Christianity and Culture

Christianity and Culture

The Cambridge Dictionary describes culture as a way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people at a particular time. Culture, as a word, is said to encompass the social behaviour and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these groups.

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According to Wikipedia, a cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as guideline for behaviour, dress, language, and demeanour in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group.

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Every group of people has its own informal code that spells out the conduct of its members. While some aspects of culture might be acceptable across a number of communities, some can only apply to individual communities.

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The introduction of Christianity in Africa by Western missionaries was embraced in part, and resisted in part by the indigenous communities. For example, those who converted to Christianity found it easy to accept water baptism following conversion, which was completely alien to African culture. But when it came to, for example, circumcision of girls among a number of Kenyan communities, the instruction not to circumcise was fiercely resisted.

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Most traditional forms of worship involved sacrifices that were understood to appease the spirits of the ancestors.

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Nearly all of those sacrifices required the shedding of blood. This also proved contentious, because Christianity required the converts to recognize the death of Christ as the last sacrifice that God required from humanity, for forgiveness of sins. The new converts were required to put away their traditional ways of worship and exclusively worship God in the manner prescribed by the Bible.