Kyai Ibrahim Tunggul Wulung and the Liberative Motive in Syncretism

Syncretism is a significant concept in religious and theological discourse, that used to describe the blending of two seemingly opposing paradigms. Rooted in Greek philosophical thought, it has two motives, either a religious survival strategy or a form of contextualization. However, the legacy of colonialism and racial ideologies that promote nationalistic and purity-based frameworks have rendered syncretism pejorative in many Christian theological contexts. In response, scholars and theologians have often adopted alternative terms such as “hybridity” or “double belonging.” In this article, I seek to reclaim the importance of syncretism by drawing on vernacular religious practices and arguing that these two motives are insufficient. Through the life and ministry of Kyai Ibrahim Tunggul Wulung (1800–1885), a Javanese mystic and evangelist, I propose the third motive: liberation. For marginalized communities facing interlocking forms of oppression, syncretism becomes a means of reclaiming religious agency and resisting hegemonic theo-political paradigms

Agency (philosophy · Christianity · Colonialism · Evangelism · Ideology · Mysticism · Pejorative · Syncretism (linguistics · Asian Studies and History · Cultural and Religious Practices in Indonesia · Islamic Studies and Radicalism

• The Dialogic Imagination

  M M Bakhtin, Michael Holquist et al.•The Dialogic Imagination•1982

  Add to list

• Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism

  Coleman, Simon Coleman et al.•Journal of the Royal Anthropologica…•1997

  Add to list

• Varieties of Javanese Religion

  Open Access•Eldar Bråten•American Ethnologist•2001

  Add to list