The Flying Dutchman, Koos Waardenburg, old, sick, still curious

Last weekend I returned with Pauline from Umbria to the Netherlands. We stayed one night in Lausanne, where we visited Jacques Waardenburg and Hillary Killpatrick in their nice apartment with a splendid view on Lake Leman with its background of the white mountains of the Alps.
I know Jacques since 1978-9 when I was the organizer of the course for nine IAIN staff who came to Leiden to experience the Western tradition of religious studies. Among them where Muhammad Chatib Quzwain (later a dissertation on al Palimbani; Secreteray General of the ministry of religion), Chalidjah Hasanuddin (later a disseration on Jamiatul Washliyah, a movement in Medan), the late Husnul Aqib Suminto (, died already; a nice dissertation on Dutch religious policy in their colony) and Alfani Daud (also already deceased; dissertation on popular or 'tribal' Islam in South Kalimantan). Jacques Waardenburg gave lectures to them and personal advise to Burhanuddin Daya on comparative religion.

In a later phase, Waardenburg came to Indonesia. I remember a trip at the period when we lived in Yogyakarta. He wanted to have an experience of the countryside an traveled by train to Bandung and further to Yogyakarta. We had nice discussions with Prof. Dr. Abdul Mukti Ali, the former minister of religion, with a Master of McGill, where Koos already had worked. Koos was not the person for places of pilgrimages, for attending services or lectures in a mosque, but for the academic debate with qualified Muslims. He was always seeking models of understanding, a combination of local facts with general theories. In fact he was seeking the general discourse and understanding of scholars of religion, rather than the simple facts or the bewildering rich variations of religion in their actual status.

In 1986 or 1987 Jacques moved from Utrecht (a heavily orthodox reformed faculty with little interest for Islam or Comparative Religion at the time) to Lausanne. I later had the impression that he somewhat regretted this radical move. Also in Lausanne a theological faculty educated Protestant ministers and they were in small numbers in the divided landscape of the Swiss districts or canton. But he could find financial support for projects: I attended twice a seminar in Crêt Bérard, a conference centre in the mountains north of the great lake. In 1991 the theme was Muslim Perceptions of other Religions throughout history. In 1995 the theme was on the period 1850-1950; the third in 1997 was on perceptions of Dialogue.They were all published in welledited books, because Koos was always seeking publications.
One academic colleague wrote about him in a German Festschrift as Der fliegende Holländer, because Koos was an arduous and eager visitor of conferences, a true Flying Dutchman.
He also had an immense library and was keen in collecting material for his archive. This will be kept in the National Archive in the Netherland (Haarlem section where the academic archives are kept.

 Since 2008 Koos has started suffering from Alzheimer disease. He is still able to live in his own apartment, thank to the dedication of Hilary, although it become somewhat more difficult now. He has still the vivid look and sometimes strong voice, when he feels that an important new fact or interpretation is brought forward. But we can imagine and sometimes conclude, that it is more the continuation of an old habit than the keen and critical review of his former period. The enemy in his head is working slowly but without respect for his energy and his strong memory has gone. Still he looks as if he is glad, curious even, wanting to keep updated. Below a last picture with Hilary and my wife at the dining table. We wish them all the best life still may give to them.

Between Harun Nasution and Oek de Jong

When I was invited to teach in Indonesia between 1981-1988 at the institute that is now the UIN, Universitas Islam Negeri, the State network of Islamic universities, Prof. Harun Nasution said to me that he was shocked that in the 1960s western theologians talked about the death of God and he wanted to prepare the Indonesians for this kind of ideas. In fact it was only in Yogyakarta, that I was giving courses on Modern Christian thnking, while in the first period, 1981-3 I gave mainly courses on modern Qur'an interpretation  and Indonesian history of Islam (with the first result: my book on 19th century Islam in Indonesia).

Above I am standing with my wife  after the examination of Herman Hidayat at the Jakarta IAIN. Or was it at the formal ceremony of the graduation?

Today I read a nice quote  from the poet Wallace Stevens in a book by Oek de Jong Een man die in de toekomst springt, commenting on the death of Frans Kellendonk:

The final belief is

to believe in a fiction,
which you know to be a fiction,
there being nothing else.
The exquisite trith is to know that it is a fiction
and that you believe in it willingly. 

This resembles the famous quote from Simone de Beauvoir: Même si la vie n'a pas de sens, qu'est-ce qui nous empêche de lui en inventer un ? [Even when life has no meaning-direction-sense in itself, there is no problem or nothing/nobody to prevent us from inventing this direction/meaning ourselves!]

Many mental versions and images of the Trinity

In the journal of the Yogyakarta Protestant Theological Faculty, Gema Duta Wacana Gerrit Singgih wrote a nice review of the Indonesian translation by Tom Jacobs of a small book (128 pages) on the Trinity by Herbert Vorgrimler. The German title of 2003 is Gott, Vater, Sohn und Heiliger Geist, but Jacobs/Kanisius published it in 2005 with the title of Trinitas, Bapa, Firman, Roh Kudus.
As a biblical scholar Singgih is quite keen on the difference of approach between the more philosophical and the scriptural analysis in the book. The variations in the Gospel of John (where Jesus declares himself united/one with the Father, but different and even obedient in other places) are not seen in the dogmatic doctrines.
Singgih mentions that Vorgrimler quotes a ban on the icon of Rublev by the Vatican in 1750: it should lay emphasis too much on the inter-Trinity debates and relations that are basically unknown to us.

If this icon shold not be seen as an image of the Trinity, then the image by Iko/Schmutzer for the Catholic Church in Ganjuran should be banned surely: it gives the Trinity an even more human face with two bearded (father and son) and the Holy Spirit more or less like a young lady!

 

The founder of the SVD, Arnold Janssen, had a great devotion to the Holy Spirit and was sometimes irritated by the popularity of the image of Jesus with the Sacred Heart on his breast and he wanted to have a statue of the Holy Spirit, also as a full sized man, but with the dove in his hands. It was made for one diocese in China with Vatican permit, but this was later even withdrawn.

Singgih himself mentions that in Taizé the Rublev icon was very popular. He pleads for a postmodern tolerance: because we do not know much about the inner life of the Trinity, we should realize that Christians in Indonesia live in a country where Muslims are quite sensitive and even negative about Trinity-talk, but among Christians a greater variety of opinions in this respect should be tolerated: not one precise doctrine, but rather many devotions, such as people like it.

Buddhism in Muslim Indonesia

It took some time, but now my article on Buddhism in Muslim Indonesia has been published in Studia Islamika, Indonesian Journal for Islamic Studies, volume 20, 1:1-34. I tried to include here the Powerpoint presentation with the images but I was not successful. Anyway I copy here three of the PPT slides. Those interested can send a request to karel@steenbrink.nu for the full presentation. Enjoy the visual besides the text!

This is Tee Boen An, later renamed Bikkhu Ashin Jinarakkhita.

From right: President Soeharto with Oka Diputhera, the Balinese government official for Buddhism amd Ibu Hartati Murdaya of Walubi. Further four unidentified persons.

April 2008: Wedding party of a son of Ibu Hartati Murdaya in Jakarta, with president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the ice-transformation of Borobudur.

Halal food for the MUI!

Recently I have read two books ons contemporary Islam in Indonesia. The first was already for more than two years on my shelves: Andrée Feillard and Rémy Madinier, La fin de l'innocence? L'Islam indonésien face à la tentation radicale de 1967 à nos jours, Paris, Irasec 2006. It has been published too in an English translation. Its theme is the turn towards conservative Islam. The influence of salafi=Saudi=Kuwaiti money and Arab books, the weak government tha is not able/is afraid of taming all these warrior or maffia Muslims.

I liked the question, perhaps even more than the answer. What is the problem of modern Muslims in Indonesia. Why does Islam not work? Why are we a second class society? On page 159 I made a note: they feel like described by Wertheim: a majority with an inferiority complex. Abu Bakar Ba 'asyir declared even that the Muslim had become dhimmi in their own country: they do not have the power, do not have the superiority. L'impérialisme des infidèles (176) This is that terrible distinction between we and they, between 'us' and '; the other'. So much a power play, not about individuals, but a group power play.
This is a good and necessary book, but it made me very sad. It is precise about individuals, with nice portraits of 31 individuals. Detailed, also in its analysis of groups and movements. But one wishes that religion could be abolished for some time, let us say, thirty years: the world would perhaps be better!

Martien van Bruinessen edited a book on a similar theme: the conservative turn. It is much about liberals versus conservatives or radicals. The first are 'moderate' the second group even puritanical in tghe best way, but perhaps also quite violent.
Doctrine is somewhat more important here, but power is also in the centre. That is clear in the wonderful contgribution of Mujiburrahman on Makassar and a group that wants to implement shari'a: finally they feel that the idea is not 'marketable' and they insist on fight against corruption, which is an easy idea for those who are not (yet) in power and may blame those who are in power.

Quite revealing is the section on Din Syamsuddin and the halal certificate: 73: "halal certification has been one of the chief sources of income for the MUI, along with the certification of Shariah banking". it is not only a matter of the good according to God, but also for one's own pocket!
Also this book is more about the organizations than about individuals, more about power than true convictions and ideals. So be it: may God forgive us!

Private and public stories of The Killings in Indonesia, 1965-6

In March 1970 a started my first research in Indonesia. During a full year I travelled through Java, Sumatra, stayed for days and weeks, finally three moth in the pesantren of Gontor. I wondered why I had no problems with colonial suspicion, why I was easily accepted as a foreign, Dutch, Ph.D. student by people who had experienced the colonial oppression. I never thought about the killings of 1965-6, even not in Gontor, East Java, a region where the Anshor, the youth movement of Nahdlatul Ulama had been instrumental in many of the killings.

There was little electricity in Gontor. Only in the evening between 6-10 pm there were lamps, but no possibility to put my electric razor in a contact. After initial efforts to use a razor blade (too much blood!) I started with a beard.

In mya second period in Indonesia, 1981-8 I was a lecturer at theIAIN, State Aacademyc of Islamic Studies (now UIN) in Jakarta and, since 1984, Yogyakarta. In the first period there were some problems regarding my liberal views about Qor'an interpretation (too close to John Wansbrough..) and some fellow lecturers considered my appointment as one aspect of the liberal policy of rector Harun Nasution. So, I had to accommodate somewhat and be cautious. Once I was called to visit Timur Djaelani, at time Secretary General of the Ministry of Religion. He had long stories of this USA trip. He liked the Mormons: stanch religious, no alcohol! And he warned me that there were group of lecturers and outsiders opposing the liberal policy of IAIN and considered my position as a good target for criticism. So, I gave an interview to Panji Masyarakat, praising religious fervor in Indonesia and blaming Western Europe for its secular culture.

Above an examination at the Jakarta IAIN (at the exam of Herman Hidayat), below in Yogyakarta (with probably Pak Simuh, sitting left of me).

Only in 2006 I asked my closest colleague in Yogyakarta, Usuluddin Lecturer Abdurrahman (who wrote a doctoral dissertation about JIB, Jong Islamieten Bond and was sometimes called Abuddarrahman Wijyakusuma), about his experiences. He told me that in late he was a member of Pemuda Muhammadiyah and HMI. With a group of students he was summoned by an army company to join them to a village. They had to make lists of PKI members or leftists/Communist people. These were later killed: Abdurrahman could evade this fate, but a fellow student who joined the killings later had nightmares and could not find peace.

In the 1960s and 1970s the first debate was about the initiators and the character of the 'coup'. Was it masterminded by Soekarno or the generals themselves? By Suharto?
Only after 1998 a more public debate has started about the reality behind this tragic period. Last week I read the book by Douglas Kammen and Katherina McGregor, The contours of Mass Violence in Indonesia, 1965-1968 (Singapore/Copenhagen, NUS and NIAS Press, but in an Australian series: ASAA, 2012).  The book talks consistently about the Movement, not about a coup, or it should be the coup by Soeharto. Apparently there was much religion involved in the process, most from the side of Muslims, Muhammadiyah and the youth section of Nu, Anshor. Also the Catholics were not without cooperation. P. 92 writes about cooperation , page 116 about the role of Catholics in the general atmosphere in cooperation with ZE Subchan. There is no talk about father Jopie Beek, some about Yusuf Wanandi. In the new book on Catholics in Independent Indonesia, 1945-2010, will give some more details about Flores (based on work by John Prior) and Centra; Timor. This is not a review of the book, just a short personal impression of a work that fills a real gap in my knowledge.

Jan Sihar Aritonang, 1953-2012

On 8 June 2013 Jan Aritonang sent me his autobiography, Dari 60 ke 60. Kenang-kenangan hidup Jan Sihar Aritonang (Ompungtahami - Ompung ni si Aurelia), published as a private book, (untuk kalangan sendiri), 196 pages. I know Jan Aritonang since quite some time: I organized the English translation of his doctoral dissertation with Brill, published in 1994. I was able to hand the book to him in person that year. Between 2000-2008 we were the editors the "Thick Book" the 1004-pages book A History of Christianity in Indonesia, where we both wrote about 250 pages.

Jan has published several interesting books, on all kind of sects and movements in Christianity; a very precise and detailed story of Christian Muslim Relations in Indonesia, after his doctoral dissertation on education as a basic element in the Batak Churches. And several more!
This is a very personal book: more or less diaries, edited to become a book. It is less about personal reflections than about major events in his life. He was born in the outskirts of Medan, where his father was a small businessman. For one year he was moved to the house of his grandparents in Sibolga who put him in a Catholic primary school. He was eager to learn and therefore his birth date was 'corrected' into 1952, to give him quick access to a primary school. After secondary school he doubted about his vocation in life:engineering in Medan, a career as government official or minister in the church? It was this last option that became reality: in 1971 he started his study at the Theological School of Jakarta, became a minister in Batakland for one of the smaller churches, GKPI, result of a conflict within the big HKBP and in December 1976 he returned to Batakland to serve a congregation.

 

I made two pictures of the cover. This seems the best one. There is a rich choice of photographs in the book

In 1977 he resumed his studies in theology/church history with a Masters' degree. In 1987 he defended his doctoral dissertation at the SEAGST, the Southeast Asian Graduate School of Theology, a body that had an office in Singapore, but staff from various institutions. This was the reason why his degree was not accepted by the Indonesian bureaucracy. In 2000 the same dissertation was once again examined in Utrecht and Aritonang received a second doctoral degree: a theatre play that cost much time and about € 5,000, but it brought him to an official professorship (the third for Protestant theology in Indonesia, after John Titaley in  Salatiga and Gerrit Singgih in Yogyakarta). This formal recognition is necessary for these faculties in order to arrange their MA and Ph.D. Programs: also theological institutions must seek formal status.
Aritonang acknowledges that he is a modest smoker, a resilient drinker of beer (but he prefers a good glass of wine or sherry), an ardent reader, hard worker, good family man, warm and loyal friend.
He is also an honest observer of the true condition of Indonesia. He was so nice not to blame me for the final redaction of our "thick book" where I put the authors only at the end of chapters, sometimes not precisely indicating which section was written by whom: Jan, sorry for this omission!
He abhors bureaucracy and corruption and also is honest about the Protestants within his own school and within the Ministry of Religion of Indonesia. A crazy example of Indonesian bureaucracy was the inventory of the formal diplomas of 14,000 Protestant teachers of religiom. One committee from Jakarta was planned to check all these teachers in the period 2007-2015. Think about travelling, hotels, so many reports, administration and so much money needed for this. About 2/3 did not have the necessary qualifications. The examining committee itself did not follow the required procedures, was not free from corruption and Aritonang withdraw angrily from this miscarriage of bureaucracy (96-7). There are more stories of corruption: within the PGI, Council of Indonesian Churches, YAKOMA (118-9). More than US$ 600,000 disappeared from the account of ATESEA, Association of Theologians of Southeast Asia under directorship of Sientje Merentak (her husband was ill, needed operations, but there were many other elements of mismanagement, 87). It is an honest book, showing how Batak people deal with conflicts.
His straight and honest attitude also brought him several times into conflict with the board of the theological school. The Board wanted to sell the present campus and build a new one: you smell the money disappearing! In October 2011 he left his position as rector of the STT, but had also to leave his comfortable house on the campus and return (at great costs) to a former house, far away from the STT Jalan Proklamasi, in Jakarta where travelling during daytime becomes more and more impossible (102-3). This was the punishment of the board towards a man who worked for the institute more than 30 years! Quite sarcastically he thanks for the flowers: like the Pope also did to the Dutch at Easter, but in a more honest way.

Quite a few pages are dedicated to the difficult project to find money for the theological study abroad (through Ekumindo) and finally to lead the Indonesian Church to a change from receiving to giving, to put money into the own theological schools, basically into education of people.
The personal health problems are exposed in a way that is quite unusual in my own tradition. Even his preference for a simple burial, or rather cremation is exposed in some detail: no big ceremonies, no adat traditions, just a simple memorial session and good prayers.
The three children are mentioned with good details of their study, marriage. The middle one, Tio, received more attention, because of an engagement with a Muslim that was broken (and at that time she came with Aritonang to Holland and we received her several times in our house). Later she married another Muslim and Jan Aritonang feels this as a personal failure and quotes the suggestion by Christiaan de Jonge that maybe in the future she may lead her husband and child to Christianity rather than continuing leading a life of a Muslim. Tio had already some problems with the doctrine of Trinity, but Jan does not give very strong and plausible arguments in favour of this old doctrine (in my opinion the doctrine of the Trinity was a good answer for faith questions of 300-325 within the cultural context of that time, but it is no longer relevant in a time of new views on the start of our world). Thanks to its openness and many details about daily life of a great church leader, this is a fascinating ego-document by this hard worker and pleasant colleague.
I am prepared to join any committee who will prepare a true Festschrift for this scholar, but I am happy already with this document. Thank Jan, Terima Kasih dari Utrecht. Ibu Paule appreciates that she is mentioned also!