«Public Religion» and the Pancasila-Based State of Indonesia: An Ethical and Sociological Analysis analyzes the public role of religion in Indonesian society from the pre-independence period to the end of Suharto's New Order government. It offers constructive suggestions regarding how Indonesian religion can play a significant role within the framework of Pancasila, Indonesia's national ideology. Based on a Christian-Muslim dialogue, it is only within the realm of civil society that Indonesian religion will be able to promote the ideas of democracy, tolerance, and human rights in Indonesian public affairs. In short, far from being anti-pluralist, Indonesian religion evolves as a liberating force in the life of society, nation, and state.

"This book is about how cultures and societies on Java over the past century have been perceived and socially constructed by scholars inside and outside of Indonesia. It is a reflective book; how, on the one hand, academic theories have shaped our view of Java and, on the other hand, how the study of Java has influenced theoretical developments within a number of disciplines, including anthropology, development studies, religious studies, political science, gender studies, and the arts."--BOOK JACKET.

Politics in Indonesia describes the attitudes, aspirations and frustrations of the key players in Indonesian politics as they struggle to shape the future. The book focuses on the role of political Islam; Douglas E. Ramage shows that the state has been remarkably successful in maintaining secular political institutions in a predominantly Muslim society. He analyses the way in which political questions are framed with reference to the national ideology, the Pancasila.

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.

The following book Social Justice: A Sketch of the West and Islamic World Experiences contains a collection of articles that may be read individually, each concerned with the same issues of social justice. The writers in this book originate from the Western and Islamic World’s countries. All have agreed to explore and contribute to understanding social justice in each pertinent countries’ experiences. The problems being addressed are either descriptive or valuational and, in most cases, are the combination of both. All articles presented in this collection are mainly a reexamination of social justice ideals from the authors’ viewpoints and experiences and how the ideals may be applicable and considered relevant to a particular problem faced by the respective countries. As its generic meaning is commonly recognized, all authors see that social justice is the most fundamental virtue, crucially providential, to be the basis of interpersonal relations ordering and establishing and maintaining a stable political society. While the nature, origin, and legitimate application of social justice are a thing that may be debatable, all authors in this book concur with the notion that there is a need to struggle for a just society. This idea may be best developed to respect persons as free, rational agents without ignoring the particularities of its communities’ challenges, characters, and identities.

This book is a succinct and critical account on the shariatisation of Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. It comes with an important conclusion that the change of such a non-theocratic state like Indonesia into a theocratic state is highly possible when its law is penetrated by those who want to change the state system.

Placing theories of ethnicity and religious pluralism in relation to theories of the state, Rita Smith Kipp in Dissociated Identities situates a particular Indonesian people, the Karo, in the modern world. What the state's policies on culture and religion mean to Karo women and men, who now live in cities throughout Indonesia as well as in their Sumatran homeland, becomes clear only by looking at the way Karo families and communities contend with religious pluralism, with the pull of tradition working against the wish to be "modern" and with the new wealth differences in their midst. Newly discrete facets of Karo selfhood - ethnic, religious, and economic - replicate in microcosm the political tensions of the nation-state, revealing both why the New Order has enjoyed great stability over almost three decades and the sources of disruption that may lie ahead.

As the boundaries between cultures and religions blur in an increasingly globalized world, the church finds itself in need of new approaches to understanding and embracing otherness – both inside and outside of its established communities. Southeast Asia has long been one of the world’s most diverse regions, with over a hundred ethnicities represented and members of every major religion living as neighbors. In this rich and complex environment, the church has an equally rich and complex history, at times flourishing, at times floundering, but inexorably taking root. In this collection of essays, contributors from throughout the region reflect on the history and future of Christianity in Southeast Asia, providing an overview of missions in the region, and exploring how local churches are defining a uniquely Southeast Asian approach to interreligious engagement. Combining missiological research with contextual theology, this volume offers profound insight into the challenges accompanying missions in a multireligious environment. From ethnic and religious conflict resolution to navigating hybrid identities, this collection of essays makes an excellent contribution to global conversations surrounding the future of missions in a globalized world.