The Implementation of Incarnational Mission Among The Bugis Using Cultural Approach

Abstract

Culture as a medium to develop the cultural and ethnic identity of the Bugis was mostly denied at the early encounter of Christianity with the indigenous people in South Sulawesi. The people who were baptized had been given a new identity to identify their Christianity. But on the other hand, it brought them out from their own cultural identity that had shaped them. In several areas, Western elements influenced them very strongly, like the dress code, name, and some customary practices in society. The history of Christian mission covers a long period and cannot be separated from the situation that prevailed in it, which can be analyzed through observing the practices, habits, and concerns of a representative sample of Christians. The diversity and coherence that appeared in every century from the first to the twenty-first of the history of Christianity should not be an obstacle in interaction between Christianity and the context. But it will be a media for observing and evaluating the totality of Christian mission in communicating the Gospel. During this process one can see how the gospel [Christ] is translated into the local forms and has been absorbed by the believers as well as transforming and discipline the believers themselves. The Bugis Christians, in relation with these cultural-religious forms, will be able to bear witness to Christ and present him in the midst of religions and cultures. Thus, Christ can be revealed in every religion and culture as the only Savior – using the form and the meaning – but he is not the monopoly of Christians. This emphasizes the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ that God sent his only son to redeem and save human beings who believe in him from all religions and cultures (cf. John 3:16).