True Christian adaptation must engage a people’s mentality, not surface rites.

Evidence

The merit of Father Tempels is to have seen the fundamental problem beyond the superficial details. It is not so much in the gestures, the symbols, the rites that an effort of adaptation must be accomplished as in the mentality, the psychology and the wisdom proper to each people. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 706

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Distinguishes superficial inculturation from deep philosophical engagement; relevant to the adaptive-elements theme of the wider discussion.

Related

• True missionary adaptation must engage a people’s mentality, not just rituals. (similarity 0.92)
• Adapting Christianity to Africa must engage underlying mentality, not surface rites (similarity 0.90)
• Christianity adapted to Europe but not to non-Western cultures. (similarity 0.79)
• Tempels sought sympathetic identification with Bantu rather than detached observation (similarity 0.79)
• Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy aimed at more effective Christianization of the Bantu. (similarity 0.78)