65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey 34 What about marriage? Certainly, it was a great success that attracted the people, and even the Lutherans who do not believe in a sacramental marriage were impressed. But was it a real inculturation? For sure all the leaves of the traditional marriage were present but what about the roots? After all the splendour of the leaves I asked the couple for an oral consent and the community was the invited witness answering that they had heard the oral promise of the couple. However, the presence of all the relatives and of the spouses, was not the Melanesian way of saying yes? In Melanesian cultures actions have priority over words. Words are regarded as maus wara nating, empty spittle. Yes, I had said yes to the beautiful leaves, but declared their cultural way of expressing their consent as not acceptable for a Christian Sacrament of Marriage, not acceptable to God! As a matter of fact, that ritual, is spite of its original attraction disappeared. It denied the basic Melanesian way of expression. This raises a further question; in the past our theology made use of Western philosophy, the ancilla theologiae. However, if the Church takes seriously inculturation, it must use sociology and anthropology. Today’s theology needs a new foundation. * This is a talk I gave in German to celebrate the 50 years of the Anthropos Institute. The original can be found in Verbum. Summing up I hope that the two examples have shown both the role of anthropology and of the nature of inculturation. Not everything that shines is gold. Many beautiful leaves do not mean by any way inculturation. Leaves can camouflage the loss of the roots of a culture and hide the cultural colonialism. True inculturation can and probably needs to become a cultural and therefore also theological problem. Outsiders who come into contact with it, might experience a cultural shock. They lose their philosophical, theological and cultural balance. After such an experience one cannot think in a Eurocentric way anymore. Another important question is whether anybody who never experienced culture in a deep way, or analytically reflected on it, can really understand inculturation and judge it. Can Europe judge an alien culture? The Ricci case and the rites controversy are points in case. I am of the opinion, that if the leadership in the Church is really concerned with inculturation, it should take more seriously social sciences and enter into dialogue with them. Dialogue means that one should not enter with a final answer, but is ready to be questioned, to be shocked, to be ready to learn even from those we regarded as primitive. Dialogue means that one should not enter with a final answer, but is ready to be questioned, to be shocked, to be ready to learn even from those we regarded as primitive.
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