Indigenous Peoples and the Experience of Christianity

Abstract

If Europeans have served as the most prominent stewards of the Gospel, it is not surprising that they have found it hard to distinguish between sharing the Good News and pushing their civilisation as if it were part of the gospel message. It has taken four centuries of pain for the churches to begin to be aware of the difference between culture and Christianity, and of the problem of distinguishing between them. Movements such as liberation theology and inculturation are demonstrating that it is not too late to change course. Europeans can, with the help of the peoples they colonised, escape their own cultural captivity.