Abstract
Ancestor worship is a dilemma for Christian communities in Korea and Africa, who have difficulty adapting Western theology to their Third World cultures. Allan Culpepper calls ancestor worship a cultural phenomenon, not a hindrance to the Gospel message, which this article refutes. Ancestor worship is religious rather than social in function. Common features of ancestor worship in Africa and Korea are 1) conventional superstition (shamanism in Korea, animism in Africa), 2) belief in immortality, and 3) ancestor veneration/filial piety. Theological assessment reveals the incompatibility of ancestor worship with Christianity. 1) Fear of ancestors is replaced by liberation in Christ. 2) The dead exist in a mode completely different to earthly existence and have no power in the world. 3) Ancestors cannot fulfil the intermediary role reserved for the Holy Spirit. Ancestor worship should be viewed as idol worship. Contextualisation of kerygma becomes distorted when religious pluralism is tolerated.
Highlights
Niebuhr (1951:1) has pointed out that the relationship between Christ and culture has been ‘an enduring problem’ throughout the history of the expansion of Christianity
From what has been said above, that the function of ancestor worship can be classified into two roles, religious and social
In our discussion of the social and religious implications of ancestor worship, the religious function has been found to feature within the realm of the participant of worship; the social function featured within the realm of the family relationship which even extends beyond death
Summary
Niebuhr (1951:1) has pointed out that the relationship between Christ and culture has been ‘an enduring problem’ throughout the history of the expansion of Christianity. Instead he favours a salvation hermeneutically grounded in a personal self-concept informed (or transformed) by one’s relations with God and others This relational focus is carried into his understanding of Christ as the Logos: ‘If there is a God beyond all gods, surely he uses every culture, all the differing religious traditions, even all history in seeking to get through to as many people as possible and bring them voluntarily into relationship with himself’ (Hugo Culpepper as cited in Allan Culpepper 1998:303). Allan Culpepper’s understanding of culture represents one extreme in this spectrum of debate His hypothesis would deem ancestor worship to be a cultural phenomenon, which will not hinder the realization of the Gospel message. The final section of this article will offer a response to the dilemma of contextualization in relation to kerygma
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