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.

For the weekly Wednesday Forum held on February 10, 2010, a schedule originally arranged for Prof. Mark Woodward, Mr. Roy Allan B. Tolentino, an ICRS student, discussed the “Levinasian Ethics and Interreligious Dialogue” instead. Mr. Ali Amin, MA, acted as moderator. Mr. Tolentino talked about the works of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) which poses as a challenge to traditional ethical systems, in its radical reorientation of subjectivity. The presentation aimed to introduce Levinas and show his ethics that can inform inter-religious dialogue.

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.

The guest speaker for the weekly Wednesday Forum on February 17, 2010 was Jay Rock who discussed “The Common Word between Us and You: Are love of God and love of neighbour sufficient basis for Christian-Muslim relations?” while Prof. Dr. Bernard Adeney-Risakotta, ICRS-Yogya Director, acted as moderator who made the discussion atmosphere more exciting. Mr. Rock questioned how did Christians respond the concept of Common Word and its relationship with Islam? Can this term affirm a basis for relationship, and also see the importance of attending to our differences?

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.

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 Jimmy Marcos Immanuel as the speaker who will talk about “Marapu, Nature and Natural Disaster”. Some information about this forum can be read as follows.

Date: Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Time: 12.30 pm – 2.30 pm (free lunch)
Venue: Room 306, UGM Graduate School Teknika Utara, Pogung
Speaker: Jimmy Marcos Immanuel, S.Si-Teol.