That so often, through the centuries, Christianity has not lived up to this function is not, I don’t think, an indictment of it, but of those of its adherents who, through obstinacy or overconfidence, and, perhaps, too much of an emphasis on the trappings or externalities of the religion, have not only been careless with much of what is extant in the cultures of those regions to which they have journeyed, or made themselves present, but perhaps have also hindered the flourishing of the faith, by associating it with the disagreeableness of their own habits or tendencies. For Christianity itself is not a culture, but, in its inception in society, a scaffolding upon which all that is most beautiful and natural in a particular culture can be installed, and allowed to shine, and find its highest purpose, provided that the people to whom such a culture belongs see it that way (of their own volition, and nobody else’s) once the faith has been communicated to them.