Religious Diffusion and Modernization: a preliminary reflection on the spread of Islam in Indonesia and its impact on social change

Abstract

The transformative capacity of most religions to initiate modern, capitalistic societies has been extensively investigated (Bellah 1957 and 1965; Eisenstadt 1968; Geertz i960 and 1968; Gellner 1969; Levenson 1968; Rodinson 1974; Sardar 1977; Soedjatmoko 1965; Turner 1974; Weber 1958a, 1958band 1964). However, most scholars have not been able to come to definite conclusions regarding the capacity of religions to legitimate modern development. This is because it is assumed that every ‘big’ religion contains the potential to legitimate different, even contradictory, patterns of social change. Thus, perhaps it would be useful, when studying a given religion, to analyze the conditions under which a certain pattern of social change is utilized, as well as the interests such a pattern serves.

Incense and Islam in Indonesian context: An ethnobotanical study

“…The discussion here is regarded interesting because the previous studies focused more to the role of the Sufis in the processes of spreading Islam in Indonesia (Johns 1995;Kahane 1980;Ricklefs 2006). When introducing Islam to the people of Indonesia, the Sufis adapted the teachings to the local traditions in Indonesia and resulting in syncretism (Florida 1993;Laffan 2011;Ridhwan 2017), cultural acculturation (Hefner 1985;Woodward 2011), traditional dynamics, and mysticism (Ricklefs 2006(Ricklefs , 2007.…”