A Critical Response to Headley's book, Durga's Mosque

ICRS Yogya
Class of History of Religion in Indonesia Part II
Dr. Bernard Adeney-Risakotta
Dr. Sri Margono

Assignment week 5
Abraham S. Wilar

Durga’s Mosque
A Critical Response to Stephen C. Headley’s Book

After having done reading this book, I have come to conclude that the cosmology discussed in Stephen’s book is primarily more socially and historically constructed construction than metaphysically built building. His perspective described in this book is quite uncommon and also so interesting, for the majority has discussed and understood the world of cosmology in terms of metaphysics matter. In discussing the topic, the book has delivered components involved in making of the cosmology of Durga’s community, such as the coming of Islam on to Java, the age of commerce in Java, and more currently the ideological aspect of Republic of Indonesia, which is named as Pancasila. And, according to the book, each stage of historical shift which had taken place within the community has converted and determined its characters. For example, in the era of agriculture, which had once placed the role of Sri in priority amongst the community (p.98 ff), the identity of the people had become much more Javanese and Islamic than when it has come to embrace Islam, where its focus more on monotheistic approach, it then turns and becomes more Islamic than Javanese. And the community also has converted its cosmological as it comes now to live in Pancasila ideology.
Even though I have considered this book as interesting book, I have not seen how the historical shift, which has converted and brought the community into different shapes of life, has really created amongst the people a hybrid-oriented cosmology. What matters me is the book seems to me just described some patterns of change took place within the community, rather than mentioning a socially hybrid construction where, for instance, the respect of Sri and her cultural legacy are maintained within the Islamic-monotheistic concern and Pancasila ideology. Co-living and co-existence of these three different dimensions, or even more dimension may be included here, must be definitively needed for building hybrid cosmology amongst the people.
Since the book has stated its goal is to show the hybrid community amongst the Durga community, I have assumed, for instance, the book has probably imagined certain synthetic community. And the synthetic community I have imagined is a community which has become a place for the meetings of several foundational aspects in the community which has generated new reality involving and representing all those aspects in reality. And as I have read this book, such imagined community has not explored yet. This book is more focused on describing the realities the Durga community has had so far, than exploring the synthetic of those realities.