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To: ultima ratio; gbcdoj
Aarti is a Divine hymn which is sung as an invocation for the deity to come & bless.

Are you claiming its impossible to do this in a Christian way? Invoke "ho Theos" to come and bless?

I guess you'd say the Church was wrong to use the sacred springs of the pagans as the running waters of Baptismal fonts across Europe, to buidl Cathedrals were pagan worship sites stood, to transform pagan festivities into Christian feasts, or to turn the Pantheon into a Church.

Or is inculturation only valid in Europe but not India?

746 posted on 07/20/2004 6:17:23 AM PDT by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: Hermann the Cherusker

There's a difference between inculturation and syncretism. It is one thing to incorporate into Christianity a non-religious cultural element, it's another to accept a religious element per se. In the case of the Pantheon, Christianity was wholly substituted for Pagan worship. Only the building was retained, a religiously neutral artifact. So too with the sites of springs or the dates of feasts, all were religiously neutral. But a PRAYER or HYMN to a false god IS religious--it is syncretic and heretical.


769 posted on 07/20/2004 10:34:38 AM PDT by ultima ratio
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