Dr. John C. Raines (JCR) is a professor of religion at Department of Religion of Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. He is one of the founding fathers of the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies or CRCS in Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta. This center become the first postgraduate program on religious studies in a non religiously-affiliated university in Indonesia. In his visit to Yogyakarta, CRCS team (Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir, Najiyah Martiam, and Jimmy Immanuel), had a chance to interview him about the background of CRCS and its missions, and his views on Religions and Religious Studies.
CRCS: Why did you come to Indonesia at the first time? What did interest you?
JCR : It’s because of a man named Alwi Sihab who did his second Ph.D at Temple University working with Mahmoud Ayoub, my colleague, the professor of Islamic
Studies at the Department of Religion, Temple University. Alwi was impressed with the way our department of religion at Temple studying religion; we do not study religions as doctrines, we study religions descriptively, we do not prefer one religion against another, and we do not try to compare and contrast religions. We try to understand religions, their historical and cultural development, through which they’ve passed, how they’ve changed through time, and so on. All of religions are being treated with equal respect. Alwi Sihab liked the idea. Actually he liked the idea especially after of May 1998 in Jakarta. You remember that when there was a terrible riot, the economy had had gone broken in the fall of 1997. I was in Jakarta actually in July 1997 for conference.
The dollar in July 1997 was traded one dollar for 2.300 rupiahs. Four months later in December one dollar for 14.000 rupiahs, which means disrupted every bank, disrupted every major corporation, a lot. The economy except the informal economy of the country was basically shut down. And in May before Suharto was forced out there were terrible riots in Jakarta, and basically why were poor victims of the financial meltdown, who were Moslems, taking their anger to Chinese who were also the victims of the melt down. It was victims making victims of other victims. The wealthy Chinese got out from the town a long time before they took their money. They were gone to Singapore. It was behind of the all, and it was very tragic. I think Alwi looked that and said that it could be the end of the Indonesian Republic that we must address religious differences, not as a problem but as a potential. Not as something is going to cause people fight each other but rather is going to cause people to be curious about each other and drawn each other and working together.
Two years later I, through the Fulbright, came to Jakarta and he (Alwi) was a Foreign Minister, and had very close associate to President. He had approached me two years before, when he still lived in United States, with the idea, when he got back to Indonesia, of doing something in Indonesia like studying religion the way we study religion at Temple. But when he got back here he found himself in position with a great power, Foreign Minister, close advisor of the President.
When I arrived in January 2000, he and I started working together, putting together in proposal for the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Religious Affair, both of them to found the master degree. The style of study would be as it was in Temple; it would be not doctrinaire, it would be descriptive, and all religions would be treated equally. So, if you want to study Islam and you are a Christian you will be studying Islam with a Moslem teacher. If you are Moslem and want to study Christianity you will be studying Christianity with Christian teacher. With that kind of understanding, you would study religion not with a scholar of your own faith community but with a scholar of faith community of the religion you want to study. At first Alwi’s idea was to have it (the program) situated at the University of Indonesia, but the Minister of National Education and the Minister of Religious Affair, they were both Muhammadiyah, and of course Alwi was Nahdatul Ulama….. so, negotiation took place, hahaha… Thank goodness and in circumstance, you know, they decided to bring CRCS to UGM, to Yogyakarta, because it is so much cheaper. It is so much easier to get around of this city, and this city has a long history of multiple-ethnic encounters. Differences meet side by side peacefully.
CRCS: Is there any direct role of Gus Dur as the President at that time?
JCR : I don’t know of any direct intervention by Gus Dur. I know that Alwi Sihab was in constant touch with Minister of National Education, Yahya Muhaimin, who was critical. He was very much in favor with this. He was a very fine gentleman. And the Minister of Religious Affair, his name, I do not remember, was equally in favor of it. This is very important, between the three Ministries: Foreign Affair, National Education, and Religious Affair. The budget they put together.
Religious Studies in USA
CRCS: Before we go further, perhaps it is important for us to know the history of religious studies in the US especially at the Temple University, and the way of studying religion at CRCS you wanted to develop.
Pos oleh :
CRCS-ICRS Wednesday Forum
Indonesian And Western Social Imaginaries
September 12, 2012 (12:30 – 14:30pm)
Venue: ROOM 306, UGM Graduate School Building 3rd floor.
Abstract
Western social theory is frequently based on a paradigm of development from traditional societies to modernity. This paper argues that there is not one “modernity” but rather multiple modernities. Linear “progress” is part of a Western social imagination of development from simple, irrational, religious, traditional societies to complex, rational modern societies ruled by science. The paper suggests that how Indonesians imagine social reality is different from how people in the West imagine society. However not all Indonesians imagine the same social reality. Using Weberian ideal types, the paper suggests that part of the diversity in Indonesian society stems from competing social imaginaries, not just between “East” and “West”, but between different combinations of practices, stories, hopes, beliefs and imaginations which come from many different sources.
CRCS-ICRS Wednesday Forum
Indonesian And Western Social Imaginaries
September 12, 2012 (12:30 – 14:30pm)
Venue: ROOM 306, UGM Graduate School Building 3rd floor.
Abstract
Western social theory is frequently based on a paradigm of development from traditional societies to modernity. This paper argues that there is not one “modernity” but rather multiple modernities. Linear “progress” is part of a Western social imagination of development from simple, irrational, religious, traditional societies to complex, rational modern societies ruled by science. The paper suggests that how Indonesians imagine social reality is different from how people in the West imagine society. However not all Indonesians imagine the same social reality. Using Weberian ideal types, the paper suggests that part of the diversity in Indonesian society stems from competing social imaginaries, not just between “East” and “West”, but between different combinations of practices, stories, hopes, beliefs and imaginations which come from many different sources.
Sejak awal berdirinya Program Studi Agama dan Lintas Budaya atau Centre for Religious & Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) di Universitas Gadjah Mada tahun 2000, Prof. Dr. Achmad Mursydi menjabat sebagai Direktur CRCS hingga tahun 2009. Ia merupakan saksi sejarah berdirinya program studi agama disebuah universitas yang tidak berafiliasi pada agama tertentu. Bagaimana latar belakang berdirinya CRCS, model pembelajaran seperti apa yang coba dikembangkan di CRCRS, serta harapan dan kenangan yang dimiliki selama di CRCS, berikut petikan wawancara Angie Wuysang dari CRCS dengan Prof. Dr. Achmad Mursyidi, M.Sc.
Bret Lewis, Ph.D, Arizona State University
Henry Luce Foundation Exchange Student 2010
Abstract.
Established in 2000–2001, the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) is the only master’s level religious studies program at a non-religiously affiliated university in Indonesia. In many respects, the program is experimental, operating within the dynamic political and religious environment of the Muslim world’s youngest and largest democracy. Like other large democracies such as India or the United States, the Indonesian government and courts have their challenges and opportunities in navigating a multiplicity of religions. In Indonesia, this took on particular urgency in the context of religiously-charged conflict in the 1990’s and early 2000’s which helped lead to the establishment of the CRCS. This paper seeks to explore how students and key faculty relate to the program’s mission and approach to the study of religion while tracing the development of religious studies as a discipline in Indonesia. Special attention is paid to the political and, at times, controversial aspects of approaching religion with secular and pluralistic frameworks and language. It was informed by interviews and surveys conducted between January and May of 2010.
Inter-Religious Studies (ICRS) and
Religious & Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCS)
Of Graduate School, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
For Weekly Discussion Forum
(CRCS-ICRS WEDFORUM)
11th Series, September 12 – December 12, 2012
ABOUT THE WEDFORUM
Wedforum is aimed to encourage students, faculty, visiting scholars, and researchers especially in CRCS & ICRS to share their researches and develop an ongoing discourse related to their various academic fields, such as the comparative study of religion, cultural and historical studies of religion, interfaith dialogue, gender, pop?culture, hermeneutics, peace building, and other related topics. The twelfth Series of the CRCS?ICRS WedForum will start on September 12, 2012. We invite all CRCS & ICRS faculty, students, and researchers to request a date to present her/his work at the WedForum. Presentations may include published articles, course papers, working papers, research findings, dissertation proposals, theses, etc.
