Invitation to an
International Conference
Relation between Religions and Cultures in
South East Asia
University of Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia
June 27-28, 2005
Theme
With the end of the bi-polar cold war and the
intensification of global sensitivities awareness of the
role of civilizations has come more strongly into view. For
religion and culture this has had both good and bad effects.
As Huntington points out, civilizations are the “largest
we’s” and each has as its foundation a major religion. As
these now enter more centrally into human awareness new
issues emerge.
First, whereas religions are more universal and foundational
the cultures whereby people order and exercise the lives
must be specific to place and even to time. Hence an issue
emerges in the relation of religion to culture. On the one
hand, the broader religious pattern can tend to homogenize
cultural specificities; on the other hand, it can tend to
reinforce human freedom and hence evoke cultural creativity
and differentiation. We must be conscious of these diverse
dynamics and find a way to manage them harmoniously.
Secondly, cultures for their part are more local and
reflective of the specific way of a life of people. Thus the
cultural patterning of human relations can contribute to
mediating the more transcendent and universal concerns of
religion to the life of the people, and thereby to humanize
the religions. This may be especially true of the cultural
patterns of life in South East Asia which tend to more soft
and harmonious.
Finally, perhaps the major concern of peoples with the
process of globalization is that it constitutes economically
an imposition of the free market in which competition and
profit are the prime considerations, and of a political
matrix in which individualism reigns in the exercise of
power. Both of these reflect Western notion of liberal
ideology which can erode values in the name of rigid
individualism. Democratic society needs to be based upon
such values as tolerance, dignity and compassion. For this
religion in its interplay with cultural settings provides an
ontological undergirding for cultural self-interpretation
and social relations.
This suggests that the conference proceed in terms of a
succession of three sub themes to each of which would be
devoted one day, namely:
i. The
Inculturation of Religion: contribution and difficulties
Inculturation of religion is not without problems. The topic
focus upon how the difficulties arise in terms of the
inculturation, the conflicts, the way to overcome them,
and its contribution for enriching religion itself and
humanity in general.
ii. The
Contribution of a Diversity of cultures to universal
religions
The universal message of religion is said to be indifferent
to particularities. The topic focus upon how the
particularities of culture enable religion to convert its
metaphysics into practical concerns. In other words, the
particularities bring down the universal message of religion
into concrete social reality.
iii. The
contribution of ontological and religious foundations to
facing the expansion of Western notion of liberalism in the
mode of globalization
Liberalism has its loopholes. The celebration of strong
individualism erode values by clinging to empty
proceduralism. The interplay between culture and religion
can provide ontological bases for building a
value-based-democratic society marked by dignity, tolerance
and compassion.
Contact
Prof. Donny Gahral Adian
Philosophy Department
University of Indonesia
Jakarta Indonesia
religiana@yahoo.co.uk
