Hamka (1908-1981) and the Integration of the Islamic Ummah of Indonesia

Islam is a unifying factor at the same time breaking in Indonesian history. Based on historical records, the conversion of Islam in Indonesia starts from kingdoms located in coastal areas. This conversion greatly benefit the kingdom, with which they can access a wider trade network which already controlled by Muslims. This conversion process can then unify the Malay traders origin, Java, and their other competitors. But with the entry of traders into the new religion beaches, hinterland connections with the merchant becomes tenuous. The situation may ultimately culminated into a dispute. In the Sumatra area, which is pretty much known example is the Padri war and the Islamization of the southern part of the Batak.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v1i3.85

Academic Study of Indonesian Islam: A Biographical Account, 1970-2014

In the humanities, including religious studies, personal factors often play a role in the selection of topic and methodology of research. This autobiographical sketch gives an overview of a long career in the study of religion in Indonesia, from the selection of the topic for doctoral research, through various jobs and academic projects until some work written in a period of retirement. The author’s background of liberal Catholicism with much interest in non-official popular religiosity, has influenced an approach in Islamic Studies and a selective attention for the boundaries between official and more popular religiosity, for literary and artistic expressions rather than for rigid doctrinal traditions. This history is told from field work to pesantren education in the early 1970s, the variety of Islamic history of Indonesia in the 1980s, until a major work in three volumes on the Catholic traditions of Indonesia in the period 1990-2010.[Dalam ilmu humaniora, termasuk studi keagamaan, faktor-faktor pribadi sering mempengaruhi pemilihan topik dan metodologi penelitian. Uraian biografis ringkas ini menggambarkan perjalanan panjang sebagai peneliti agama di Indonesia, mulai dari pemilihan topik riset disertasi, melewati beragam pekerjaan dan proyek-proyek akademik, sampai dengan beberapa karya yang ditulis sesudah pensiun. Latar belakang penulis sebagai penganut Katolik liberal dan banyak tertarik pada keberagamaan populer non-resmi, mempengaruhi pendekatan dalam pengkajian Islam dan perhatian khusus pada batas-batas antara agama resmi dan agama populer, pada ungkapan-ungkapan sastrawi dan seni daripada tradisi-tradisi doktriner yang kaku. Kisah ini berangkat dari pengalaman penelitian lapangan di lingkungan pendidikan pesantren pada tahun 1970an, kemudian serpihan-serpihan sejarah Indonesia pada tahun 1980an, sampai dengan penulisan tiga jilid buku penting tentang tradisi-tradisi Katolik Indonesia pada tahun 1990-2010.

Javanese Stories of Jesus

The Jesus-section of the Javanese Serat Anbiya starts at the end of the story of the People of the Cave, the Muslim version of the Christian legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesos, who fled persecution under Emperor Decius (249-251) and disappeared, until they were found and rose up again. In most versions of this series, this story is told after the Jesus section (in Tha'labi, Rabghuzi, Mirkhond, but not in Kisai), but here it precedes the Jesus-story.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v12i2.58

A History of Christianity in Indonesia

Indonesia is the home of the largest single Muslim community of the world. Its Christian community, about 10% of the population, has until now received no overall description in English. Through cooperation of 26 Indonesian and European scholars, Protestants and Catholics, a broad and balanced picture is given of its 24 million Christians. This book sketches the growth of Christianity during the Portuguese period (1511-1605), it presents a fair account of developments under the Dutch colonial administration (1605-1942) and is more elaborate for the period of the Indonesian Republic (since 1945). It emphasizes the regional differences in this huge country, because most Christians live outside the main island of Java. Muslim-Christian relations, as well as the tensions between foreign missionaries and local theology, receive special attention

‘NOT A RELIGIOUS STATE’ A study of three Indonesian religious leaders on the relation of state and religion

This article explores the concept of a ‘secular state’ offered by three Indonesian religious leaders: a Catholic priest, Nicolaus Driyarkara (1913–1967), and two Muslim intellectuals who were also state officials, Mukti Ali (1923–2004) and Munawir Sjadzali (1925–2004). All three, who represented the immediate generation after the revolution for Indonesian independence from the Dutch (1945), defended the legitimacy of a secular state for Indonesia based on the state ideology Pancasila (Five Principles of Indonesia). In doing so, they argued that a religious state, for example an Islamic state, is incompatible with a plural nation that has diverse cultures, faiths, and ethnicities. The three also argued that the state should remain neutral about its citizens’ faith and should not be dominated by a single religion, i.e. Islam. Instead, the state is obliged to protect all religions embraced by Indonesians. This argument becomes a vital foundation in the establishment of Indonesia’s trajectory of unique ‘secularisation’. Whilst these three intellectuals opposed the idea of establishing a religious or Islamic state in Indonesia, it was not because they envisioned the decline of the role of religion in politics and the public domain but rather that they regarded religiosity in Indonesia as vital in nation building within a multi-religious society. In particular, the two Muslim leaders used religious legitimacy to sustain the New Order’s political stability, and harnessed state authority to modernise the Indonesian Islamic community