The Notion of Being ‘Independent’ Christians in the History of Christianity in Indonesia by Roma Ulinnuha

History of Religions in Indonesia pt. 2. 1900 to the Present—Prof. Bernard Adeney-Risakotta & Dr. Sri Margana

Roma Ulinnuha-ICRS 2009

Readings: Benny Giai, Zakheus Pakage and His Communities & Sutarman Partonadi, Sadrach’s Community and its Contextual Roots ( Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1968)

Week #6: Protestants & Catholics in Indonesia in the 20th century:

The notion of being ‘independent’ Christians in the history of Christianity in Indonesia

Benny Giai wrote the development of Christianity in the East part of Indonesia—Irian Jaya. While Western Dani experienced their own movement such as the establishment of the Western Dani Church, the Me underwent some rejection prior the coming of Zakhaeus Pakage (p.1-2). It seems that religion in the one hand and the cultural aspect on the other can be observed in a close linkage. This can be seen from Zakhaeus Pakage activities and the Wage communities. The various stages in which the Wege and the Me state their view on religion become a focus in the study. The word ‘Ugatame’ as a term indicates God is an example of the cultural element related to the religion as another term indicates the Salvation and so forth (p.3). These views, I think become one of the most definite factors in which the introduction of any religious teachings probably got a success. If an entity has realized its parallelism and got accepted the analogy of the new religious teachings with their own, the process of the introduction is much easier and at the same time they have an independent stance.
The fact Giai found in the study is that the Wege Bage claims to have an access to the pre-contact religious knowledge. The significant thing, I argue, from the author’s view is that the movement of Zakhaeus has inspired his people to develop progress on environment and other field such as socio-economic needs of the people. His teaching is important for his people saying that ‘God preached by Western missionary was already existence in the history and culture of the people’ (p. 7).
Likewise, in other case, I relate the religious and cultural phenomenon to the development of Sadrach community. Sutarman Partonadi emphasized the notion of ‘independent Christians’ in his teaching on the community. Partonadi continues to say that actually the writing will explore the pattern and the response of the Dutch missionaries to Central Java. On the other hand, Sadrach communities are asked whether it is against the truth of Gospel. Finally it is important to see how the community itself understood its independence as reflected in its name, Golongane Wong Kristen kang Mardika, and its minister (pandita mardika—free minister) (p.162). This, as the author argues, is meant total economic independence. From the two cases, I can sum up the study of the development of being ‘independent’ Christians.