Adapting Language and Examples for Cultural Sensitivity
Christian teaching on communication has always recognized that effective proclamation requires attention to the hearer's capacity and context. Scripture itself models this principle: Proverbs observes that moderating emotions and suiting them to the context helps others listen without reacting [1]. The goal is not merely to speak truth, but to speak it in ways that can be received.
The Incarnational Pattern
The theological foundation for cultural sensitivity in communication lies in the incarnation itself. Hebrews 4:15 emphasizes that Christ, though exalted, "sympathizes with us in every temptation" because He shares our nature fully, sin excepted [2]. This divine condescension—God taking on human flesh and speaking in human language—establishes the pattern: truth must be clothed in forms accessible to the audience. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, not as an abstract proposition but as one who entered a particular culture, spoke Aramaic, and used agricultural metaphors familiar to first-century Palestine.
Patristic Practice
Augustine explicitly addressed the challenge of adapting instruction to different audiences. When catechizing those with liberal education, he notes they often arrive with considerable knowledge of Scripture already [7]. The instructor must adjust accordingly, neither patronizing the educated nor overwhelming the unlearned. Augustine acknowledges that a discourse may seem "poor and wearisome" to the speaker yet prove effective for the hearer [8]—a reminder that our self-assessment of cultural appropriateness may differ from actual reception.
Language barriers require particular attention. Augustine insists that Latin speakers need Greek and Hebrew to resolve ambiguities in translation [6], and that unknown words or idioms must be investigated through those who speak the relevant tongues [5]. Knowledge of both language and cultural context proves essential for understanding figurative expressions [9]. The pool of Siloam, for instance, carries significance only when one knows the historical and linguistic setting.
Scholastic Refinement
Aquinas's analysis of how angels affect human senses [3] and his distinction between the irascible and concupiscible appetites [4] reflect a sophisticated understanding that communication must account for how humans actually perceive and process information. Different faculties require different approaches; what moves the will differs from what satisfies the intellect.
The principle extends beyond mere translation to the selection of examples, metaphors, and rhetorical strategies that resonate within a given cultural framework without distorting the substance of Christian truth.
Sources
- Proverbs (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Proverbs 15:1: 15:1 Moderating emotions and suiting them to the context helps others listen to what we say without reacting.”
- Hebrews (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Hebrews 4:15: For--the motive to "holding our profession" (Heb 4:14), namely the sympathy and help we may expect from our High Priest. Though "great" (Heb 4:14), He is not above caring for us; nay, as being in all points one with us as to manhood, sin only excepted, He sympathizes with us in every temptation. Though exalted to the highest heavens, He has changed His place, not His nature and office in relation to us, His condition, but not His affection. Compare Mat 26:38, "watch with me": showing His desire in the days of His flesh for the sympathy of those whom H”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part (Prima Pars), The Action of the Angels on Man, Art. 4: Article: Whether an angel can change the human senses? I answer that, The senses may be changed in a twofold manner; from without, as when affected by the sensible object: and from within, for we see that the senses are changed when the spirits and humors are disturbed; as for example, a sick man's tongue, charged with choleric humor, tastes everything as bitter, and the like with the other senses. Now an angel, by his natural power, can work a change in the senses both ways. For an angel can offer the”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part (Prima Pars), Of the Power of Sensuality, Art. 2: Article: Whether the sensitive appetite is divided into the irascible and concupiscible as distinct powers? I answer that, The sensitive appetite is one generic power, and is called sensuality; but it is divided into two powers, which are species of the sensitive appetite---the irascible and the concupiscible. In order to make this clear, we must observe that in natural corruptible things there is needed an inclination not only to the acquisition of what is suitable and to the avoiding of what is harmful, b”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 14.--HOW THE MEANING OF UNKNOWN WORDS AND IDIOMS IS TO BE DISCOVERED.: 21. About ambiguous signs, however, I shall speak afterwards. I am treating at present of unknown signs, of which, as far as the words are concerned, there are two kinds, For either a word or an idiom, of which the reader is ignorant, brings him to a stop. Now if these belong to foreign tongues, we must either make inquiry about them from men who speak those tongues, or if we have leisure we must learn the tongues ourselves, or we must consult and compare seve”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 11.--KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES, ESPECIALLY OF GREEK AND HEBREW, NECESSARY TO REMOVE IGNORANCE or SIGNS.: 16. The great remedy for ignorance of proper signs is knowledge of languages. And men who speak the Latin tongue, of whom 540 are those I have undertaken to instruct, need two other languages for the knowledge of Scripture, Hebrew and Greek, that they may have recourse to the original texts if the endless diversity of the Latin translators throw them into doubt. Although, indeed, we often find Hebrew words untranslated in the boo”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — CHAP. 8.--OF THE METHOD TO BE PURSUED IN CATECHISING THOSE WHO HAVE HAD A LIBERAL EDUCATION. (part 1): 12. But there is another case which evidently must not be overlooked. I mean the case of one coming to you to receive catchetical instruction who has cultivated the field of liberal studies, who has already made up his mind to be a Christian, and who has betaken himself to you for the express purpose of becoming one. It can scarcely fail to be the fact that a person of this character has already acquired a considerable knowledge of our Scriptures”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — CHAP. 2.--HOW IT OFTEN HAPPENS THAT A DISCOURSE WHICH GIVES PLEASURE TO THE HEARER IS DISTASTEFUL TO THE SPEAKER; AND WHAT EXPLANATION IS TO BE OFFERED OF THAT FACT. (part 1): 3. But as regards the idea thus privately entertained by yourself in such efforts, I 284 would not have you to be disturbed by the consideration that you have often appeared to yourself to be delivering a poor and wearisome discourse. For it may very well be the case that the matter has not so presented itself to the person whom you were trying to instruct, but that what you”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 16.--THE KNOWLEDGE BOTH OF LANGUAGE AND THINGS IS HELPFUL FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS. (part 1): 23. In the case of figurative signs, again, if ignorance of any of them should chance to bring the reader to a stand-still, their meaning is to be traced partly by the knowledge of languages, partly by the knowledge of things. The pool of Siloam, for example, where the man whose eyes our Lord had anointed with clay made out of spittle was commanded to wash, has a figurative significance, and undoubtedly conveys a s”