Inculturation as Doctrinal Development: Shaping International Theological Categories

Abstract

Abstract‘Doctrinal development’ and ‘inculturation’ are two of the most common terms in systematic theology for incorporating new ideas into Christian tradition. While these categories often carry geographic and racial associations, this article suggests that doctrinal development and inculturation be understood as distinct though interdependent. Applying these categories internationally, in any geography, makes clear that sometimes inculturation becomes doctrinal development. In discerning such development, the article suggests a distinction between two kinds of inculturation, one that remains geographically or culturally specific and another that could become a doctrinal development for the wider church. It then tests the usefulness of this distinction by applying it to theological proposals of Jürgen Moltmann and Kwame Bediako.