I Made Arsana | CRCS

“As Balinese, we have many responsibilities. We have traditions. We have to hold rituals. We have to make offerings. But it’s only if we have money that these responsibilities become easy to bear.” – A 50-year-old Balinese man from the village of Tampaksiring

Few visitors to Bali fail to witness the colorful religious rituals for which the island is famous. Cremation ceremonies and temple anniversaries have become tourist attractions and postcard images. Tickets are sold to the “last ceremony of its kind” and the “biggest ritual of the decade.” Even those tourists who come not for the culture but for the sun, sea and surf encounter ritual in the form of daily offerings to the gods and demons placed on the ground in front of art shops and cafés. Very few visitors, however, understand the economy behind ritual in Bali and the huge investments of money, time and intensive labor needed to fuel it.

Wednesday forum is a weekly public discussion on various topics of religion and culture organized by CRCS and Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS). The forum is held every Wednesday at 12.30 – 2.30 PM in room 306 (3rd floor) of UGM graduate school building. Since 2002 many scholars, students, and researchers worldwide have presented their papers or on-going research in this forum.

Anyone who wants to make a presentation in this forum should fill out the Wedforum-form and send it to wednesdayforum@yahoo.com and crcs@ugm.ac.id.

Jeanne Zimmerly Jantzi

Konservatif sekaligus inklusif. Demikian ungkapan yang layak disematkan kepada komunitas Kristen Mennonite yang mempraktekkan ajaran Anabaptisme. Hal ini muncul dalam kesimpulan buku “Among The Believers: Kisah Hidup Seorang Muslim bersama Komunitas Mennonite Amerika” karangan Sumanto Al-Qurtubi, akademisi muslim Indonesia yang pada tahun 2005 hingga 2007 berinteraksi dengan kaum Mennonite Amerika. Kesimpulan Sumanto ini dibenarkan oleh Jeanne Zimmerly Jantzi, aktivis Mennonite Central Commitee (MCC) yang hadir sebagai pembicara dalam Wednesday Forum CRCS-ICRS 7 Maret 2012 lalu.

Mark Woodward

Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, Arizona State University

Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies, Gadjah Mada University

Prof. Dr. Mark Woodward

The organizers of this conference have asked us all to reflect on the role that values play in scientific research. There are at least two ways to address this issue. How one choses to respond, depends, of course, on how one interprets the question. It can be understood as a question about epistemology. If the question is about epistemology, it calls for an abstract response that would wind its way through the intellectual maze of debates concerning the distinction between scientific and interpretative approaches in the human sciences. If the question is about the conduct of research, it leads in another, equally complicated, and far more personal direction. Put somewhat differently my question about the question is: “Do you mean social science research in general, or the way I go about doing it???” To respond to the first question is take an intellectual position. To answer the second is also to take an intellectual position, but requires more reflection on what motivates, not just research procedures, but more general and far more personal question of why I do the things I do, and what drives me to ask the sorts of questions that I do. I study religion, politics and all too often, conflict. That complicates matters further because it is difficult for me to imagine not having person commitments or biases, depending on how one puts it, about these questions.

Endy M. Bayuni

Konstelasi kebebasan media pasca Orde Baru menunjukkan berbagai tren yang menarik untuk dicermati. Di antaranya adalah keterbukaan media untuk meliput konflik-konflik SARA dan menguatnya kecenderungan konservatif masyarakat Indonesia. Di sela-sela kunjungannya di CRCS UGM untuk mengisi Workshop “Penulisan Jurnalistik dan Akademik di Media Online” serta Wednesday Forum “Religion and Media”, Endy M. Bayuni (Editor Senior harian berbahasa Inggris terkemuka di Indonesia, The Jakarta Post) menyempatkan diri untuk berbincang-bincang dengan reporter kami, Khoirul Anam. Berikut cuplikan interview yang dilakukan pada Rabu, 22 Februari 2012 ini:

Wednesday forum is a weekly public discussion on various topics of religion and culture organized by CRCS and Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS). The forum is held every Wednesday at 12.30 – 2.30 PM in room 306 (3rd floor) of UGM graduate school building. Since 2002 many scholars, students, and researchers worldwide have presented their papers or on-going research in this forum.

Anyone who wants to make a presentation in this forum should fill out the Wedforum-form and send it to wednesdayforum@yahoo.com and crcs@ugm.ac.id.