Muslim and Catholic Pilgrimage Practices Explorations Through Java Routledge Studies in Pilgrimage, Religious Travel and Tourism Series

Exploring the distinctive nature and role of local pilgrimage traditions among Muslims and Catholics, Muslim and Catholic Pilgrimage Practices draws particularly on south central Java, Indonesia. In this area, the hybrid local Muslim pilgrimage culture is shaped by traditional Islam, the Javano-Islamic sultanates, and the Javanese culture with its strong Hindu-Buddhist heritage. This region is also home to a vibrant Catholic community whose identity formation has occurred in a way that involves complex engagements with Islam as well as Javanese culture. In this respect, local pilgrimage tradition presents itself as a rich milieu in which these complex engagements have been taking place between Islam, Catholicism, and Javanese culture. Employing a comparative theological and phenomenological analysis, this book reveals the deeper religio-cultural and theological import of pilgrimage practice in the identity formation and interaction among Muslims and Catholics in south central Java. In a wider context, it also sheds light on the larger dynamics of the complex encounter between Islam, Christianity and local cultures.

Pilgrimage, Hybridity, and Identity Making; Part I Javano-Muslim Case; Chapter 1 Formation of Javano-Islamic Identity; Chapter 2 Muslim Self and Hindu-Javanese Other; Chapter 3 The Richness of Pilgrimage Experience; Part II Javano-Catholic Case; Chapter 4 Identity as Memory; Chapter 5 The Trace of the Other in the Javano-Catholic Identity; Chapter 6 Immersed in the Web of Blessings and Communion; Part III Comparative Perspective; Chapter 7 A Double Visiting; Chapter 101 Going Home and Setting Off Again;

Albertus Bagus Laksana, PhD (Boston College, 2011) is on the faculty at Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; he is also a visiting lecturer at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, USA. His previous publications (both in English and Indonesian) and research interests include various areas such as Christian-Muslim comparative theology, Asian theology, history of mission, religious pluralism, and encounters between religion and culture.