Inculturația ca model misionar - posibilități și limite. Încreștinarea statelor baltice
Inculturation as a Missionary Model – Possibilities and Limits. The Christianization of the Baltic States

Summary/Abstract: Inculturation is based on the fundamental conviction that the preaching of the Gospel does not destroy culture, but has the capacity to purify, heal, and transform it from within. When the Gospel entered a new world through missionary work, it did not encounter a neutral reality, but rather already established communities with their own languages, well-defined mentalities, religious rituals, social structures, and symbolic systems that gave meaning to daily life. The preaching of the Christian faith never targeted an “abstract,” stateless “human being,” but addressed people firmly rooted in a specific culture and a specific way of understanding the world, life, and the sacred. The Baltic peoples to whom the Gospel was preached lived in a religious universe deeply integrated into the natural environment and the cosmic rhythms that governed daily life. Consequently, the Christian mission could not ignore this reality but, on the contrary, made use of it. This study aims to highlight precisely this aspect of the encounter between the Christian faith and the beliefs of the Baltic peoples, and to what extent the religious foundation found in this region was utilized or neglected in the preaching of the Gospel, and to what extent it contributed — or did not contribute — to its success, also addressing the practice of the principle of inculturation in this missionary context.

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