CULTURE AND RELIGION
The only way in which Christianity and other religions exist is in concrete, definite cultural environment. We receive, live, express and transmit our faith through culture. Culture is a reality which is difficult to define because it covers everything in human life. We can look at culture as the worldview guiding our lives. Such a worldview gradually developed from millions of agreement among members of our society through the long period of time. Our leaders have taken it upon themselves to make us aware of the standards of judgment and of conduct, which have to guide us in relating with other people. Together with other members, they have conditioned us in many ways, mostly unconscious, to accept as “natural,” and therefore to follow critically the cultural patterns of our society.
An accepted culture covers all aspects of human life. It is a system that includes beliefs, values, customs, and institutions. Together, these components unite a society, giving it a sense of identity, dignity, security, and continuity.
In spite of the fact that culture has a fundamentally positive trust, as a whole, it is ambivalent. It contains both elements that are positive and negative, humanizing and dehumanizing. We have to realize that culture is created and recreated by people for the purpose of making life in society more human. Anything that hinders this purpose must be removed, but whatever promotes this purpose must be used. Since we are not mere recipients of culture, we can modify, preserve and change it. We can do this because culture is not a static reality. It is historically situated and is changeable.
Religion is concerned with our search ...