Christianity adapted to Europe but not to non-Western cultures.

Evidence

Following the example of Paul, the church became Greek with the Greek world and barbarian with the European barbarian world. However, it has not become Arabic with the Arabs, black with the blacks, Indian with the Indians, or Chinese with the Chinese. Viewed as a whole, the Church of Jesus Christ has remained a European-American affair. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 704

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Articulates the inculturation critique that grounds Tempels’s whole project; connects to wider discussions of colonial Christianity.

Related

• The church culturally adapted only to Greco-Roman and European worlds (similarity 0.93)
• Hans Küng held that the Church never inculturated beyond Europe. (similarity 0.86)
• Mass African conversions to Christianity remained superficial because underlying Bantu philosophy persisted (similarity 0.80)
• Christian missionaries spread Western culture more effectively than secular ideals do (similarity 0.79)
• Christianity was the non-negotiable core of civilized status in the antebellum Americas (similarity 0.79)
• Tempels’s ethnographic study of African cultures served his goal of Christianization (similarity 0.79)
• True missionary adaptation must engage a people’s mentality, not just rituals. (similarity 0.79)
• True Christian adaptation must engage a people’s mentality, not surface rites. (similarity 0.79)
• Tempels addressed Bantu Philosophy to colonizers seeking to Christianize Africans (similarity 0.79)
• Bantu Philosophy emerged from European perceptions and African resistance to Christianity (similarity 0.78)
• Tempels held Christianity alone could consummate the Bantu ideal (similarity 0.78)
• Europeans explained African and American religions as derivatives of Judaism. (similarity 0.78)