to as the Catholic Reformation, some historians consider this period to be the beginning of Global Christianity (Gordon 2022a).
The Jesuits were pioneers of missionary cultural accommodation involving language, dress, and even religion. In more developed societies such as Japan and China, the Jesuits employed a strategy of converting the influential elite (Gordon 2022a). They were among the greatest journalists and historians of their generation, with luminaries such as Mateo Ricci. Ricci sought evangelistic inroads by translating knowledge of math and engineering from the West which the Chinese valued. The Jesuits made a huge contribution to the progress of historical, philosophical, and cultural knowledge. These gifts are often neglected by Protestants as we acclaim our own legacy. Ricci adopted the Confucian concept of the mind palace as a practical tool for memorization. As an evangelistic strategy, he sought to be taken seriously by the Chinese intellectual elites in the areas of medicine, engineering, and math (Gordon 2022a).
Conclusion
Christians can Evangelicals in majority Catholic contexts can learn from and partner with their brothers and sisters in Christ by exploring both traditions’ theology of culture. The Latin European Catholic church’s appropriation of the gospel as a particular possession of this culture is a challenge for Evangelicals who desire to serve the Body of Christ there. But Evangelicals can learn much from the Catholic Christ-above-culture synthesis, as well as Catholics learning from Evangelical positions such as Christ-and-culture in Paradox, and Christ-as-Transformer of Culture. Catholicism’s positive attitude towards creation provides a needed counterbalance to Protestant’s overemphasis of the Christ-and-culture antithesis. And Protestants need not look far and wide for a more positive attitude towards creation themselves. The idea present in Calvinism that God is sovereign of every sphere of society is fodder for conversation with Catholics if we are humble enough to learn from each other. And ultimately, it is my recommendation that Evangelicals in Catholic contexts respect the life and fruit in the Body of Christ there as it is. We Evangelicals can and should be able to add to the work of Christ in any location. But with Paul we should recognize the challenges involved ed in building on the foundation of another’s labor.
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