Abstract:
Several religious and theological approaches to culture in African studies have assessed the
idea of inculturation as a helpless incorporation of cultural values from one culture into
another. We showed in this article that this is a limited perspective to the process of inculturation,
and that this limitation is the reason for the failure of several attempts at inculturation. We
assessed inculturation from the angle of marketisation of cultures, and we argued that the
adoption or adaptation of cultural elements from one culture into another should be an agentic
rationalisation process. The article demonstrated that the rationalisation process is validated
by pre-adoption pragmatic experiences or expectations such that the feature(s) being adopted
has either initially proven – or at least is expected – to be more useful than what it is meant to
replace or enhance. We concluded that a rationalisation approach to inculturation is based on
an initial recognition of conceptual entities and practices, the need to adopt them, and a followup justification for this need. Without such perspective, an inculturation effort will not be
successfully completed, sustainable or mutually respectful.
CONTRIBUTION: Our primary contribution is that we tried to provide broad, agentic, rational
approach to inculturation. This contribution is important in sub-fields of Christian Church
History and Philosophy of Religion. It properly aligns with this journal’s focus on history of
religions, as well as phenomenology, and philosophy of religion(s).
