The story of Christian missions among Native North American tribes continues to be fiercely debated both in the church and in the academy. I offer the following study of missionary-theologian Carl F. Starkloff, who has devoted the past 40 years of his life to these issues, as a particularly effective contemporary example of someone engaged in this encounter. I consider three distinct periods in Starkloff's pursuit of successful inculturation, periods that mirror larger missio-logical movements within the Catholic Church since Vatican II. According to Starkloff, we should be prepared to endure some “theological messiness” in our experiments toward genuine inculturation.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1971“American Indian Religion and Christianity: Confrontation and Dialogue.”Journal of Ecumenical Studies8 (2): 317–340.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1972“A Note on Religious ‘Particularism.’”Journal of Ecumenical Studies9 (4): 870–874.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1976“The Church between Cultures: Missions on Indian Reservations.”The Christian Century93 (35) [3 Nov.]:955–959.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1977“Mission Method and the American Indian.”Theological Studies38 (4): 621–653.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1985a“Religious Renewal in Native North America: The Contemporary Call to Mission.”Missiology13 (1): 81–101.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1985b“The Anishinabe Ministry Training Project: Scriptural-Theological Formation.”Kerygma19 (44): 71–81.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1989“Keepers of Tradition: The Symbol Power of Indigenous Ministry.”Kerygma23 (52): 3–120.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1992“Aboriginal Cultures and the Christ.”Theological Studies53: 288–312.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1994a“Considering the Problem of Syncretism.”Toronto Journal of Theology10 (1): 98–100.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1994b“Dialogue, Evangelization and Church Growth among Aboriginal North Americans.”Studia Missionalia43: 279–294.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1994c“Inculturation and Cultural Systems (Part 1).”Theological Studies55 (1): 66–81.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1994d“Inculturation and Cultural Systems (Part 2).”Theological Studies55 (2): 274–294.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1994e“The Problem of Syncretism in the Search for Inculturation.”Mission1 (1): 75–94.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1995‘“Good Fences Make Good Neighbors’ or ‘The Meeting of the Rivers’?”Studia Missionalia44: 367–388.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1997“Church as Structure and Communitas: Victor Turner and Ecclesiology.”Theological Studies58 (4): 643–668.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.1998“Hindsight and Foresight: The Catholic Church and Native North Americans, 1965–1997.”U.S. Catholic Historian16 (2): 107–121.
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StarkloffCarl F.S.J.2002A Theology of the ln-Between: The Value of Syncretic Process.Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press.
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