I am Remembering Therefore I am:
Challenges and Opportunities of Teaching the History of Christianity in a Strong Oral‐Oriented Society and the Biggest Muslim Majority Country
in the World1
Izak Lattu
Department of Theology and Sociology of Religion Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia
lattu@staff.uksw.edu
Introduction
My short paper touch upon two issues in Indonesia: first, In the past decades, the study of indigenous knowledge (oral tradition) has contributed to the
development of indigenous awareness and local collective consciousness
internationally. Along with the international massive wave, local communities in Indonesia begin to develop their local knowledge that based on collective memory that live in oral tradition. The awareness forces Christianity to take local knowledge into account seriously: indigenous culture functions as the touchdown of local theology. This is one among many instances of local knowledge incorporation on Christian critical engagement in Indonesia.
Second, the topos/sociological context develops the awareness and approach that shape Christian understanding toward other religions, especially Islam in
1 Presented to ATESEA Teacher Academy 2016 at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia, Kuala
Indonesia. This new perspective leads toward the new way of seeing history of Christian ‐ Muslim engagements in pluralistic context like Indonesia. The new way of reading history through the mutual understanding eyes is different from the existing history that provided by colonial scholars who come to the area to pursue Gold, Glory, and Gospel. The question of how Christianity living in a mutual
relationship with Islam and other religions in Indonesia has hammered Christian scholars to correct the crooked colonial history.
Main questions here are why the written document has dominated the history of Christianity in the oral‐oriented society in Indonesia who preserve local history in oral tradition: folksongs, ritual performances and symbols? Is there any means by which indigenous community reclaims local‐oral history? This paper explore: 1) the challenge of academia to bring back people history or at least explore the history to balance colonial history. 2) Challenges and opportunities of teaching the History of Christianity in strong oral‐oriented society, but was encapsulated in the written rhetoric and logic which different from that of orality. 3) Considering Muslim‐Christian history in Indonesia, the biggest Muslim majority country in the world.
the powerless. In the history of Indonesia, for example, Indonesian former
president, General Soeharto, had written history for the sake of his political power. The General re‐wrote the history of Indonesia producing new national narrative that places Soeharto on the top of the national pyramid. The authoritarian office required the historical curriculum from elementary school to higher education to teach Soeharto central role in the struggle for independence and his presidency. History in this sense is the narrative of the ruler who employs the story to legitimate the potentate political power. The Soeharto’s narrative was circulated as if it’s the only history of Indonesia while suppressed the people history that different than that of the political history.
The history of Christianity in Indonesia has taken significant contributions of Dutch scholars who worked in Indonesia during colonial time. While the historical account of the scholars has dominated the discourse of history of Christianity in Indonesia, the scholars motivation to work in Dutch East Indie might involves bias in the works. Almost all of the scholars who write the history of Christianity in Indonesia worked as either Dutch government employ or Christian missionaries. As part of the Dutch colonial government employment, the historical notes of the scholars aimed to serve the Dutch political goals. In the same tone, as Christian missionaries, the scholars has inserted the historical descriptions into Christian frame for the sake of Christian mission. Here, the question of the colonial historical account comes into being.
Former President of American Historian Association, Gerda Lerner, argues that, “history is memory formed and shaped so as to have meaning. This process, by which people preserve and interpret the past, and then reinterpret in the light of new questions, is “history‐making” (Lerner 1997). In Lerner’s perspective, people understand history through questions that come out from current communal struggle. Through the questions people encounter new meaning of a historical narrative. Lerner agrees that history is a communal memory by which people nurture the past, live the present, and anticipate the future.
Lerner (1997) encapsulates the functions of history in four important elements: 1) History as memory and a source of personal identity. History in this sense bridges the past and the future as well as provides a cross generation link. 2) History as a collective immortality. The history shapes a sense of immortality to human being because this is the continuation of human enterprise and the production of human mind that expand human story beyond physical life. 3) History as cultural tradition. History is shared perception and cognition in value, idea, and experience among a society. The history in this sense functions as the cultural legitimacy in a given society. 4) History as explanation. Because history captures the meaning, idea, and value of the past, the historical event illustrates and interprets the past in the present question to anticipate future problems.
engagement. From folklore studies perspective, Amin Sweeney asserts that people in strong oral‐oriented society preserve local knowledge orally. He underlines strong oral oriented society employs verbal memorization and oral mnemonic devices in face to face every communication. In contrast, canon‐based society practices written form for social remembrance and communication (Sweeney
1987). Jack Goody, who focuses on the politics of writing, points out that oral society has written literature as well, yet “oral society has a different approach to language than when writing intervenes” (2010, 54). Writing, for Goody, “ does not supplant oral communication; it is merely another channel of communication, substituting for the oral only in certain contexts.” He adds, in non‐literate society, “oral tradition handed down through the oral channel” (1992, 12 – 13). Along the same line, Walter
J Ong insists, “Writing, moreover, as will be seen later in detail, is a particularly pre‐ emptive and imperialist activity that tends to assimilate other things to itself even without the aid of etymologies.” Ong adds, “thus writing from the beginning did not reduce orality but enhanced it, making it possible to organize the ‘principles’ or constituents of oratory into a scientific ‘art’, a sequentially ordered body of explanation that showed how and why oratory achieved and could be made to achieve its various specific effects (Ong 1982).
Indonesia. It’s great that this scholars have explored the history of Christian‐Muslim relationships in their works.
History, Performance, and Interreligious Engagement
Many areas and ethnic communities in Indonesia preserve local knowledge, values, narratives, idea, and experience in orality: folksongs, ritual performances, and symbols. My research in Toraja, Indonesia, shows that Christians recall local history in the ritual performances, symbols, and oral narratives. Through ritual performance and symbol people understand and live the cultural narratives. The meaning of life comes along in the cultural‐historical events not in the form of written canon.
People in Maluku who underwent religious based conflict in 1999 – 2004 has realized the misleading influence of written text history after 10.000 people dead. Written history that produced by the Dutch scholars has inflamed the segregation between Christian and Muslim in the area. Across generations, people passed down historical text that situated Muslim as the enemy of Christianity. While oral tradition describes Muslim and Christian in a strong‐mutual kinship. Folksongs as form of orality in Maluku cover significant part of Malukan oral history that absent in the Dutch‐based Christian history.
In contrast, local‐oral history has opened avenue for the celebration of religious differences.
Teaching History in Indonesia
Based on my teaching experience and research data I argue that “orality and mutual relationship with different religious community” are the main challenges and opportunities of teaching the History of Christianity in Indonesia. The challenge could be “fascinosum et tremendum” (Rudolf Otto) at the same time. The challenge is interesting because students and teachers will explore the history of “self” in the broader picture of Christianity that already exist in the written text. Also, the challenge will lead toward the discovery of new history that live in the storytelling and oral remembrance, but absent in written documents.
However, the challenge might be a nightmare (tremendum) for academia because the need of revision to the existing (written) history, whereas the existing history has become the collective truth for society. Another tremendum challenge is the diverse versions on oral history. It is laborious and time consuming to explore different narratives and variety of truth in oral history. Yet in long run, the oral history could rebuild the social‐cultural relationships in society and strengthen civic engagements.
interpenetration of Christianity and national narratives), and local history of Christianity as well as oral history that Christianity need to be consider in a respective context. Student based teaching method is the model of teaching that based on student reflections and questions on reading materials. Students bring into either dialogue or contestation; the narrative of Christianity and current issues that akin to the materials. By taking this teaching method, students will comprehend the nexus of the past history of Christianity and the present questions of the sequel of the history. The evaluation takes talent‐based evaluation to avoid the necessity of written text evaluation. Using the method, students post the idea of history of Christianity in different forms of assignments.
Conclusion
Teaching the history of Christianity in country like Indonesia requires teachers and students to take into account seriously the strong oral‐oriented context and existence of people of different religious backgrounds. Current
experience is the maxim for academia to question the past history that was formed in colonial era. Colonial power invaded country like Indonesia in colonial time to change local culture and to conquer other religions, especially Islam.
of Western‐Colonial gospel. In this colonial historical account, the oral history of local community and historical account of other religions are lesser than that of Christianity.
This win‐lose model of history needs to be transformed through the incorporation of the oral history of local Christianity and the awareness of other religious existence. The transformation is the respect to the history from below and the story of the neighbor.
