INCULTURATION
MY APPROACH
BACKGROUND
Born in Timaru, New Zealand 1929. Religious and theological background - European. Cultural background - European.EXPERIENCE OF OTHER CULTURES
Experience of people of other cultures: Canberra 1958 - 1965. While chaplain at the Australian National University, I gained some appreciation of people of other cultures, particularly Moslems from Pakistan and Indonesia, and Hindhu from India, and some intellectual awareness of their spiritual depth and richness.
RACISM IN NEW ZEALAND
On returning to New Zealand in 1966 and being stationed in Auckland I experienced the humanness of the Maori and their openness to people. At the same time I began to see the depth and subtlety of White racism and with it the put-down of Maori cultural and human values and the holding of economic, political, religious and social control over the Maori.
SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES
1974, I became involved with Maori in social justice issues. (The Bastion Point Maori land claim, the claim of native title to the Wanganui River, the Treaty of Waitangi) and experienced a growing intellectual awareness of Maori values through the study of the early (1840s to 1860s) Maori manuscripts.
I also became involved with Auckland Maori Catholic lay leaders, and with the leaders of the Maori Ecumenical movement.
As well I became involved pastorally both with rural Maori Catholic communities (especially in the Hokianga) and with Auckland city, largely unemployed, Maori.
DOING MAORI THEOLOGY
A Working out of a Maori Theology, which is in fact an indigenous theology, a liberation theology, and a contextual theology.
It is a Liberation theology, and more than that. It is a Contextual theology, and more than that. It is a Maori theology, that is a theology based on Maori faith.
It is a Christian Maori theology, that is a theology based on a Christian Maori faith, which is a development of a Maori faith, coming out of the Revelation given to the Maori. Jesus came not to destroy but to perfect. "Not one jot or iota of the law will be lost".
Liberation theology and Contextual theology, as I know them from the books, are both theologies based on the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Hebrew Bible and of the New Testament, and are particular developments of Western theology.
The liberation theology and contextual theology of the Maori prophets, Te Whiti, Te Kooti, Ratana and others, in the last century and the first half of this century, is also based on the Revelation contained in the Bible. For example, they refer to a "Moses figure", "A Maori Messiah", "The remnant coming out of Egypt".
BASED ON THE REVELATION GIVEN TO THE MAORI
The Maori theology and Christian Maori theology I am talking about is a theology based on the Revelation given to the Maori, the "innumerable seeds of the Word" in the traditional Maori religion. Because this theology is based on its own Revelation, I regard it as a distinct theology in its own right. And because the Revelation on which this theology is based is a Revelation given to an indigenous people, the original people of Aotearoa / New Zealand, I speak of this as an indigenous theology.
It is a liberation theology, the theology of a migrant people,moving across the Pacific Ocean many hundreds of years ago, and now an oppressed nation, a minority with limited powers of decision, in its own country.
It is a theology in context, coming out of the context today in which the Maori people are seeking recognition of themselves as a people, the indigenous people of this country, and seeking the right of self-determination guaranteed to them by the Declaration of Independence signed in 1835 and the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840.
THE INCULTURATION TRIANGLE
FOR ME
Maori Culture Maori Local Church Jesus MAORI CULTURE
as it is being lived today and including Maori religion and the innumerable "seeds of the Word" in the traditional Maori religion.This is a modern culture, strong and vibrant today, yet it has its roots deep in the past, going back hundreds, even thousands, of years into the beginnings of the movement of the Polynesian people into the Pacific, from South-East Asia.MAORI LOCAL CHURCH
The "Maori Local Church" looks far more organized than it is. The living faith experiences on which I have based this theology are from communities of two or three people to communities of about a hundred people coming together for particular occasions. Usually they belong to different religious denominations, but they are mainly Maori and 'family'.Where do I fit in? I am a Pakeha (a white person of European descent), I am not Maori, but a bit like John the Baptist I can point to Jesus in the midst of the people, the Maori people, from what I know of the Maori culture.
Ultimately it is the Maori living faith community, the Maori Local Church, who will work out a Maori theology, not the Church in general. Part of the process is dialogue with other Local Churches, as equal partners and within the overall unity of the Church. Some caution is needed on both sides. We hear the church telling us that not everything in a culture is good. But we also hear the words of Naboth when he was asked by King Ahab to sell or exchange his land: "God forbid that I hand over the inheritance of my ancestors" (I Kings 21:3).
JESUS
Jesus who was born, who died and who has risen from the dead, Jesus the 'Good News' and in that sense the 'Gospel' who is living amongst us, who comes, not to destroy but to bring to perfection. It is this Jesus who brings to perfection the 'seeds of the Word' planted in the Maori religion from the beginning."It can be truthfully said that what is inculturated isJesus Christ himself. He is the subject matter of inculturation, . . Inculturation is a further and definitive step by which Jesus Christ enters into a living relationship with a cultural tradition." (Shorter 1988:61)
THE Gospel is Jesus Himself. A Maori Gospel is still to be written. A very important part of the process is dialogue concerning the Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.
Jesus himself, the final revelation and the completion of all revelation, is bigger than any one Gospel, and bigger than all four Gospels.