The title of the article, formulated by the Editors, requires a few clarifcations of terms. Both phenomena – Christianity and the African culture – are de facto plural and have to be regarded and treated as such. The title also juxtaposes a term that describes a religious reality with a cultural one (this also touches on the understanding of the relation between religion and culture). This can only be done on the assumption that “Christianity” means “a culture permeated by the Gospel message”.

The author argues that Christians have never presented a unifed attitude towards the African culture. As in the Christian antiquity, as in later times (including the present) Christians showed ambivalent attitudes towards the African culture. Some strongly opposed it, some allowed a restricted borrowing, some engaged actively with the African culture. One cannot see these attitudes in terms of development or regress because they have been synchronically present at all times. The attitudes towards African culture also changed at times within the particular strands of Christianity. What was rejected of hardly acceptable at one time becomes the order of the day at other. However, these attitudes have not been synchronized in all christian churches and communities.

After stating the article’s argument and making the terminological reservations, the author substantiate the argument presenting three types of interaction between Christianity and African culture giving examples from different times and regions.

The aim of this article is to present the relation between Christianity and Japanese culture. The problem here is not the concept of Christianity, but the concept of Japanese culture. In the Japanese thought is hard to distinguish between religion and philosophy. Philosophy, religion and culture are synonyms for “philosophy of life”. The original Japanese philosophy is Shinto and received from China Confucianism, and Buddhism. In the case of Christianity we have to consider Catholic Church and Orthodox Church. Special attention we have to pay to the process of inculturation of the Good news in the Japanese soil.

The purpose of the article is to systematize the main issues related to the encounter of Christianity with Latin American cultures. The study is based on both Latin American theological publications and various documents of the Roman Catholic Church. In the first part the problem of Christianity’s encounter with cultures of this region from historic perspective is discussed by pointing out to its negative, ambiguous and positive aspects. The second part is devoted to classification of culture circles, significant from the point of view of evangelization and inculturation (cultures of urban agglomeration, rural regions, Indian and Afro-Latin American cultures, poverty, elites, cyber culture and popular culture). In the final section we paid attention to the issue of up-coming culture and its trends (modernism and postmodernism, secularism, socio-political ideologies, the role of mass media, the tensions between globalization process and appreciation of local traditions).

Celem artykułu jest ukazanie inkulturacji wiary i religijności ludowej jako kontekstu, w którym kształtowała się duchowość maryjna i mariologia papieża Franciszka. Inkulturacja wiary rozpoczęła się w Ameryce Południowej od momentu objawienia się Maryi w Guadalupe w 1531 r., jednak refleksja teologiczna nad znaczeniem ewangelizacji kultury i pobożności ludowej rozwinęła się na tamtym kontynencie dopiero po Soborze Watykańskim II. Kamieniami milowymi na drodze jej rozkwitu są dwie Konferencje CELAM – w Puebli w roku 1979 r. i w Aparecidzie w roku 2007 – oraz powstanie argentyńskiej teologii ludu w latach 70. XX w. Papież Franciszek w programowej adhortacji apostolskiej Evangelii gaudium podkreślił miejsce Maryi w pobożności ludowej i Jej rolę w głoszeniu Ewangelii.

Pluralism and multiculturalism are new terms in biblical studies . Pluralism used in social sciences means a conditio of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious or social groups maintain their unique cultural identities. Multicultu-ralism focuses on interactions between different groups and communities within the confines of a common society. This paper aims at analysing the practice and models of pluralism in the Bible and the evaluation of pluralism in the biblical context (from separatism in the Abraham days until the multicultural Christian community in the first century). Christianity existed as a pluralistic community from the beginning. Paul the Apostle presents the Church as the body of Christ and interactions within the Chri-stian community consisting of Jews and Gentiles are illustrated by relations between members of the body. The mission of the Church is based on various models of incul-turation (contextualisation). All of these models intersect with one another in different ways. Pluralism in the biblical studies manifests itself also in the use of different Bible translation strategies and various methods of biblical exegesis and interpretation.