October 2nd, 2018 – Indonesia is experiencing an Islamic renaissance: a flowering of religious ideas, art, literature, architecture, institutions, and intellectual creativity, stimulated by civil freedoms, democracy, education, and prosperity. This community is more religiously diverse than it has ever been, even though it is threatened by growing Islamic radicalism.
What do Muslims think about democracy, scientific rationality, and equal human rights for all, especially for women and non-Muslims? How do Muslims respond to the global environmental crisis? Prof. Bernard Adeney-Risakotta, author of “Living in A Sacred Cosmos” addressed these questions and more at a talk on religion and democracy in Indonesia on Tuesday October 2nd here at Georgetown.
Bernard Adeney-Risakotta was born in China of British and American parents. He was founding director of the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) at Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta. He studied in Wisconsin, London, and Berkeley, where he taught for nine years before moving to Indonesia in 1991. Among his many publications is Living in a Sacred Cosmos: Indonesia and the Future of Islam (Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, August 2018).