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Christianity from the Margins in Southeast Asia
Kritika Kultura, 2015
The relationship between nationalism and religion is very complicated. In the context of colonialism, Christianity has surely been perceived as a foreign religion that poses a menace to native nationalism. This essay presents a different picture, taking the case of colonial Java (the Netherlands East Indies) to illustrate the complex historical relationship between Catholicism and Indonesian nationalism. Perhaps it is rather ironic that it was chiefly through their connection with the Dutch Church and their mission enterprise that the Javanese Catholic intelligentsia were made deeply aware of their own dignity as a particular people and the limitations of European colonialism. In this case, Catholic Christianity as a world religion with supranational connection and identity has been able to help the birth of an intense nationalism that was prevented from being too narrow, chauvinistic, or simply "racialist, " precisely because it is connected with its larger ecumenism or network. More specifically, this ecumenism is also founded on the idea of "catholicity, " that is, universalism, that lies at the heart of Catholic Christianity. In the post-colonial Indonesia, however, this Catholic view needs to be translated into common platforms with the views and concerns of Indonesian Muslims, who face the same new challenges as they play their role in the formation of an authentic Indonesian nationalism.
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies
Despite the fact that the introduction of Christianity in Indonesia coincides with the arrival of Portugal and Dutch Colonialism in the 16th–19th centuries, Christianity in Indonesia could not be claimed as a colonised religion. This study emphasises the importance of Christianity as an integral part of the history of Indonesian nation-building. It also has significance and relevance for Christianity, and how people of different religions should live together in Indonesia. Using historical theology analysis, we argue that being Christian in Indonesia has theological meaning as God’s work in Jesus Christ. God that has called and sent Christians to Indonesia has bestowed independence on the country, as a nation that accepts and recognises all people in their plural existences. At the end of the research, the authors emphasise that by understanding the independence of Indonesia as God’s gift, Christians are to make Indonesia a theatre for glorifying God. They should do it by dedicating...
The Dutch scholar Karel Steenbrink, Professor Emeritus of Intercultural Theology at Utrecht University, published three volumes on Catholics in Indonesia. A documented history. The first volume appeared in 2003 and treats the period from 1808 to 1903. The second volume of K. Steenbrink was written with the cooperation of his wife Paule Maas, and is entitled Catholics in Indonesia, 1808-1942, Volume 2, The spectacular growth of a self-confident minority, 1903-1942: a documented history. In 2015 Steenbrink came out with his third volume with the significant title Catholics in Independent Indonesia: 1945-2010.Karel Steenbrink’s effort to write the first comprehensive history of the Catholic Church in Indonesia in three volumes, based on years of intensive research, deserves high recognition and praise. His publications are not only a great service to the Catholic Church in Indonesia, but also the whole of Indonesian society and for the history of Christianity in Asia.
Karel A. Steenbrink. Catholics in Independent Indonesia: 1945–2010
2020
What makes the third volume so different is that it deals with the Catholics in Independent Indonesia. The previous two volumes dealt with the revival of the Catholic presence in the 19th century and the growth of Catholicism in the 20th century up to the end of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia.
This volume, edited by two French scholars associated with the École Français d'Etrême Orient (EFEO) in Indonesia, adds some much needed detail to the grand narrative of religion in this largest Muslim nation-state of the world. Most of the relevant accounts so far have been dominated by speculations over the history of the Islamization process, the role of Islam in resisting colonialism and in post-independence state-building, and present-day challenges of the country's religious pluralism. The present work provides a number of case studies from Java and Bali arguing, that even in this age of the globalized practice of religion, the local performance of ritual and localized manifestations of religious practice still matter deeply. Subscribing to the thesis that religion is always "mediatized by the state and its religious politics" (p. xi), the editors detail the complexity of Indonesia's religious situation; in the introduction, editor Michel Picard problematizes the use of the Sanskrit-derived term agama as the equivalent of "religion." Criticizing the Eurocentric normative character of the term, he also contends that it lacks descriptive and analytical accuracy, as the term is typically reserved exclusively for scriptural religions with universalist pretences (i.e. Christianity and Islam) and excludes Indonesia's many indigenous belief systems (kepercayaan). Specifically, Picard claims that the use of the term agama disregards the significance and resilience of indigenous systems of belief and the ways in which such systems have influenced the practices of Christianity and Islam in Indonesia, namely by creating unique, local forms of these "world religions." For example, says Picard, the enduring indigenous beliefs of Javanism (kejawen), when incorporated into the practice of Islam, create a religious performance referred to as kebatinan, a local form of Islam that the term agama fails to capture. Other forms of co-mingled religious practices similarly influenced by indigenous beliefs emerged in the 1970s under the names kejiwaan and kerohanian. From the 1980s onward, however, these local manifestations of religion have been challenged as less than "authentic" Islam by traditionalist , modernist-and increasingly Islamist-Muslims. Even these recent developments continue to reflect the-in the eyes of the editors-felicity of the term 'mystical synthesis,' introduced by the leading expert on Javanese history, Merle Ricklefs. Whereas Javanism felt the squeeze of both state authority and (self-proclaimed) Islamic orthodoxy in both colonial and post-colonial times, the Balinese fared only slightly better as they managed to receive recognition for their religious practices as agama. The first part of the volume is dedicated to Java and opens with co-editor Rémy Madinier's discussion of the spread of Christianity in the early twentieth century. The narrative revolves around the Jesuit missionary Franciscus van Lith, a staunch advocate of the adaptation of Catholicism to the cultural settings of Java. Van Lith favored an emphasis on Christianity's "animist-Hindu-Buddhist (that is, non-Islamic) dimension" (p. 32). Stressing continuities between religious practices rather than differences, this strategy enabled van Lith to bridge the Kristen Londo and Kristen Jowo varieties of Javanese Christianity. Opposed to swift baptism of the indigenous population, he focused instead on education and, in particular, the training of a new Catholic elite. In spite of the Church's suspicions of van Lith's "flexible spiritual identity" (p. 43), his approach proved to be highly successful, contributing in no small measure to the saint-like standing he still enjoys among Indonesia's Catholic minority, which attributes its disproportionately large political influence largely to van Lith. The merging of Islam with local religious practice has not been quite as seamless. Andrée Feillard's "The constrained place of local tradition" examines the discourse of the
Between evangelism and multiculturalism: The dynamics of Protestant Christianity in Indonesia
Social Compass, 2013
Christianity has experienced rapid growth in Indonesia, particularly the Evangelical and Pentecostal/Charismatic movements, which find fertile ground among the urban middle class. This phenomenon has given rise to fears of Christianisation among the Muslim majority, who perceive the Christian growth as a moral threat. Tensions between Christians and Muslims have been part and parcel of religious developments in Indonesia. The author addresses the ways in which Protestant churches in Indonesia negotiate between evangelism (to fulfil the 'Great Commission') on the one hand, and multiculturalism (peaceful coexistence with difference) on the other. The article will examine how Christians in Indonesia navigate through the multicultural environment of otherness, and how they negotiate plurality within Christianity. By highlighting the diversity and dynamics within Christianity, this article provides a new perspective on Indonesian Christians, beyond the popular Muslim perception of Christians as a monolithic and homogeneous group. Résumé En Indonésie, le christianisme connaît une expansion rapide en raison notamment de mouvements évangéliques pentecôtistes et charismatiques qui trouvent auprès des classes moyennes urbanisées un terrain particulièrement fertile. Ce phénomène nourrit beaucoup d'appréhension de la part d'une majorité musulmane qui perçoit une menace sur le plan moral. Les tensions entre chrétiens et musulmans sont partie intégrante