A History Of Cultural Adaptation In Christian Worship

Although the challenge of swiftly changing cultures is especially characteristic of recent years, the cultural adaptation of Christian worship has a long and fascinating history. This article identifies many of the most important adaptations of worship through the early history of the church.

As the expression implies, liturgical adaptation refers to the process by which the liturgy is modified in such a way as to render it "?more suitable,?" "?more appropriate,?" "?more meaningful?" to a given group of worshipers in a given context. While the term adaptation has been criticized as connoting an overly timid and even paternalistic attitude toward this process, the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the revised liturgical books use this word in a variety of contexts to express a range of nuanced ideas: from the most superficial kinds of rubrical changes to the creation of new liturgical forms springing from the genius of a particular culture. A careful reading of these documents, especially S.C. 37–40, will reveal that the term adaptation when applied to the liturgy variously refers to concepts borrowed from the social sciences, such as localization, acculturation, contextualization, indigenization, and inculturation, as well as the more theological expression incarnation. Examples from the History of the Liturgy Liturgical adaptation, however, while a relatively new expression in the liturgical lexicon, is not a new phenomenon in the history of the liturgy. As the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy itself points out, the liturgy "?is made up of immutable elements, divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change?" (S.C. 21). Even a cursory review of the history of Christian worship illustrates that the church both consciously and unconsciously adapted these "?elements subject to change?" not only from one generation to the next but also from one culture to another in order to express and celebrate the mystery of Christ in a meaningful way. Given the Jewish background of the first generation of believers, it is not surprising that the earliest forms of Christian liturgy were profoundly rooted in the ritual patterns of first-century Judaism. The most obvious case in point is the reinterpretation (one could say adaptation) of the Passover meal from a domestic memorial of the Exodus of Israel from slavery and oppression, to the Christian Eucharist, the memorial of the "?Passover?" of Christ, celebrated in homes by small groups of believers. Just as the Hebrew Scriptures were reinterpreted by the early church in a Christological light, so basic Jewish ritual actions, such as the laying on of hands, baptismal washing, and anointings, were given new meanings in the context of the Christ event. Both the New Testament and extrabiblical witnesses to early Christian worship patterns, such as the Didache (9, 10) and the First Letter of Clement (59–61), betray a marked indebtedness to Jewish forms of prayer and blessing rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures, though now refocused on Jesus, the servant of God. This characteristic influence of the Hebrew Scriptures and the cultural worldview expressed by them would never be totally lost by the church as it moved from one culture to another down through the centuries. As the new church attracted more and more converts from paganism, it also entered into a dialogue with the dominant Greco-Roman culture, which also affected the church's worship. While this dialogue was often polemical, characterized by a total rejection of cultural expressions based on polytheism, practices that were not intrinsically linked to pagan worship were incorporated into the Christian liturgy and usually interpreted in light of the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus, we find in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus that after the newly baptized received the Eucharist for the first time, they were given a drink of milk and honey. Hippolytus explains the significance of this action as "?the fulfillment of the promise God would give them a land flowing with milk and honey?" (Apostolic Tradition 21 [London: SPCK, 1968]). Yet this type of drink would not have been unfamiliar to a Christian neophyte, since it was ancient Roman custom to give a similar drink to newborns as a sign of welcome into the family and to ward off evil spirits (Anscar Chupungco, Cultural Adaptation of the Liturgy [New York: Paulist Press, 1982], 16). Clearly what is at work here is an adaptation of a welcoming rite practiced in the surrounding culture to illustrate the significance of full initiation into the church imaged as the family of God. Once Christianity was made a legal religion in 313 by Constantine and then the official religion of the Empire during the reign of Thedosius (379–395), the church's dialogue with Greco-Roman culture became progressively more positive. This was a period of great creativity and the era that saw the gradual birth of the liturgical families of rites in the East and the West. Each one of these developing rites was marked not only by the theological controversies and political instability of the age but also by the pastoral concern to adapt the church's worship to the needs of the huge influx of new converts through the assimilation and reinterpretation of cultural symbols drawn from the religious and political usages with which the new Christians were already familiar. One aspect of this adaptation can be seen in the worship space of the Christian assembly. The simple house church or house of the assembly (domus ecclesiae), which was able to accommodate only a small number of worshipers, was transformed into an imperial basilica, capable of holding vast throngs of the faithful. While maintaining the image of the church as the "?household of God,?" this image became progressively more stylized in the appointments of the new Christian basilicas. The apse, where the emperor or magistrate was enthroned, became the place where the bishop presided from his chair, or cathedra, surrounded by his council of elders, or presbyterium. Not surprisingly, the liturgy itself became more stylized and formal. It began to reflect the new position of the church vis-à-vis the political and social order, borrowing elements of imperial court ceremonial from the now-Christian emperor, for whom the bishops became funtionaries. Liturgical vesture in the East and the West, which has undergone numerous changes down through the centuries, still reflects the formal dress of imperial officials of the late empire. It is also important to note that while the liturgy is still very deeply rooted in the Scriptures, the patristic authors of this period began to legitimate the now more formal liturgical practices through recourse to the cultus of the Jerusalem temple as described in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, especially in the letter to the Hebrews. A "?sacralization?" of both the persons ministering to the community and the place where it gathers to pray gradually took place, paralleling religious attitudes toward the sacred found in both Judaism and paganism. Significantly, it was during the fourth century that the very language of worship of the Roman church was adapted to a changed cultural situation. It must be remembered that the Roman church, until the third century, was predominantly Greek-speaking. It was just before the reign of Pope Damascus in the middle of the fourth century that Latin, the contemporary language of the majority of the Christians of Rome, definitely found its way into the liturgy of the church of that city. While this change was essentially a pastoral one to enable the faithful to understand what was being prayed, the form of the Latin adopted for Christian worship was in many ways stylistically similar to that employed in the pre-Christian, Roman cultures. Both responses, Libera nos, Domine and Te rogamus, audi nos, derive from the pagan Roman practice of invoking the gods with a series of intercessory acclamations. The typical Roman concern for juridical precision through the piling up of synonyms in sacrificial formulas also became a feature of the liturgical prayer of Christians. A recent Roman convert from paganism would have been very familiar indeed with the stylized expression specifying the gifts presented at the Eucharist, such as have dona, haec munera, haec sacrificia illibata appearing in the Te igitur section of the Roman Canon and reflecting the hieratic language of the pagan Roman cultus. This adaptation extended beyond just the verbal. A gesture of reverence still prescribed today in the Roman liturgy, kissing the altar and the book of the Gospels, also finds its origin in the pagan Roman custom of venerating the sacred with a kiss. Moreover, the development of some aspects of the liturgical year would be incomprehensible without a knowledge of previous pagan celebrations, such as the Mithraic celebration of the dies natalis solis invicti, celebrated at the winter solstice and reinterpreted by the Christian church into the annual celebration of the birth of Christ, the "?sun of righteousness?" spoken by the prophet Malachi. These and many other examples illustrate the church's constant (and sometimes unconscious) attempt to adapt its worship to its changed cultural context through the reinterpretation of religious, social, and political customs already extant in the world in which it lived. This era of the "?classic Roman liturgy,?" which extended from the fourth to the seventh centuries, is a crucial one from the point of view of liturgical adaptation because the reforms of the liturgy that took place after the Second Vatican Council were very much influenced by the liturgical movement of this "?classic?" period, which was a kind of blueprint that guided the liturgical renewal of the Roman rite. In effect, the cultural values or "?genius?" of Roman culture in this period was "?simplicity, practicality, a great sobriety and self-control, gravity and dignity?" (Edmund Bishop, "?The Genius of the Roman Rite,?" in Liturgica Historica [London: Oxford, 1918], 12). These values have served in subsequent periods of liturgical reform as a kind of yardstick by which such reforms were measured. These values played a key role in the liturgical renewal of the Second Vatican Council: "?The rites should be marked by a noble simplicity; they should be short, clear, unencumbered by useless repetitions; they should be within the peoples' power of comprehension and as a rule not require much explanation?" (S.C. 34). As Frankish and Germanic peoples, centering around the area of what was the old Roman Empire, were evangelized, it was only natural that their worship, too, was influenced by their particular culture. In the period prior to the ninth century, when the Roman rite was imposed on the Frankish kingdom by Pepin and Charlemagne, Western liturgical rites developed quite independently from the Roman rites and reveal very different approaches to Christian worship. One can easily see in the style of the prayers found in the various non-Roman sacramentaries of this period a reflection of the challenges, that beset these local churches, expressed in a style proper to the particular national "?genius?" of these people. In Ireland, where the harp of the wandering troubadour still functions as national symbol, the prayers of the Celtic rite excelled in lyrical compositions and hymnody. In the face of serious Arian opposition to orthodoxy, the formerly thoroughly romanized province of Spain, especially in Toledo and Braga, produced the so-called Mozarabic, or Visigothic, rite, which combined a refined Latin erudition with a special concern for orthodoxy of expression. The more "?barbarian?" province of Gaul produced prayers with tended to be prolix, moralizing, and emotional, but also to liberally incorporate quotations from the Scriptures. Though all of these rites employed Latin in worship, their style is unmistakably different from the more restrained and abstract Roman genius. The See of Rome, however, being the center of pilgrimage to the shrines of the apostles Peter and Paul and the only patriarchate in the West, commanded enormous respect in the West. Many of these pilgrims returned home to incorporate liturgical practices that they had witnessed at Rome into their own worship. It was also to Rome that Charlemagne turned in an astute political move to unify his kingdom by means of imposing uniform liturgical observances on his dominions. While the liturgical unification he promoted used the liturgy of the city of Rome as its base, his borrowing of Roman liturgical forms was not wholesale. Under Charlemagne's auspices, a supplement to the Roman sacramentary, which he had received from the pope, was composed, and it included the blessing of the Easter candle (the present Exsultet), as well as ordination prayers, blessings, and formulas for consecration of churches and exorcisms—all of which reflect the characteristic Franco-Germanic verbosity coupled with a love of Scripture. This supplement was eventually incorporated into the Roman section of the sacramentary and was brought back to Rome and became, with a few alterations down through the centuries, the Roman missal used by the Roman rite until the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. It was also about the same time, during the reforms of the papacy undertaken by the Ottonian emperors in the ninth and tenth centuries, that we see the influence of the early medieval culture on liturgical practice. The Roman-Germanic pontifical of the tenth century, a fusion of the ancient Roman Ordines (guides to liturgical celebrations) with material from northern Europe, contains dramatic evidence of the influence of feudalism; for example, six sections of the book are dedicated to the Indicia Dei, or "?trials by ordeal.?" While these "?barbaric?" ceremonies were dropped by subsequent pontificals, feudalism continued to influence the liturgy. The gesture of fealty used by a knight to his liege was introduced into the ordination rite for presbyters by the end of thirteenth century in Rome. When the ordinand placed his hands between the hands of the bishop to promise obedience, he is imitating that feudal gesture of homage given by a vassal to his lord. Although there was an attempt under Gregory VII (1073–1085) and Innocent III (1198–1216) to return to what was perceived to be the traditions and practices of the ancient Roman fathers, these reforms were impeded by a lack of documentation and historical sophistication. The Roman liturgy therefore evinced not only the sobriety and gravity of ancient Rome but also the allegorism, moralization, verbosity, and flair for the dramatic, which characterized the people of northern Europe. It was this essentially hybrid liturgy, purified of abuses by the Council of Trent, that is contained in the Missal of Pius V promulgated in 1570. The Reformers of the sixteenth century approached the problem of adaptation from another point of view. Instead of adapting the liturgy in light of what was perceived to be the ancient practices of the Roman church, they made a conscious attempt to look at worship as presented in the Scriptures. One of the problems they perceived in medieval worship was that it was monopolized by the clergy and was unintelligible to the people because it was celebrated in Latin. It therefore needed to be translated into the vernacular, purged of what they regarded to be Roman error and superstition, and firmly based on the Word of God. Luther, Zwingli, Bucer, Calvin, and, later, Cranmer all produced new vernacular liturgies that attempted to return to the worship of the early church. While these revisions were successful insofar as they once again made the words of worship comprehensible to the people, they were unable to "?turn the clock back?" to the first century because the New Testament contains no formal worship services and hence no pattern to emulate. As with the attempted reform of Gregory VII in the eleventh century, historical study and theological reflection was not sufficiently developed in the sixteenth century to do anything more than to create worship services shorn of direct references to Catholic doctrines problematic to the Reformers, such as eucharistic sacrifice. While they were assiduous in translating both the Scriptures and prayers used in church, the Reformers produced liturgies that very much reflected the cultural ethos of northern Europe during the late Middle Ages. Although their services emphasized the primacy of the Word of God interpreted by every Christian, a Word that was accessible to a much broader section of the population through the invention of the printing press, their liturgies also reflect the strong penitential emphasis and the interest in subjectivity already present in the late Middle Ages in such spiritual movements as the devotion moderna. The apparent rejection of centuries of liturgical tradition by the Reformers, as well as what was perceived to be their deviations from doctrinal orthodoxy, led the participants in the Council of Trent to reaffirm what they regarded as ancient tradition. The rite of the Mass was protected from any change or modification by canonical regulations by this council, which legislated absolute compliance to the most minute rubrical detail under pain of sin. The four hundred years between the promulgation of the Missal of Pius V in 1570 and that of Paul VI in 1970 is a history of rigid liturgical centralization and uniformity in the Roman Catholic church, largely immune to any attempts at adaptation. It was during this period that, having no outlet to modify the liturgy as such, both popular devotions and a manifest theatricality increasingly began to frame the eucharistic liturgy and other rites of the church. Medieval practices—such as processions and expositions of the Blessed Sacrament, novenas to the saints, the rosary, and the dramatizations of biblical stories performed both inside and outside the church—were maintained, especially in the Spanish part of the Catholic world. While the rite of the Mass itself could not be changed, its celebration was peripherally embellished by full orchestras and choirs performing complex musical compositions. The churches built during this period resemble theaters, where the faithful, like an audience, "?attended?" the various ceremonies of the church "?performed?" in a dramatic setting designed to inspire feelings of devotion and awe. During this age of divine-right monarchs, it is also not by chance that many churches resembled throne rooms where the great King of heaven present in the blessed sacrament held court, enthroned in an ornate tabernacle on the main altar, surrounded by candles, flowers, and incense. Ironically, these four hundred years also corresponded to a period of great missionary outreach by the church to peoples of different cultures in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. One notable exception to this Roman insistence on uniformity was an experiment promoted by Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary in China, that became the object of controversy from 1610–1742. Ricci obtained important indults from the Holy See to adapt the Mass, liturgical vestments, and language of the liturgy to Chinese culture. Moreover, he also urged that the practice of the Chinese to honor their ancestors by bowing before ancestor tablets, derived from Confucianism, not be interpreted as idolatry or superstition but be permitted to Chinese converts by the church as a cultural expression that was an integral part of Chinese identity. These attempts at rooting the gospel and the worship of Chinese Catholics in their own culture were met by serious opposition from other missionaries, notably the Dominicans, who accused Ricci and the Jesuits of promoting idolatry. In a very interesting instruction to the Vicars Apostolic of the Far East issued by Propaganda Fide in 1659, the idea of transplanting Europe to China as necessary for evangelization was labeled as absurd. The instruction clearly draws a distinction between the faith and its European cultural expression, and states that the faith does not demand that rites and customs of non-Europeans be repudiated or destroyed in order for them to become Christian. Indeed, the faith wills that these rites and customs be preserved intact in order to serve as vehicles for evangelization, provided they are not "?depraved?" ("?Instruction Vicariorum Apostolicorum and Regna Synarum Tonchine et Cocinnae Profisiscentium,?" in Collectanea Sacrae Congregationis Propaganda Fide, I [Rome, 1907]). This instruction, therefore, lays down the principle of liturgical adaptation, which would be echoed in Pius XII's encyclical Summi Pontificatus of 1939 (Acta Apostolica Sedis 31 [1939]: 329) and in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council (37). Unfortunately, the insights of both Matteo Ricci and Propaganda Fide were lost in the intervening years. Chinese performance of ancestral rites was condemned by the bull Ex quo singulari in 1742, which "?spelled the loss of China and Indochina to the church?" (Chupungco, Cultural Adaptation, 38). It became clear to many potential converts outside of western Europe that to become Christian meant to become European.