Coccejus

Since about two years I am involved in the publication of a series of books CMR, Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History. Recently I finished an entry on Johannes Coccejus, a brilliant boy and later an inventive and mature theologian. Below I copy my description of him and his work.

Coccejus was born in Bremen as Johann Cock (from the German town of Coch or Goch). He studied languages, philosophy and theology in Bremen and after 1626 in Franeker. He became in 1630 professor at the Gymnasium Illustre in Bremen where he taught ‘sacred philology’ concentrating on Greek and Hebrew. In 1650 he moved to Leiden. As an orthodox Reformed or Calvinist theologian he also wanted to stay in touch with humanist trends in church and society. He showed often more interest in biblical studies than in strict Calvinist orthodoxy. He is best known for his divergent opinion in the observation of the Sabbath. According to him the rest of Sabbath was a strict command for the adherents of the Jewish religion, but in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ the observation of Sabbath was no longer so important. His interpretation of Scripture is sometimes characterised as ‘baroque, inconsistent’. Besides the puritan Voetius, the dominant professor in Utrecht University, he became the most outstanding theologian of Leiden University in the 17^th century.

In Utrecht University Library I went to the section Special Collections and I found the most important text Coccejus wrote about Islam. Below my findings.

As a student  of 22 years in Bremen, Coccejus held a lecture on the religion of the Turcs in Greek, partly as a linguistic exercise. This text (in print 11 pages) is written as an admonition for the reformation of church and state of his time. The origin and enormous progress of Islam in his time was a great challenge for the Christian peoples. From secondary sources a life of Muhammad and the content of the Qur’an is given. Coccejus considered Islam as a mutatio religionis, a radical transformation of the true religion. Muhammad knew the real truth of God’s revelation but he has been seduced by the Satan (‘the clear enemy of the whole human race as he is rightly called in the Qur’an’). So Muhammad and his followers have become renegades (apostatae). Muslims must be counted among the heretics. The divinity of Christ was the great issue in the debate with the Jews, and later with the followers of Paul of Samosata, the Arians, the Sabellians and later again the Muslims. He considers Islam as the great outer enemy of Christianity, where the Roman Catholic church is the great inner enemy. In his later theology Coccejus developed an interpretation of the history of Christianity in seven periods. The last is that of the conversion of the Turcs to Christianity (already predicted in the Scripture). The Roman Catholic Church, an instrument of the Anti-Christ will be destroyed with the  help of the Turcs. As a sign of the soon return of Christ, Jews and Muslims will together celebrate the feast of Soekot/Tabernacles in Jerusalem. In this way Coccejus gave Islam a clear place in his eschatological vision. In the earlier Oratio this is not so outspoken. Especially in later exegetical treatises Coccejus applied texts of the Hebrew Bible to contemporary Islam. Isaias 45:14 about ‘the tall Sabeans .. will bow down before you’ refers to the great power of the Ottoman empire, but also predicts their coming conversion. The four wings of the beast of Daniel 7:6 refer to the four realms of the Roman Empire which were conquered by the Muslims: Syria, Africa, Asia and Greece. The ‘kings from the East’ of Rev. 16:12 were by him seen as the preparation for the end of time, when the ‘Turcs will come to the West again and all efforts will be made to preach the Gospel to them, so that they may convert.’ The peace of Westphalia (1648) was a beginning for this process and so the end of the world was expected in 1667 with the final triumph of the Reformed Church in a common service to God.

 

Dr. Chaider Bamualim and his interpretation of Religion in West-Java

9 September 2015 Chaidar S. Bamualim defended his dissertation in the ceremonial room of Leiden University. It was early in the morning: 10.00, but nice conditions.

The first picture shows Chaidar together with Carel Stolker, Rector of Leiden University, in front of the statue of the first Indonesian  doctor of this university, Dr. Hoesein Djajadiningrat. Leiden University is fond of old and new traditions (mos or the equivalent of adat). One of these is that there must be a picture of the first and all later Indonesian Doctores.
The second picture is during the examination of 45 minutes with the living professors sitting in front of a great wall with pictures of their ancestors.

Chaidar was during a long period an assistant to Merle Ricklefs who wrote his trilogy on the history of Islam in Java. Especially for the recent period (1930-2010) Chaidar worked on the period when the contrast santri-abangan was very important and then declined after the 1980s. Chaidar pays much attention to two kebatinan or aliran kepercayaan, new Javanese religions. First is the Madrais of the Kuningan-Cigugur region. Second is the AKP, Aliran Kebatinan Perjalanan, risen in 1927 (about the same time as the official recognition of Madrais), developed in the 1950s, banned in 1967. Against a move towards more orthodox Islam (as represented by PERSIS, but also by dakwah at the ITB Campus), there was also a side move towards Christianity. Christianity (not mentioned at all in the famous book by Clifford Geertz, Religion of Java) even turned into Islam's Greatest Opponent (263). Up to recent clashes between (FPI) Muslims and Christians like the HKBP Church in Bekasi, are discussed. Bamualim's book is more a weighed analysis of the developments than a detailed description. Readers will need good background information to understand the many aspects that are touched upon in this rich book.

Above a picture of the fresh doctor with myself. Below the cover of the book with three symbols: cross for Christianity, rising moon and start for Islam and the gunungan or symbol of the wayang shadow play for the 'traditional' or even 'new' Javanese spiritualities. Representing the new pluralism in West Java. Thank you Chaidar for this often surprising and balanced book: from PERSIS and Darul Islam up to FPI and Dakwah at ITB. About the astonishing high number of Protestant Churches: 232 in Bogor and 196 in Bandung: sign of the immense spread and fragmentation of Protestant Christianity!

Corrections for "Catholics in Independent Indonesia"

For the new book, Catholics in Independent Indonesia, 1945-2010, I received a full page review by Azyumardi Azra in Kompas, 9 August 2015. There were also private messages with nice comments.
Adolf Heuken sent a supporting letter from Jakarta: most of this period was for him a personal memory and he liked the book very much.
Some small comments:
page 13: People of Flores, who in 1950 wanted to join the Indonesian United Republic, later felt mistreated because promises about regional autonomy were not kept, according to Pak Riberu.
Page 21: Father Daniels never was a friend of Father Joop Beek, because Beek took the best stuidents from the Catholuc Students' Union PMKRI for Kasebul.
Pages 36/49: the fights in Ambon were planned by the military, as well as the Ketapang riots in Jakarta. Later this was continued against Gus Dur as president. Laskar Jihad was supported by the military.
Page 90: Karl Prier is not Belgium but German! - On the same page, note 23, the translation for Cipta Loka Caraka given by Jan Bakker was 'a place (loka) from where a herald (caraka) spreads good ideas (cipta).' It is all Sanskrit words.
Page 473: Secretary Leo Zwaans was not allowed to leave the premises of the Jakarta Cathedral during the Japanese administration.
Page 488 Bishop Leo Soekoto was not the son of a goat shepherd but of the village chief, lurah. But still from a mountain village.
Page 488: The church in Taosebio was built as a mansion in the beginning of the 16th century (this is: in the old centre of Jakatra; about one century before Coen founded Batavia). But the Chinese temple or klenteng Jin de Yuan, behind the church (burnt down in 2015), was built about 1650.

So far some remarks by this learned Jesuit who calls the book a wertvolles Buch. Darin zu lesen macht viel Freude.

Adolf Heuken in December 2013 (before I went to Kupang for the first meeting of ASAKKIA). Above in his working room, below in front of the walled house in Mentang, Jalan Muhammad Yamin 37, where he stayed for some time after 1968 with Joop Beek SJ, then alone with staff of CLC. In front of him another Jesuit, Greg Soetomo.

Gereja Diaspora revisited: the status of Muslims

During my last trip to Manado I took the time to read again the longer version of Mangunwijaya's Gereja Diaspora. It is the 1999 Kanisius book of 230 ;pages.
The book is written like an essay, switching from theme to theme. One first theme is the criticism on Dutch missionaries who came from a uniform Catholic region and were used to dominate their flock. School, political party, economics, education and church, it was all regulated. The Jakarta priests, the first audience for this proposal, have a congregation that lives spread, in a diaspora, among people of very different traditions. Muslim are seldom mentioned in a more outspoken way. One of 4 examples is page 59 where he writes about a Catholic engineer in the oil industry 'who works often in Singapore or New York and has more intense contact with Muslim or irreligious colleagues than with the priest of his parish.' On page 69 he discusses the lack of ordained and formal priesthood with Protestants and Muslims: the family is the nucleus of the faith community and they are not less devoted and faithful than Catholics. On page 80 the idea of the Kingdom of God as the ultimate goal of the Christian faith is mentioned, but immediately defined as broader than the Catholic Church, or even the Christian community. Also dedicated Muslims can be seen as 'fighters for the Kingdom of God' (pejung demi Kerajaan Allah).
Religious leaders should be ' comunicators, coordinators, facilitators and dynamisators' (although there is some lip-service about ordained priests for sacramental functions) and also Protestant ministers or Muslim kiai/ustaz can have these functions.
The real basis of the religious community should not be the special sacramental position of the clergy, but the family, local groups. This aspect is not really present in the various places of the book on Catholics in Independent Indonesia, 1945-2010, where the idea of Catholics as a open minority is more stressed.

AICIS: the closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was quite similar to the opening event. It was more modest, but there were again local dances, choirs. There was no minister, but Dr Kamaruddin Amin, head of the directorate for Islamic Higher education delivered the formal speech, besides some other. One vice-rector of the Jakarta UIN had a sublime comic performance switching easily between Indonesian, Arabic and English.

Above a very lively and joyful dance of men and women around a spectacular attractive leading lady. Below a more sober (so also more 'Islamic') dance. New clothes, good harmony between the members of the group.

Only a restricted number of visitors received reimbursement of travel cost and hotel lodging from the ministry. Quite a few received support from their local institutions. The fifteen best presentations in the panels received 15 million (about € 1000), a nice sum for these young scholars.
The tallest man in the row below , on the right side of me, is Madjid Fauzi Abu Gazali from Jordan, where he is the representative, leader of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). He spoke only few English, but he had the habit of speaking very clear and slow Arabic with the participants. At various moments there was a debate about the proper method to renew Islamic thinking. The IIIT method was considered by many as contra-productive. It states that in the Qur'an already psychology., medicine, natural science is found. This is not creative, but rather apologetic. Two names were mentioned as the authors of another way: Tariq Ramadan and his Radical Reform of Islam and the Egyptian Jasser Auda (now in USA). They want a serious study of social and other sciences and their application on the reality of Muslim life. Fiqh should no longer be a matter of individual life, but must be made applicable to social life through these sciences. IAIN has developed into a UIN, a full university. But how Islamic will it be? This is the duty for the next decade. IIIT has proved to be not really productive and Islamic science needs a more radical reform, in dialogue with the development of science in Western countries.

AICIS: small news

At the great AICIS Conference in Manada (3-6 September 2015, Annual International Conference of Islamic Studies) the plenary lectures, the papers in the panels, the poster presentations are the kernel. But the lobbying, meetings, chat in the diseways are also attractive.

Sahiron Syamsuddin presented me a first copy of the translation of The Jesus verses of the Qur'an, now with the title Nabi Isa dalam al-Qur'an. Sebuah Interpretasi Outsider atas al-Qur'an. The subtitle was given by Sahiron to attract readers for this subject. Apparently an outsider will give a fresh, unorthodox or challenging presentation of the images of Jesus in the basic text of Islam.
Sahiron had also added the Arab text of the verses (not yet in the Dutch and English editions) and wrote a very nice preface. He hopes to sell the books through his NU network and asked me to give suggestions for selling the book in Christian circles. Especially in these months preceding the celebration of Christmas this could be effective. Indeed, much of the Qur'anic texts about Jesus are about his birth. I will do the best for the spread of this book.

A great surprise for me in this conference was the meeting with Haidar Bagir and his wife (right of them is Wiwin Siti Aminah Rohmawati, from Dian/Interfidei). Haidar Bagir (Solo 1957) studied at ITB, then in Harvard: Islamic philosophy with Annemarie Schimmel and Sayyid Husein Nasr. Dissertation on Mulla Sadr. He pleaded for more philosophy (against the tendency to study social science as a method to renew Islam and increase its relevance for modern society). Besides, he is a great businessman and has build Mizan as a prominent publishing house.

Looking for a toilet in the conference hotel, Simtesa Peninsula, I saw the painting showing the difference between the ladies' and men's toilet. Manado is a quite relaxed town.

The panels took place in two hotels, Peninsula and Aston: sometimes they had to start with just a few people and after 30 minutes audience was between 30-50. There were serious debates. Some presentation very bad. They uise powerpoint, but seldom with illustrations. Quite a few just read their text from powerpoint.

Like at all major international conference the bottom of the hierarchy was presentation of a poster. Many had much text, seldom the author was present to attract attention of people walking around. But the topics showed a great variety in moderate, concrete modern Islam and its relevance for contemporary society.

AICIS in Manado: Opening session, plenary and panel presentations, posters,

In 2001 the first meeting of AICIS, the Annual International Conference of Islamic Studies was held in Indonesia by the Ministry of Religion, in fact its Directorate for Islamic Higher Education. It had from the beginning the format of the big international academic meetings, with opening and closing ceremony (including the political leaders, ministers), keynote speeches, plenary sessions, panel session and poster presentation.
From 3-6 Septemver 2015 AICIS 15 was held in Manado and I was invited to give a plenary speech on 'Catholics in Majority Muslim Indonesia, 1945=2010: Between a closed and exclusive community and concern for the common good in an open society'. I had attended this format only at EUROSEAS in Lisboa, 2013, but know that AAR has the same system.
After arrival I immediately had to give an interview. This is posted also on youtube,see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sRhyfoodck.

The opening session was a great event. Minister of Religion Lukman Hakim Saifuddin gave a major speech about religious harmony and a Manado Declaration was signed by the minister and nine other officials, all of them Muslims (it was anyway a Conference of Muslims, although there were plenary speakers who were Protestant or Catholic).  But there was a choir of 80 members: forty Muslims and forty Christians. The conductor of the choir was a Christian from Manado, a region with a strong tradition of church music. There were also traditional dances.

Above the announcement of the AICIS with Minister Lukman Hakim and governor of Minahasa. Below this announcement an advertisement for an Evangelical service in the hotel Aston (as if there are not enough churches in Manadao!). Belowe the choir. Notice the Muslim girls with the veil.

The opening session was indeed a great festive event, but the room was very great and the sound system definitely not perfect. I found personally the 90 papers presented in the panel session the most attractive part of this great academic exercise.
My own presentation for the plenary session on the second day is published in the site http://academia.edu. On the official AICIS site also many papers can be found.
A few remarks about highlights of the papers. Bob Hefner gave a plenary paper about Muslim Ethics in building Civil Society. He paid much attention to the basic structure of Indonesian Islam (and society) since the 1910s: the great organizations like Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama, Sarekat Islam. They have put Indonesian citizens in a society that was nationally orientated. He stated that Indonesia is the most associationalized society in the world. This reminded me of the structure of Shi'a Islam where all true believers are supposed to show affection and obedience to a personal ayatollah and to follow his advice and rules. In Indonesia it is not a person but an organization that gives the learning based practical ethics. The Muslim Brothers only seek an Islamic Society. The Indonesian organizations are directed towards Nusantara, the Indonesian state and society. In Egypt the Muslim Brothers tried to take over the state, without success: in this way 'they wasted much of its social capital'.
The panel sessions had quite a few papers on Islamic Banking  (less than 5% of economic transactions in Indonesia, but coming from nearly 0% in the 1980s. In Saudi Arabia it is perhaps some 23%, but probably much less). MUI has issued more than 100 fatwas between 2000-2013, many about Islamic Finance. But Sahirom Syamsuddin severly criticised all these slogans about justice: according to him Peter Schmiedel has proven that Muslim and Westrn principles about economy are not much different!
Atho Mudzhar was very critical about Perda Syariat, rulings of local government about partial introduction of 'Muslim rules', mostly about gambling, clothing, alcohol: all of them by district leaders or bupati in their first period of rule. 'Only to seek votes for re-election, after this they forget the whole thing.' Only in Aceh there is a legal basis for a real introduction of Shari'a law. Dean Wahid used the word internal resistance against a abundance of new rules and preceipts. Not the concrete rules, but more general ethics, or the maqasid shari'a  should be studied and taught.
There was a paper about the doctrinal aspect of the teachign of Fethullah Gülen.
There was an interesting paper about high schools in Padang where Christian students (sometimes only 20 out of  850) have to read the Arab text of the Qur'an, learn the 99 names of God by heart: against freedom of religion, as formulated in Indonesian laws. And many, many other topics.