Informed by postcolonial theories and approaches, and based on the works of three Indonesian Catholic writers, this essay looks at the ways in which these writers address the question of identity. They propose the notion of hybrid identity where the identity of the nation is built upon different layers of racial, ethnic, and religious belongings, and loyalties to local tradition and aspirations for modernity. While this notion of identity is inspired by the framework of “catholicity”, it is also “postcolonial” for a number of reasons. First, its formation betrays traces of colonial conditions and negotiations of power. Second, it reflects the subject position of these writers as Indonesian natives who embraced a religion that has complex ties to European colonialism and problematic relations with Islam. Third, it criticizes the post-colonial state and society, which perpetuate many of the ills of the colonial political system, including racism and the abuse of power. Their discourse also reveals the pain of being hybrid, mainly in their inability to appropriately tackle the question of political Islam. The recent political upheaval reveals the need for more creative engagement with political Islam in order for this hybrid identity to work.

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Using the method of the new comparative theology, this essay attempts to take the Indonesian context seriously, where the recent and highly divisive religio-political tension has given rise as well to an inclusive public theological discussion of God as the Merciful, and offers an explicit comparative theological analysis of God as Merciful in the Muslim and Christian (Catholic) traditions. On the structural level, these two traditions agree that Mercy has at least three dimensions, namely ontological (mercy belongs to the very being of God), personal (God’s mercy is made manifest in paradigmatic human person) and social (mercy has a dynamic of reaching out to others in solidarity). While being formulated and expressed within the confines of each theological system, mercy as God’s quality is shown to be at the center of Muslim and Christian naming of God. The two traditions move from philosophical theism to the personal and social dimensions of manifesting God’s mercy in the world. This comparative theological analysis of God as the Merciful will serve as a responsible public theology in the complex and pluralistic Indonesian society.

This paper main objective is to explain the nature and dynamics of solidarity and kindness that being shown in arbain walk, an annual Shi`i pilgrimage where noticeable presence of non-Muslims are observed. Coming from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, these lovers of Imam Husain are united by Imam Husain`s barakah in one hand and epic hospitality of Iraqi people for Imam Husain`s millions of devotee in other hand. The paper argues that this is an elaborated form of liminality, as emerge and envelope the pilgrims in their shrine-related religious activity, cordially affected by its shrine centered pilgrimage, namely Imam Husain`s shrine, in which shrine`s materiality and its multilayered intellectual and spiritual narrativity determines the form and intensity of pilgrim`s comradeship that being sensed. Reverse centrifugal movement is a dynamics through which Imam Husain`s shrinescape shapes the form and intensity of mutual friendship that emerge during this bigger than hajj annual rite.

The relationship between nationalism and religion is very complicated. In the context of colonialism, Christianity has surely been perceived as a foreign religion that poses a menace to native nationalism. This essay presents a different picture, taking the case of colonial Java (the Netherlands East Indies) to illustrate the complex historical relationship between Catholicism and Indonesian nationalism. Perhaps it is rather ironic that it was chiefly through their connection with the Dutch Church and their mission enterprise that the Javanese Catholic intelligentsia were made deeply aware of their own dignity as a particular people and the limitations of European colonialism. In this case, Catholic Christianity as a world religion with supranational connection and identity has been able to help the birth of an intense nationalism that was prevented from being too narrow, chauvinistic, or simply "racialist, " precisely because it is connected with its larger ecumenism or network. More specifically, this ecumenism is also founded on the idea of "catholicity, " that is, universalism, that lies at the heart of Catholic Christianity. In the post-colonial Indonesia, however, this Catholic view needs to be translated into common platforms with the views and concerns of Indonesian Muslims, who face the same new challenges as they play their role in the formation of an authentic Indonesian nationalism.