Several Catholics and some Jesus Youth families too, go for Bharatnatyam classes. This dance form is actually a worship and veneration to idols. What is the teaching on this?

Bharatanatyam, we know well, is an Indian art form. Most of the art forms in India as well as in all ancient cultures grew up in connection with places of worship. As a result, in all old cultures most cultural activities and objects will be connected with their old forms of religion and worship.

How should we approach these cultural elements that are connected with other faiths? I can think of three very different attitudes and approaches.

One approach is to avoid everything that one considers to be ‘cultural pollution’, like Indian art, music, dance, medicine, etc. thinking that they are closely linked to Hindu culture and way of life. So, avoid all that.

A second path (that we often fear) is that we follow these non-Christian cultural elements and become followers of the religion connected with it, gradually giving up being a disciple of Christ. This has happened with some people, who start with an art form, yoga, Ayurveda, or vegetarianism and end up forsaking Christianity. (There are many such cases in the West)

A third approach is to understand the difference between cultural aspects and faith life and while we may relish or learn Indian cultural elements, understand the difference, let it not interfere with our faith, but rather renew the culture with true Christian understanding. This third path, for a committed Christian, is the challenge of Christian witnessing which is ‘renewing cultures in Christ’.

It is good that we understand how in our land, India and in many other cultures, they approached life, art and learning. As was already mentioned, Hindus developed Indian classical dance forms as part of worship. But not only dances, almost all aspects of daily life, for a devout Hindu, is interpreted in a religious way. For example, we know, Indian medicine is understood to be guided by a god or learning a skill or language and so on are part of religious exercise. Our challenge is to see all this in the new light  of Christ (2 Cor 5: 16,17) and ‘renew cultures in Christ’.

‘Renewal of culture in Christ’ is, first of all, understanding the autonomy between culture and faith; then looking at cultural elements in the new light and without diminishing my faith taking some of the cultural elements and integrating it into my life and faith practice. Why is it important? Because, though I can pray and live as done in another culture, if I can pray in local sounds and live as it is done in my own culture, I will be a little more natural and authentic.

This ‘renewing culture in Christ’ is what happened in India when the Church allowed ‘thali’ (leaf-shaped gold pendant with a cross) in marriage, Indian lamp in churches, Indian flowers, permitted Church festivals to be very much like temple festivals, made Chavittu Natakam in Indian style with Christian themes and did so many things uniquely local way.

What does the Catholic Church say about culture? Vatican II Document on ‘The Church in the Modern world’ speaks at length about how the Church views culture. In incarnation, Jesus the ‘Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14) in a specific culture, but Good News has to reach all nations and cultures and take flesh and blood there. That is why it is important that faith has to reach a culture and renew it. The document concludes the discussion acknowledging the autonomy of cultural matters:

59. “This Sacred Synod, therefore, recalling the teaching of the first Vatican Council, declares that there are ‘two orders of knowledge’ which are distinct, namely faith and reason; and that the Church does not forbid that ‘the human arts and disciplines use their own principles and their proper method, each in its own domain’; therefore ‘acknowledging this just liberty,’ this Sacred Synod affirms the legitimate autonomy of human culture and especially of the sciences.”

In conclusion,

For a Christian, a dance form is only a cultural expression (even when others may interpret it differently) and if you can learn it as a dance it is very good. But if anyone has an apprehension that it will lead you away from loving the Lord and following Him surely keep away from it.