Prophetic Cosmopolitanism: Islam, Pop Psychology, and Civic Virtue in Indonesia

Abstract

Abstractc iso_1067 38..61 In contemporary Indonesia, a new generation of Muslim pop preachers and self-help gurus tap into, and trade on, the symbolic and economic capital of Islam, science, and media technologies. Through television sermons and elaborate Power Point presentations, these pop preachers and self-help gurus summon the Prophet Muhammad's life and teachings in ways that resonate with the civic concerns, consumerist desires, and aspirational piety of the Muslim middle classes. These sermons and seminars often portray the Prophet Muhammad as the ultimate measure of what it means to be cosmopolitan. In this article I explore "prophetic cosmopolitanism" as a vernacular Muslim cosmopolitanism, but one which is not isolated from, or necessarily prior to, Western liberal-secular ideas about civic virtue. I argue instead that prophetic cosmopolitanism is both informed by, and offered as an alternative to, global discourses about psychology and self, citizen and believer, nation and umma. [Cosmopolitanism, Islam, popular culture, public sphere, transnationalism].

Cyberwarriors and Counterstars: Contesting Religious Radicalism and Violence on Indonesian Social Media

“…The politics of exceptional authority construct kyai/ulama as 'stars' , as 'saviours' of the divided nation under threat, and as the only true sources of religious authority -thereby making them into figures to admire and to look up to. At the same time, they break with the fashion of poster priests such as AA Gym, who are often self-trained and do not have scholarly credentials (Hoesterey 2007(Hoesterey , 2012(Hoesterey , 2015. The politics of inspiration ascribe assumed personality traits to kyai/ulama and, by doing so, construct them as role models of tolerance, calm, strength, diversity, and moderation and help establish their authority amidst fragmentation of it.…”

“…Several scholars (Anderson 2003;Göle 2002;Hirschkind 2001;Hoesterey 2007Hoesterey , 2012Turner 2007) show that modern information technology, global Islamization, mass education, growing literacy, and the second wave of Islamism resulted in the fragmentation of religious authority.14 In comparison to the end of the nineteenth century, religious authority is no longer the sole domain of the ulama (Kaptein 2004: 128). New voices and figures have entered religious debates, and they often differ from the formally trained religious authorities (Crow 2000: 57).…”

“Anything Can Be Used to Stimulate Child Development”: Early Childhood Education and Development in Indonesia as a Durable Assemblage

“…The Resource Center described earlier explicitly incorporates the BCCT approach in its work, and in the training and workshops on ECCD that it delivers throughout the area. The explosion in "trainings" in the post-Suharto era has been noted across Indonesia (Hoesterey 2012;Jones 2010;Rudnyckyj 2010;Welker 2012), and this professionalization extends the networked governmentality of post-New Order governance (Swyngedouw 2005). This emphasis on "training" and workshops appears to be a significant feature of the contemporary NGO sector in Indonesia, one that cannot be separated from decentralization and regional autonomy and the greater role of nongovernmental governance (Schulte Nordholt and van Klinken 2007).…”

Cosmopolitan theology: Fethullah Gülen and the making of a ‘Golden Generation’

“…They address the issue of global citizenship by pointing to new forms of responsibility that global encounters necessitate (see e.g. Bowen 1993Bowen , 2010De Koning 2008;Hefner and Zaman 2007, 2, 242;Hoesterey 2012). In many cases, the production of religious authority and knowledge is thoroughly articulated using local, transnational and globally appropriated elements (see e.g.…”