Truth in encounter. Processes of Change in the religious formation of identity using the example of Protestant Indonesian Churches

• Applicant: Dr. Eckhard Zemmrich
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 321183900

This research project in the field of intercultural theology aims at a fuller understanding of changes to and limitations of religious identity constructions induced by processes of inculturation and transculturation, using the example of three Protestant, Indonesian churches: the Christian Church of Java (GKJ), the Protestant Christian Church of Bali (GKPB), and the Toraja-church (Gereja Toraja). They were founded in the course of Protestant missionary activities during the 19th and 20th centuries, as churches with indigenous populations, obtaining their independence during the 20th century. The Christian message, into which people came forward to be baptized by missionaries, contained not merely claims of political power determined by its geographical origin. It was emphatically saturated by European culture. In the wake of the national independence movement, and especially after the proclamation of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945, the Indonesian churches were increasingly conscious of their cultural identities and strove to produce habitable contextual theologies. Primary sources relating to that struggle are still accessible on the ground, and will be investigated in this project by selected topic areas: women's ordination (GKJ), Christian art and architecture (GKPB), and traditional Mourning- and Burial rites (Gereja Toraja) The processes of intercultural and theological negotiation are especially visible here: the analysis will focus in particular on the question as to which criteria were applied in which contexts of argumentation in order to determine and circumscribe Christian identity in Indonesians' own, geographic-cultural context. As a contribution to theory formation in intercultural theology, the research project is concerned with mapping contextual and universal truth claims within theological discourse. For this, the case studies will also be investigated using appropriately selected concepts taken from cultural studies, philosophy of religion and socio-politics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants