Dear CRCS & ICRS students, faculty and guests We kindly invite you to participate in the CRCS & ICRS Wednesday Forum of this week. Wednesday forum will have M. Endy Saputro, M. A. as the speaker who will talk about “Tayub in Madura: from Ritual Economy to Symbolic Power”. Some information about this forum can be read as follows.

Date: Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Time: 12.30 pm – 2.30 pm (free lunch)
Venue: Room 306, UGM Graduate School Teknika Utara, Pogung
Speaker: M. Endy Saputro, M. A.

Dear CRCS & ICRS students, faculty and guests We kindly invite you to participate in the CRCS & ICRS Wednesday Forum of this week. Wednesday forum will have Prof. Dr. Frans Wijsen as the speaker. Some information about this forum can be read as follows.

Date: Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Time: 12.30 pm – 2.30 pm
Venue: Room 306, UGM Graduate School Teknika Utara, Pogung
Speaker: Prof. Dr. FRANS WIJSEN

Abstract:

For the past few decades there has been dissatisfaction among religious scholars with objectivist definitions of religion and positivist methods of studying religion. However, alternative theories and methods of religious studies are not yet standardised. The application of Critical Discourse Analysis for the scholarly study of religion and inter-religious relations is a way among others to look for that alternative method. This presentation will explore an ongoing comparative research in Tanzania, Indonesia and the Netherlands. The main inquiry of this research is how does religious language represents and constitutes religious identities and by doing so to generate convergence or divergence among religious communities.

Prof. Gary D. Bouma and Prof. Greg Barton visited the Center for Religious & Cross-Cultural Studies on October 2, 2009. Prof. Bouma is a conferred Professor Emeritus of Monash University in Australia and an author of the books such as ‘Democracy in Islam’ (2007, with Sayed Khatab) and ‘Religious Diversity in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands’ (2009), while Prof. Barton is an Indonesianist and a famous author of ‘Gus Dur: the Authorized Biography of Abdurrahman Wahid’ (2003) and ‘Indonesia’s Struggle: Jemaah Islamiyah and Radical Islamism’ (2004).

The speaker during the Wednesday forum on October 14, 2009 was Ms. Melanie Nyhof, a doctoral candidate from Pittsburgh University, and the moderator was Roy Alan Brango Tolentino, an ICRS-Yogya student. Ms. Nyhof presented her paper entitled “Allah’s shape is like the sky: Children’s Understanding of God)

In the discussion, she examined the foundation of religious and supernatural concepts which should not be taken for granted; it must be organized in cognition. The focus of Ms. Nyhof’s research was on Indonesian children’s development in examining the concept of God; children with Moslem and Catholic background. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, she accounted and narrated the concept of God according to Indonesian children based on age, psychology, culture and religion. Ms. Nyhof stated that most researches related to children’s development on the concept of God are based on Christianity.

The opening Wednesday Forum which was attended by about 30 participants for this semester held on September 9, 2009 was marked with a presentation entitled “Evolution and Creation in the Muslim World: Ambiguities in the Moslem World”? delivered by Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir who is the director of CRCS.

The main argument presented by Dr. Bagir was the Theory of Evolution that has not been considered important in the world’s religious agenda, and the opposition to Darwin’s Theory which emphasizes on the issue of Creation in the holy book, either Qur’an or Bible. Dr. Bagir also argued that the interpretation of other anti-evolutionism is also part of the politics of identity now. Anti-evolutionism movement is spreading in many countries and in many religious communities, such as Hindus, Jews and Christians all over the world like in Latin America, Northern Europe, Australia, even in Asia such as Asian Indian, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.

Christians must relate to non-Christians with love and respect, engage in a humbler dialogue, and recognize the truth and holiness imparted by the Holy Spirit to all religions. This was one of the viewpoints mentioned by Mega Hidayati during the Wednesday Forum held on June 3, 2009. The title of her presentation was “A Muslim View of Inter-Christian Dialogue.”

Based on her experience doing sandwich program at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, Mega saw that in Christianity there are many different views. For instance, in the evangelical debate, there are two dominant and different views which are exclusivism and inclusivism. She said that the exclusivists position Jesus Christ more as above all beliefs, while the inclusivists, including pluralists, deny the unique divinity or authority above everything.