The article examines the role and existence of sharing meal ritual. At least, so to speak, there are two functions of the ritual, i.e. on the one hand, as a cultural strategy to maintain social cohesion. On the other hand, it reflects differences within the community which potential for conflict. Differences and commonalities might be regarded as a dynamic and complex process within a community. The sharing meal ritual contains varying materials and ideals of societal life, which can be seen collectively both through actual and symbolic meanings. The meanings emerge from social ideas and undergoing through their daily societal life, which influence and have been influenced by their view in order to manage a common living space. These complexities of meal tradition need to be explored to be understood.

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Artikel ini membahas konteks sosial-budaya masyarakat Indonesia yang majemuk sebagai arena berteologi kontekstual. Salah satu pokok masalah dalam kemajemukan sosio-budaya masyarakat Indonesia, terutama sejak masa kolonial hingga pascakolonial, adalah perjumpaan berbagai tradisi keagamaan baik religiositas lokal masyarakat nusantara maupun interaksi dengan dan/atau konversi menjadi agama-agama besar dari luar. Artikel ini tidak melakukan kajian dogmatis tetapi menggunakan dialektika teologi kontekstual dan teologi agama-agama dari sudut pandang Kristianitas. Perspektif teologi agama-agama digunakan untuk menguji secara dialektis eksperimentasi teologi kontekstual Kristen di Indonesia. Model “antropologis” Bevans dipilih sebagai lensa kajian sekaligus sebagai kritik terhadap tipologi tripolar (exclusivism-inclusivism-pluralism) yang diperkenalkan oleh Alan Race. Tiga konteks kewilayahan dan kebudayaan, yaitu Yogyakarta (Jawa Tengah), Bali (Bali) dan Tana Toraja (Sulawesi Selatan), digunakan sebagai basis pengalaman berteologi. Eksperimentasi dan elaborasi teologis berbasis pengalaman pada tiga konteks itu dimunculkan sebagai proses awal untuk menemukan postur teologi agama-agama yang khas dalam kebudayaan majemuk masyarakat Indonesia. Kata kunci: teologi agama-agama, pluralitas sosio-budaya, identitas sosial   This article elaborates theological issues in socio-cultural context of Indonesian society as the arena for doing theology contextually. One main issue of socio-cultural plurality in Indonesia, primarily since the colonial up till post-colonial era, is about the encounter of various religious traditions either local community’s religiosity or interaction with and/or conversion into so-called world religions from outside. This article shall not conduct dogmatic exploration but using the dialectics of contextual theology and theology of religions from Christian viewpoints. Perspective of theology of religions shall be implemented firstly to examine an experimentation of Christian contextual theology in Indonesia. Bevans’ anthropological model has been chosen as the analytical lens as well as criticism against tripolar typology (exclusivism-inclusivism-pluralism) introduced by Alan Race. Three geographic and cultural contexts, namely Yogyakarta (Central Java), Bali (Bali) and Tana Toraja (South Sulawesi) are utilized as the basis for doing contextual theology. Experience-based of theological experimentation and elaboration in those three contexts have been constructed as the beginning process to discover a model of theology of religion in Indonesia. Keywords: theology of religions, socio-cultural plurality, social identity

The tragedy of social conflict 1999-2005 in Maluku archipelago has driven the Protestant Church of Maluku (GPM) to realize that such conflict doesn't help to bring benefit for every ones in any way. Along with the Muslim brothers/sisters in Maluku, the GPM totally realized that "we were all useless victims". Since then, based on such horrible experience, GPM develops so-called "pro-life theology" as a way to provide new theological perspective and practical ecclesiastic acts for sustainable peace-building. With this clear vision, GPM desires to strengthen its call to develop a better system of life together. This paper is a literature review to identify the people's traditions that can be used for triggering of conflict and even closely related to the increasingly widespread radicalism. The article tends to answer some research questions: What is the crucial viewpoint for GPM on its 80 years existence as a church in Maluku? Is it only an organization? What is the meaning of GPM as church for her congregations in Maluku archipelago? The prime loyalty is not on the organization enterprise but merely to God in Jesus Christ. Speaking theologically, church is the body of Christ. The institution is only a tool, not the power of the church. The power of the church is the power of Holy Spirit.

This article is an analytical description that aims to scrutinize John 4:1–42 to understand how the Gospel of John describes a theological perspective within a certain socio-political context and, conversely, how the socio-political context determines the theological meaning through John’s storytelling model. By using post-colonial imagination as its framework for text analysis, this article aims to construct a dialogue bridge between the text and the context of multicultural Indonesian society. The imaginary bridge as such functions to provide a critical biblical interpretation such as this text, which is often read as the representation of conflictual socio-cultural and religious identities such as in Indonesian society. This article is a biblical-based theological contribution to interpretive biblical studies in countries such as Indonesia with a majority Muslim population, which exposes the construction of socio-religious identity vis-à-vis othering tendencies based on different representations of identity.