Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Ancestor worship has been a vexing issue for Christian missionaries since the 16 th century in Vietnam due to Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Communist influences.However, there are few studies from the Protestant perspective on the ancestor cult.This thesis hopes to contribute to the mission work by analyzing the ancestor cult in light of Paul's First Corinthians 8--10, namely how Christian freedom informed participants regarding worshiping idols and consuming food sacrificed to idols.The analysis includes delineating the complexity of Vietnamese religious pluralism and tracing the similarities and differences between the Christian cult of the saints and the ancestor cult.This thesis challenges the traditional perspective that the ancestor cult in Vietnam is religious and superstitious; rather, the ancestor cult is cultural in every aspect.A successful inculturation of the Gospel must separate the ancestor cult from the religious components of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and popular folk religion.vii 1 There have been some articles, books, and theses published by Roman Catholic scholars and missionaries, i.e., Peter C. Phan in America;
Author: Daniel Xuan-Vu Nguyen
Institution: Trinity Lutheran Seminary
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2605149141