Arius

During the quiet period of the Corona-Crisis (since early March 2020) there is time to read books which are already since long on the shelves. So, I read again Rowan Willimas on Arius, first published in 1987 and I have the second edition of 2001.

For the history of Islam, Arius is quiet important, because many people claim (especially on the Christian side) that Muhammad was a follower of Arius. So, what is truth here?
Arius was born somewhere on the Libyan coast, before 280, perhaps even about 250 or somewhat later. He moved to the greatest town of the East Roman empire, Alexandria in Egypt, and was ordained a priest in 313. It was a turbulent period of the last great persecutions of Christians beginning in 303 under emperor Diocletianus and this only finished in 313. In the western part of the empire the pesecutions were not that serious, but it was different in the eastern sections. Especially emperor Galerius who succeeded to Diocletianus in 305 was a fervent opponent of Christianity. Many Christian from Egypt were taken prisoner and sent to the mines in Palestine or executed. Quite many also became apostates, were willing to offer to the emperor some incense, bribe officials and could continue to lead their lives. But what was the policy about them when the persecutions were over? Some were lenient, others were very hard. Bishop Peter of Alexandria wanted to forgive them, but his opponent Melitius was less lenient and they were not accepted as church members: priests and bishops should be removed from their positions. So, the church of Alxandria was already in conflict at that period (like in other places, like Carthago, where Augustine later worked).
In 318 Arius as a popular priest and gifted serious preacher came in conflict with bishop Alexander of Alexandria, the successor to Peter. The latter gave an interpretation of the book of the Hebrew Bible Proverbs, 8:22-3 about the Wisdom, some kind of figure, designing the world and helping God. In Muslim mysticism this is similar to the Nur Muhammad as the first being to be created in the process of the martabat tujuh, or seven steps towards creation:
Proverbs 8:22. The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old. 
23: I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.

In the interpretation of Bishop Alexander there was absolute equality between God Creator and Wisdom (= the Word, identified as Jesus the Christ and son of God). Arius argued that as this Hikma, Wisdom or Christ was created and therefore lower in status than the Lord. This was the beginning of a debate that leaded to the Council of Nicea. Arius had two important supporters, both with the name of Eusebius: 1. Eusebius of Nicomedia (a small town close to Istanbul/Constantinople, on the Asian side of the Bosporus); 2. Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine.
The emperor Constantine wanted to have unity in the empire also in the field of religion. Therefore he called for a meeting, a council in Nicea (some 80 km from Constantinople, in the Asian side of what is now Turkey). Arius was condemned. The two bishops with the name of Eusebius signed his condemnation although they still continued support for him. Arius was sent into exile for two years. But in 327 he wrote a milder version, some kind of compromise text between the creed of Nicea and his own opinion and he was again accepted as a leading priest in Alexandria. In 335 his creed was accepted by a great conference of bishops in Jerusalem. Arius died in 336.

In his study the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams makes some important remarks about Arius. First, there were more conflicts than just the doctrinal ones. The were after the persecutions problems about positions of power in the church, now supported by the emperor Constantine. There were also conflicts about houses, money. Second, The whole debate was still in full development and some people held extreme ideas. The time was not yet ripe in 325 to make a good decision about this idea, but for political reasons, the emperor Constantine (not yet baptised as a Christian, but opting for a strong support from the Christians in his policy for his empire). Later in the 4th century the most debated word of homoóusios 'identical in being' was  put aside because it was not in the gospels and in fact quite strange. There was never a unified faction or Arian party, fighting orthodoxy. In fact Arius died in harmony with the church of Alexandria (which was divided over many other issues; Athanasius was five times expelled out of the town).
In the further history there were movement of Unitarians who rejected any idea of a triune God. But never in this book by Rowan Williams any connections is made between Muslims and Arians: Muslims are not mentioned at all in this debate! Wiliams himself seems to have accepted the history of the Christian doctrine and does not fight it.

Kudus

The Corona crisis has given us much time to do things, neglected for a long time. One of these was to read (and admira!) a beautiful book on the Mosque, Minaret and Grave of Sunan Kudus. It is a splendid book, given to us during the visit to the place on a crowded Thursday evening, in October 2019.
 In fact, one of the first book to read again was by Pramoedya: Arus Balik, on the process of islamization of the northcoast of Java, which makesTuban the centre of the epic story.

The book which I read now is on the left side: text by Revianto Budi Santosa and M. Rizal Abdi, pictures by Bambang Tri Atmojo. On the right of it is the English translation of a book by Syafii Maarif, published by Leiden University Press in 2018. The minaret in the centre is the same as on the left copy. However in the Ma'arif book on the fight we see the new dome of the mosque, while in the lift side there is the mosque without the dome from the eastern side, before the dome was added.
 The authgors regret that Ayafii Ma'arif  took his picture of Kudus in order to stress the specifric Islamic Indonesian identity as shown in Kudus, but in the text of his book there is no reference at all to this remarkable structure built about 1550.
The building is in the style of Majapahit architecture, from the last Hindu kings of Central Java. Many of the stories are close to folk religion, many miracles, entertaining  episodes of a glorious past: not the strict rules of the modern Salafi Islam with its emphasis on Arab texts. Of course, the great texts here and the formulaes of the prayer are Arab as well, but this local pride wants to be traditional Indonesian Islam.
Page 119 has picture of the Greek Cross (here not the salib Yunani, but palang Yunani), which we also saw last October

With the elements from Hindu rulers the inter-religious tolerance of very clearly prised. Here it is just an ornament taken from a 'Greek cross''  without firther explanation.

Soekarno and Governor General Starkenborgh

Because of the corona disease the direct contacts with friends and family are limited. Libraries are closed, and therefore I am now reading books which were in my private library since long, but never read. I have now started the first volume out of five on Indonesia in 1942-1945 by Lou de Jong, published in the early 1980s. It are the closing volumes of a series on the Netherlands during World War II. De Jong never lived in Indonesia, does not know much about its history and so much of his writing is just a summary of what he (and his assistents) read. In his introductions he quoted some severe critics of his book and added  a quote from Professor Geyl, that 'history is a debate withoutn end'. He made once a trip to Indonesia while we were there (I was teaching in Ciputat at IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah), some time in 1982 or 1983. He invited then a selection of scholars living in Jakarta for a short meeting, where je emphasized that he was just digging in the archives. It is clear that he relied nearly exclusively on Dutch archives. But the first volume is a (much criticized)  general story of Dutch colonialism as a series of wrong initiatives and oppression. Some details were striking to me: on page 383 he writes about the exile of Sjahrir, Hatta and Tjipto in Banda (from 1936, after a harsh period in Upper Digul). They were in frequent contact and followed international developments (with much criticism about rise of fascism). On Soekarno he writes that he 'lived in intellectual solitude'. From later reports I know that he was in regular contacts with the Catholicpriests in Ende and borrowed many books from their libraries. He translated a biography of King Saud of Arabia and wrote a dozen theatre plays who were performed in Ende. He also studied Islam and concluded that it should be radically modernised. After he suffered malaria he could move to Bengkulu in early 1938 where he lived in the former palace of Raffles and had close contacts with Muhammadiyah people.

I searched on the internet and found many signs that the Surat-surat Islam dari Ende are still quite popular in Indonesia. The letters were sent to Achmed Hassan, founder of Persatuan Islam in Bandung. His books on Soal-jawab were sent to Ende. Soekarno was quite critical about the ample use of hadith by A. Hassan and judged that for practical matters like cleaning (after a dog licked some clothes) just one time washing with good soap would be better than the 7 times of the hadith. He wrote: "dunia Islam menjadi mundur oleh karena banyak orang "jalankan" hadits yang dhaif dan palsu.  Karena hadits-hadits yang demikian itulah, maka agama Islam menjadi diliputi oleh kabut-kabut kekolotan, ketakhayulan, bid'a" (the TBC of Muhammadiyah people). Soekarno later had to acknowledge the more conservative influence of  'ulama in his Republic. He was not an abangan: he was rather an independent intellectual, who considered that whole heritage of fiqh and shari'a rules as an impediment for the rise of a truly modern Islam.

Quite interesting is also the description of Governor General Van Starkenborgh. Born in 1888 as a son of a local politican (mayor of the town, later governor of the Province of Groningen) he was a lawyer, worked in the foreign service in Western countries only (Brussels, Paris, Washington, Berlin), was also governor of the Province of Groningen and then became Governor General in Indonesia in 1936. He was, like his predecessor convinced that Indonesia was backward and that decisions should be made in the 'headquarters' of the kingdom, in The Hague rather than in the Dutch East Indies. He always remained an outsider in the Dutch East Indies.
In a positive mood De Jong mentions that Starkenborgh was baptised a Protestant but at the age of about 15 he followed a course to become full member (anggauta sidi) of the Protestant Church but rejected the confirmation and continued as a-religious. Also De Jong gives very little attention to religion: not to Islam, not to Christian missionary actions.

Individual prayers and fasting in the year of the Corona virus

There is a starting debate about the influence of the corona virus, the lockdown of societies, worldwide, on religious practice. Now the churches, temples, mosques are closed too. People pray at home, watch church service through youtube video movies, but stay only as a family. Easter this year was without concerto of the great Bach Passion of Matthew, no greast services in churches. Ramadan takes now place withouth the festive Salat Tarawih in the mosque, without great invitation for iftar meals together. We are becoming more invidividuaistic, stay together as small families. Because teaching is now no longer in classrooms, but through inter channels, meetings as well, we think that social life, including religious habits may change for some time.
The Catholic priest Mangunwijaya was not in favour of great church building. Also for the place of pilgrimage Sendang Sono he did not build a cathedral-size big church, but a series of small buildings. For Romo Mangun the ideals size of a religious community is a family at home. Also Hasbi Ash-Shiddieqy was not in favour of great groops praying the Friday Salat together. It was in his view not obligatory and he often did not attend the public religious service at IAIN Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta, but said the prayer at home.
Also for religious education the teaching staff at Kolsani, the Catechitecal training centre wanted to give priority to religious education as a duty for families. The school is not the best place for true religious education. Religion is not a discipline to be studied/learned in schools, but in the families. Romo Mangun always said that he wanted to follow Jewish practice where the religious meal of Sabbat took place in the family house, not in the synagoge. The synagoge if for study and teaching, not the proper place for prayer and meditation.
Will this also be the practice after the corona virus or Covid-19 looses its influence?

Not far from my house in Utrecht there is the Gerardus Majella Church, where the priests have now places a new icon, the image of the Saint Corona, a virgin and martyr about 180 in Alxandria, Egypt, or Antiochia (Syria). Daughter or wife of Saint Victor. She is since long a protector saint against epidemic in the Catholic tradition. Now you may come and pray and burn a candle. This is traditional Catholicism in the Netherlands, but the style of paying forthe candle is modernized you just can out you bank card, choose how much you want to pay and it is fixed!

Encounter and dialogue

From Manila I received a link from the Indonesian Jesuit Greg Soetomo. It was related to the review of my book on Catholics in Independent Indonesia, 1945-2010, published in his journal Asia Pacific Mission Studies, vol 2 (2020). This journal is the continuation of the East Asian Pastoral Review. The review was written by Paul Steffen, teaching in Rome at the Urbaniana University.
It was nice to see how Steffen presented the whole structure of the book (as third volume of the history since 1800) in a well written, informative article, with some personal additions.
 Thank you Paul (and Greg).

Greg also published an article in this issue of the journal: Maturing as believers through Interreligious Encounters. He studied Christian theology in various places and countries, but wrote his Ph.D at the Islamic University of Jakarta (UIN Syarif Hidataullah) on the history of Islam by Marshall Hodgson. His mission is not conversion, but maturing belief. Evangelization, proclamation of the Gospel are not the first words he would like to use for his way of life and worldview. In the end he formulates from the document Nostra Aetate (of the Vatican II Council of 1965) three questions: 1) Can structures (Church as religious system) save? 2) Is Muhammad a prophet? 3) Is Qur'an the Divine Word?
Dialogue between religions had in the 1960s the same dynamic as ecumenical dialogue: ultimately with a goal that Christianity should be united in one church organization. Therefore divided Reformed Protestantism started with the World Council of Churches. Finally this institutional unity was not reached and for most more or less religious people nowadays it is no longer an ideal. The churches are human creations and not divine per se. The same can be said for religions: let them focus on encounters where personal belief can grow.
About the Qur'an as Divine Word, Wilfred Cantwell Smith already formulated that this depends on the reader/hearer: when it is used as motivation for hatred, religious crimes and terrorism, it is definitely not functioning as divine word. But when it gives inspiration for good acts, solace in troubles, it can be seen as a divine gift.

Resurrection and hijrah

At the occasion of Easter, my former student Syafaatun al-Mirzanah, now a very active professor of interreligious thinking at the UIN, Universitas Islan Negeri of Yogyakarta, sent me an article publisehd already in 2014 (19 April) in the English language Jakarta Post. It is a column on the meaning of Easter from a Muslim viewpoint. First she refers to differences amongst Christians: followers of Bultmann will not easily receive the story as 'historical event'. She also has a reference to Qor'an 4:158 ('Allah raised him up to himself') that usually is read as such that Jesus straight from the cross was taken to heaven, without dying. In this case Jesus should be 'resurrected' some 36 hours earlier than in the Christian story.

Syafa makes a comparison with the life of Muhammad, who was also rejected by most of his people in Mecca and with a small number of his faithfull Muslims moved to another place, 400 km north, Yathrib, later called Medina, or city of the prophet. About one year after he had to flee from threats in Mecca, moved to Yathrib in the hijra or the migration, Muhammad could stand the attack of people from that place who wanted to kill him in Yahtrib/Medina at the battle of Badr. But there God helped him and he received a military victory. After Easter also Jesus became the Lord of Glory and so Muhammad after the hijra.
This is quite a different interpretation from Snouck Hurgronje who claimed that while moving from Mecca to Medina, Muhammad put off his robe of being a prophet and became a politician (see also the title of the book by Montgomery Watt: Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman).
In the vision of Syafaatun, Muhammad in Medina was a further development of his prophetic role. It was not all smooth and easy, like also in the last chapters of the gospels and the book of Acts of the Apostles we read often about faith and courage, but also doubt and incertainty. But the hijra was the further development and now often in glory.

Saints used to fight fundamentalists

George Quinn is a lecturer of Javanese at ANU, Canberra. 12-13 December last year he was at the farewell seminar of Willem van der mlen and held a nice speech on the modern production of Javanese literature. He was more or less the defender of what seems to be a lost cause: interest for the use of Javanese in public for modern people.
I had already bought his last book on perhaps another lost case: abangan religiosity, especially found nowadays in the places of pilgrimage. Only now I had the opportunity to read the book in full: Bandit Saints of Java, How Java's eccentric Saints are challenging fundamentalist Islam in modern Indonesia (Burrough on the Hill, Leicestershire UK: 2019, 432 pages). The book has an extension of its title on the front page: George Quinn meets the wacky figures from Java's past, whose mysterious tombs have an enduring hold over the Muslims of Indonesia. I bought the book at the Periplus Book Shop in Jakarta, Senayan Plaza.

Quinn is tall, 194 m. and so quite visible amidst the crowds of the pilgrimages centres he loves. The book is an extended Tour of the Wali Songo, the Nine Muslim Saints of about 1500 in Java. It begins with Sunan Bonang and Sunan Kalijaga, ends with the grave of Sunan Bayat. All major figures are discussed: Siti Jenar who died like al-Hallaj, Jumadil Kubra who was perhaps the first. The only lady perhaps is Sharifa Ambami (268), unless we talk about a Puteri Cina. And perhaps no 10 must be Abdurrahman Wahid whose grave is still quite recent. The stories of the official guides at the graves (juru kunci) are mixed with the classical Javanese texts, modern practise in the time of 'religious and spiritual tourism'.
At various places in this book the schism between santre and abangan is discussed. The cultural change in Indonesia after Communism was banned in 1965-6 and more rigorous Islam was seen as a strong vaccin against Communism, and abused as a movement to destroy the validity of abangan Islam. Thousands and thousands of new teachers of religion, educated to promote strict Islam received an increase in hours of teaching and public respects. But according to Quinn this not only ended in the rise of fundamentalist Islam (Madinier and Bruinessen), but the popularity of graves, pilgrimages continued and increased even thanks to more money, the impossibility to go on the hajj (restricted to 200.000 per year and a waiting list of some twenty years!)
The writings about the Wali Songo can be very sophisticated: the Suluk Malang Sumirang (about 1600! On pages 162-8) is a very keen defence of what now is Islam Nusantara, a plea in favour of a distinct Indonesian interpretation of Islam and rejection of privileges for Arabic.
Quinn wrote a challenging, sometimes very funny book, sometimes with direct quotes from his field notes, historic wisdom. One should hope that he is not fighting for a lost cause.