Perhaps nothing is as important to the future of the Church as continuing to make the liturgy meaningful to those who celebrate it. Inculturation, the dynamic translation of the typical editions into the cultures of local Churches, is the key. Inculturation as a branch of liturgical study has a dauntingly wide scope. It covers the areas of history and theology, liturgical and cultural principles, process and methods, sacraments and sacramentals, Liturgy of the Hours, liturgical year, liturgical music, liturgical arts and furnishings, and such related topics as popular religiosity and catechesis. So where does the average pastor, liturgist, or student begin? With this volume the reader is introduced to the different technical terms expressing the relationship between liturgy and culture (indigenization, incarnation, contextualization, adaptation, acculturation ... ). The subsequent discussion on the question of sacramentals, popular religiosity, and liturgical catechesis explains how these disparate topics share the same basic concern of inculturation. Throughout the book the focus is on method. Method encompasses both how one may remain true to the liturgy while also considering what culture offers the liturgy or requires of it. The question of how creativity relates to inculturation is also answered. For the serious student of the liturgy, whether or not you serve a culturally diverse community, this work provides foundations, principles, and methods for creating a liturgy of the people and for the people.

An expert on inculturation offers a primer on liturgy and culture.

Originally published in 2004. Inculturation - the creative and dynamic relationship between the Christian message and culture or cultures - is of interest to many churches throughout the world, particularly since the Second Vatican Council made it part of the Roman Catholic agenda. This book looks at the question of the inculturation of Christian worship, particularly in the Eucharist. Looking at the relationship of worship and culture requires insights from both theology and anthropology; Tovey develops the tools to interconnect perspectives into an interdisciplinary exploration of different models of inculturation. Inculturation of Christian Worship is both interdisciplinary and ecumenical in approach. Case studies are drawn from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, African Independent Churches, The Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. While there is a focus on Africa for particular examples, the issues are discussed in a world wide context.

The split between the Gospel and culture is without doubt the drama of our time," wrote Paul VI in 1975. Since that time there has been an increasingly urgent awareness that inculturation is an indispensable task of the church. But inculturation, the dialogue between church and cultures, demands first of all that we who would enter into the dialogue understand what "culture" itself means and what dialogue entails. To that end, cultural anthropologist Father Gerald Arbuckle gives us this important volume. He traces the history of the development of the concept of culture, and the too-often negative, rarely positive effects of encounters between church and culture. He explores how Jesus Christ approached the cultures of his time, and outlines the current treatment of culture and inculturation in church documents and in Catholic theology. He shows that modest progress in understanding has recently staled, and there are even forces working to turn that progress into regress. He concludes with a description of inculturation as it needs to happen 'and a sharp critique of those who resist. With a sense of prophetic hope, Arbuckle seeks to help us bridge the lamentable split between Gospel and culture, the drama that continues to unfold in our time.

Drawing together international and Indian sources, and new research on the ground in South India, this book presents a unique examination of the inculturation of Christian Worship in India. Paul M. Collins examines the imperatives underlying the processes of inculturation - the dynamic relationship between the Christian message and cultures - and then explores the outcomes of those processes in terms of architecture, liturgy and ritual, and the critique offered of these outcomes, especially by Dalit theologians. This book highlights how the Indian context has informed global discussions, and how the decisions of the World Council of Churches, Vatican II and Lambeth Conferences have impacted upon the Indian context.

Volume I consists of three parts: Preliminary Notions," "Historical Overview of the Liturgy," and "Liturgical Sources." Articles and their contributors include "A Definition of Liturgy," by Anscar J. Chupungco, OSB; "Liturgical Families in the East," by Ephrem Carr, OSB; "Liturgical Families in the West," by Gabriel Ramis; "Bible and Liturgy," by Renato De Zan; "Liturgy and the Fathers," by Basil Studer, OSB; "Liturgy and Ecumenism," by Patrick Lyons, OSB; "History of the Liturgy Until the Fourth Century," by Anscar J. Chupungco, OSB; "History of the Eastern Liturgies," by Manel Nin, OSB; "History of the Roman Liturgy Until the Fifteenth Century," by Anscar J. Chupungco, OSB; "History of the Roman Liturgy from the Sixteenth Until the Twentieth Centuries," by Keith F. Pecklers, SJ; "History of the Liturgies in the Non-Roman West," by Jordi Pinell I Pons, OSB; "Liturgical Documents of the First Four Centuries," by Basil Studer, OSB; "Byzantine Liturgical Books," by Elena Velkova Velkovska; "Other Liturgical Books in the East," by Manel Nin, OSB; "Liturgical Books of the Roman Rite," by Cassian Folsom, OSB; "Liturgical Books of the Non-Roman West," by Gabriel Ramis; "Liturgical Textual Criticism," by Renato De Zan; "Criticism and Interpretation of Liturgical Texts," by Renato De Zan; "Translation of Liturgical Texts," by Anscar J. Chupungco, OSB; and "Liturgical Law," by Frederick R. McManus. More than forty authors from Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, and Eastern and Western Europe have contributed to the Handbook. Many are professors and graduates of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome. Each author, while drawing material from liturgical tradition and from ancient, medieval, and modern sources, writes also from a particular research and personal interest in a subject. Although diverse in style, the authors collectively express a spirit of fidelity to the Church, to its doctrine and tradition, and to its mission. The result is a cohesive view of the meaning, purpose, and celebration of Christian worship.

Fifty years after the promulgation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, a great moment has dawned in which a more dispassionate assessment of the reception of this important document has become imperative in order to enable the Church to undertake necessary steps in realizing the full potential of the renewal envisaged by the Council Fathers. The present study identifies peculiar and diverse challenges confronting the process of reception in the Nsukka Diocese/Nigerian Church today. However, the author acknowledges that the full reception of Sacrosanctum Concilium is still a work-in-progress. Uchenna Aba is a Catholic priest in Nsukka, Nigeria, and currently the Chaplain of St. Martin's Parish, Goch, Diocese of Muenster, Germany. Dissertation. [Subject: Religious Studies, African Studies]