*
Indication of biography about this matter for personal deepening:
.
AZEVEDO, Maíra. Personagensdestacam-se no
“tapetebranco”.A Tarde, Salvador, p. a7, 13 de jan. 2012.
. BARROS
Marcelo. Jesus of Nazareth, Spirit of Compassion: Elements of a afro-Brazilian Christology in VIGIL, J. M. (Org.). Getting the poor down from the cross: Christology of
Liberation. Digital book,
available in http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/LibrosDigitales/index.php, pp. 21-28. Access on 03 May de
2017.
.
BOFF, L. Avaliaçãoteológico-crítica do
sincretismo. Vozes, n. 71, pp. 53-68.
. MIRANDA, Mário de
França. Inculturação da fé e
sincretismoreligioso. Rio de Janeiro. Disponível em: http://www.itf.org.br/revistas/reb/238_1.php. Acessoem 19 de nov. 2012.
. RUSSELL, James C. The
Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation, Nova
York, Oxford University Press, 1994.
. WILSON, Richard. Maya resurgence
of Guatemala: Q’eqchi’ Experiences. Norman Oklahoma University Press, 1995.
.
ZERO HORA. Ritomais que católico:
navegantesmais plural. Zero hora, Porto Alegre, p. 31, 02 de fev. 2012.
. SCHREITER, Robert J. A nova
catolicidade: a teologia entre o global e o local. São Paulo: Loyola, 1998.
I would like to start this article from some concrete situations that
lead us to a deep reflection. I was strongly impressed by the testimony of a
faithful woman - “baiana de acarajé”
from Bahia named Edna Santana,
reported by the newspaper A TARDE. The event occurred during the traditional
“Wash of the Bonfim,” that happens in Salvador[1] and
that congregates adherents of the Catholicism and Candomblé.[2]
Madam Edna said, “I am a real Bahian, daughter of the Terreiro Ilê Axé Oya Larô,[3]
I came to thank the Lord of Bonfim and also Oxalá
for the health of my mother.” The newspaper also said that although it is a
Catholic calendar feast and with a strong presence of faithful of Candomblé,
other religions also join the white carpet in honour of Lord of Bonfim.[4] Those who look from outside would wonder how
she can bring together so easily two ways of believing so differently. After
all, is she a Candomblecista or a
Catholic?
In several places in Brazil, we noticed similar behaviours. There is,
for example, in Porto Alegre, the procession of Our Lady of the Navigators,
which, although it is a Catholic rite, has always counted the participation of
even veiled faithful of the Afro-Brazilian religions, who associate the saint
with Orisha Iemanja. In the year
2012, the believers of these religions were invited to a walk for peace. The
situation is similar to the previous one, but it brings a new element that is
very important for our study: walking for peace.[5] It is about the possibility of people of
different faiths being together, walking together and joining forces for the
sake of a social cause.
It is also illustrative the experience of the theologian Marcelo Barros
among the Kamba, one of the tribes of Kenya. He had the opportunity to meet
with a priestess of the traditional religion and asked her if it was possible
to relate Jesus and the entity that they invoke with the name of Kanambe. Then,
she replied:
There is no
difficulty in relating Jesus and Kanambe. Jesus Christ reveals to us God
present in the history, in the facts of life and in the people, and helps us to
discover that Kanambe is the manifestation of God present in nature, on earth
and in water. The two orders do not conflict; in fact, they interpenetrate.
Jesus is a kind of fullness of faith in Kanambe, but it is not something that
empties or replaces him with a kind of ‘westernized culture’; On the contrary,
He values Kanambe and gives him historical density.[6]
We are facing one of the greatest contemporary challenges, from the viewpoint
of the experience of religiosity. There are people who have assumed a syncretic
religious identity as a characteristic and for them there is no problem in
relating a saint to another entity, because his ancestors did and what was
taught must be followed in order to live with harmony and satisfaction their
religious feeling and their sense of belonging.
Ecclesiastical leaders believe that this is a real confusion and that
faith must be pure, just as the religion is pure. Therefore, arise the
following questions: Is there pure religion? Is there pure Christianity? Is
there pure Catholicism? These people are aware that their syncretic religious
practice is also Catholic. Were they wrong? What we call syncretism, is not a
synthesis between what the people possessed and what they received? We will try
to answer these questions, but it will be as approximations, because it is a
complex process as a result of cultural interactions and symbolic
transformations always present in the history of civilizations.
The innumerable and diverse religious expressions present among us are
the result of a rich cultural exchange, which continues to occur, giving rise
to new religious identities. We call this process syncretism. Generally, this
expression is used to “describe the formation of a religious identity”,[7] characterized by intercultural and interreligious
encounter, interchange and assimilation. Such an experiment occurred with great
intensity in the period of colonization, but its roots come from very far.
The term “syncretism” has its origin in Plutarch (AD 46 – AD 120) and characterized the junction of Cretan
cities, usually hostile, in the face of external threats. Since the Renaissance
(End of sec. XV), this word has been used to designate synthetic compilations
of a cultural aspect. In the age of confessionalism, it became an
anti-ecumenical concept. Already in the nineteenth century, the science of
religion began to use it as a very important instrument of their study, mainly
for descriptive or controversial purposes, in the historical study of
Christianity, since in its development it absorbed cultural and religious
elements context. In this sense, many consider Catholicism as one of the
greatest examples of a syncretistic religion.[8] Let us then try to understand how this process
happens.
The author RJ Schreiter observes that from the beginnings of
Christianity there was syncretic experience, taking into account the Jewish,
Greek, Roman elements, the divergence of historical forms in the liturgies
(Eastern and Western) and moral rules, despite having scriptures and profession
of common faith (principally).[9] The decisive factor here is the cultural
assimilation in each place. The author James C. Russell, quoted by Schreiter,
in his work on the Germanization of medieval Christianity, relates syncretism
with cultural interaction and formation of religious identity.[10] The hypothesis he raises is that
The
world-view of the Indo-European, Greek, Roman, and German religions was
essentially people-centred and therefore ‘concordant with the world’, while the
world-view of religions of Eastern mysteries and of early Christianity was
essentially Soteriological and eschatological and, therefore, 'discordant of
the world'.[11]
Then, according to this view, it is considered that Christianity
spreading in the Mediterranean did not have to accommodate its world-view to
the system that agreed with the world - in this case, the Roman Empire.
Consequently it became a fascinating proposal for all considered “out of the
world” because they were excluded from the system since they did not have full
participation, such as non-citizens, wealthy women, freed slaves and immigrants
from outside the Empire. The Christianity promised what the society denied them
full participation, which included also salvation in the other world.
Therefore, here Christianity did not have to change its codes significantly.
However, when it moves to the Germanic north of Europe, it adopts a policy of
accommodation to this society, letting itself be transformed by it.[12]
According to R. J. Schreiter, this transformed Christianity, from the
tenth century, returns to Italy, becoming a cultural pattern in Rome. Some
practices of this society were being introduced into Christian rituals, giving
importance to certain elements and symbols that were not previously part of the
devotional role.[13] Thus, a properly recognizable pattern of
popular religion was becoming part of European Christianity.[14] Undoubtedly, there was a sensitive and
unavoidable assimilation of cultural and religious values of these regions,
with which Christianity was maintaining contact, without offering much
resistance. From this long experience, a new ‘identity’ of Christianity was
born.
Taking only this single example, from a form of Christianity that
dominated the Western up to Reformation and which survives in the popular
religion exported from the Iberian Peninsula to Latin America in the fifteenth
century, we can see, from a semiotic point of view, what happens when the
message of Christianity is transmitted through a different cultural code - in
this case, a code of concordance with the world (...) The emerging Christianity
seems to be unfocused from its Mediterranean lineage.[15]
As we see, the essence of the problem of syncretism, in the Christian
case, is the transmission of the Christian message through different cultural
elements. Therefore, it is with this syncretistic Christianity that the
indigenous and Afro-descendant cultural and religious traditions of Latin
America, and especially of Brazil, will come into contact. The conclusion
reached is that, according to L. Boff, “pure Christianity does not exist, never
existed, nor can it exist.”[16] According to this theologian, the very concept
of catholicity authorizes a positive judgment of syncretism, since it implies
the insertion of the Church in all societies.[17] We will see in the future articles that when
Christianity comes into contact with cultures, will propose inculturation as a missionary project
and in many of these experiences the answer has been syncretism as a synthesis
of this cultural interaction and symbolic transformation.
Author: Josuel Degaaxé dos Santos
Boaventura PSDP - Fr Ndega
Theological review: ThD Fr Luis Carlos Susin
English review: EdM Mary Kung'u
[1] Capital city of
Bahia, the Brazilian Estate with the major percentage of black people.
[2] Afro-Brazilian
religion.
[3] Expressions in
Yoruba. Just the name of the Centre of Celebrations to Spirits (Orishas)
[4] Cf. AZEVEDO, M.
Op. Cit. p. a7.
[5] Cf. ZERO HORA. Op. Cit. p. 31.
[6] BARROS M. Op. cit., p. 27.
[7] SCHREITER, R. J. Op. cit., p. 71. “(...) the identity should not
be seen as a closed Aristoteles concept, but as a variety of paradoxes that
interact dynamically, without being never conciliated” (WILSON, Richard. Op. cit., p. 83).
[8] Cf. MIRANDA, M. de F. Op. cit. Access in 19 Nov 2012.
[9] Cf. SCHREITER, R. J. Op. cit.,
p. 73. Including he states that “in order to understand the contemporary
syncretism, therefore, even a brief look to the pass will make us to see that
the cultural interaction and symbolic transformation occurred always” (Ibid.,
p. 76).
[10] Cf. RUSSELL, J. C. Op. cit., p.
73.
[11] Ibid., p. 73.
[12] Cf. SCHREITER,
Robert J. Op. cit., p. 74
[13] Cf. Id. Ibid., p. 74. In the
same page the author continues, “A crescent distance between the altar and the
people (…), more attention was given to objects (cross, relics), to Mary and to
the saints; particular votive masses were introduced; the payer with the hands
grasped, the posture of a vassal before the lord, replaced the orans traditional posture.”
[14] Cf. SCHREITER, Robert J. Op.
cit., p. 74s.
[15] Cf. Ibid., p. 75.
[16] BOFF, L. Op. cit., p. 54.
[17] Cf. Ibid., p
54.
