The Mataram of Tony Reid, Javanese and Muslim

Anthony Reid wrote a surprising Novel of Love, Faith and Power in Early Java (UK, Monsoon). Tony Reid presents here in historic fiction the story of one Thomas Hodges, who is left in Banten by a single British vessel, because he wants to travel to Mataram. In Banten the story concentrates on the rivalry of the Portuguese and Dutch, seeking good prices for pepper,  whereas the British presence was too incertain and small, compared to the two other nations. After going by a Chinese boat to Japara, together with a Javanese young lady, Hodges is taken prisoner by soldiers from Demak while trying to reach Mataram. He has to embrace Islam in order not te be killed. After many adventures he reaches Mataram, where his special knowledge about weapons gives him a privileged position. He was already married to Sri, the Javanese young lady who was his interpreter for Javanese but also instructor for many of its cultural difficult problems.

While his position in Mataram becomes more promising, Hodges makes much problems with his religious identity: he remains a quite orthodox member of the Anglican Church, detesting the Portuguese 'papists' but also the religious indifference of the Dutch.
A special problem for him is that Javanese culture has about the same ideological status as Islam. On p. 266 Hodges asks: 'Most countries have only one faith, and barely tolerate others. Why did Java have two?' A wise Javanese cleric answers: 'Since ancient times we Javanese have understood that the universe requires balance. There are male and female, heavens and earth, mountain and ocean ..' I combined this with the sentence by the former Minister of Religion, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin: 'God created everything in pairs..' Strict and full Islam always has had a cultural counterpart in Java, even in most of Indonesia, either called 'mystic synthesis', adat, Pancasila, or aliran kepercayaan. Hodges also wanted to add Christianity as another option, besides the other two and calling it trimurti.
This picture is too short, but just it is written in admiration for what Reid has written about the contemporary, modern schism in Indonesia with its Salafi intolerance.
There is much more in this book, as a historic novel. We see the questions of Robert de Nobili in India, Ricci in China, of Susaku Endo about the Kirishitan in Japan, now applied to Java. Fascinating.