HUMAN RIGHTS, THE CHURCH’S MISSION AND INCULTURATION
Keywords:
HUMAN RIGHTS, CHURCH’S MISSION, INCULTURATIONAbstract
Since Vatican II, and especially because of the pontificate of John Paul
II, support for human rights, both locally and globally, has become a
key aspect of the life and mission of the Church. It is now clearly part
of the mission of the Church to communicate a concern and
demonstrate practical support for human rights. Yet, in order to be
effective and truly evangelizing, this concern for human rights must
be communicated by and through local churches in ways that are
relevant to the communities they serve, their national and cultural
contexts. In keeping with the focus of this issue of Asian Horizons, this
essay will focus on the question of inculturation in relation to the
Church’s proclamation of and support for human rights. The purpose
of this essay is to consider some aspects of the inculturation of the
Church’s mission on behalf of human rights, in particular to consider
how reflection on the inculturation process can reveal some of the
features of this mission and make them more explicit. Its focus will be
on my own Australian context, as a particular example of
inculturation, but it will also draw some more general conclusions
about the task of inculturation. Reference will be made to Australian
sources for particular points of context, but also to more general
works on human rights, in order to make connections with more
general concerns in the interpretation and inculturation of human
rights.
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