August 26, 2007
Yogyakarta, Indonesia

There are strange friendships. The two friends are always ready to fly at one another, and go on like that all their lives, and yet they cannot sepaate. Parting, in fact, is utterly impossible.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Possessed

Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,

• Mytha has a ready, shy smile and wears conservative Muslim dress.  With a background in literary criticism from Melbourne, she wrote her M.A. thesis on religion, culture and modernity in Islamic poetry.  
• Leo is an Indonesian engineer who left a successful career in computers to study theology in a Presbyterian supported university.  He wrote a brilliant M.Th. thesis on the symbolic role of Jews in Islam.  He teaches Hebrew to theology students.
• Ferry is a Muslim Batak from Sumatra with a critical mind and a sharp pen.  Expert in Qur’an studies and fluent in Arab, he studied in Egypt and America.
• Ivana is Serbian Orthodox.  She studied art history in India and speaks 9 languages.  In light of the tragic conflicts in her country, she’s searching for how God is expressed in art.
• Yohanes teaches philosophy at a Catholic university.  He is a friendly, relaxed philosopher, who asks deep questions.  He holds an M.A. in Peace Studies from Notre Dame.
• Inayah teaches Islamic studies at a Muslim university.  With an M.A. in anthropology from Arizona State, she is a strong and gentle leader who does research on Islamic movements and gender studies.
• Jerson is a Filipino Baptist minister and the Chaplain of a large university in Central Philippines.

What do these students have in common? They are among the ten Muslim and five Christian Ph.D. students who are coming to the inaugural program of the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS-Yogya). Our great experiment is finally beginning. In Yogyakarta, secular, Muslim, and Christian universities are co-sponsoring a revolutionary new approach to studying religions. It is not a secular program that studies religions “objectively.”  Nor is it a mono-religious approach that studies religions from a particular Muslim or Christian perspective. Nor is it a multi-religious, comparative religious studies program that focuses on the differences and similarities between religions. ICRS-Yogya makes no attempt to find the lowest common denominator that unites all religions.

Rather, ICRS-Yogya is inter-religious. Sincere believers of different faiths study religions together. The 30 professors from three universities teach in pairs. Each doctoral seminar is taught by a Muslim and Christian professor from different academic backgrounds. They share their different perspectives and try to understand each other. They use social and human sciences to research the impact of religious communities in the world. But they also take divine revelation and the normative teachings of their different religions seriously. Never before have major secular, Muslim, and Christian universities combined their resources to empower an international doctoral program of this caliber. Is it possible to study religions by creating dialogue between disparate disciplines like anthropology, Quranic and Hadith studies, sociology, Christian ethics, history, Islamic mysticism, philosophy, and biblical studies? Is it possible for the strongest national university in Indonesia (in the social and human sciences) to work with an influential Islamic university and a Christian university known for its Theology Department? So far, the answer is yes.

Bernie works with Elis, the office manager of the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies.

In November 2005, Indonesian colleagues approached me with a startling request: Would I be willing to work full time on building a common Ph.D. program in religious studies sponsored by Gadjah Mada University (GMU), State Islamic University (SIU), and Duta Wacana Christian University (DWCU)? As a PC(USA)-supported professor at DWCU, I had been teaching at these three universities for several years. ICRS started with ideas, trust, and the precious experience of working together across religious and ethnic boundaries. During the past year our board of trustees has worked hard to bring our dream into reality. We’ve grown from one to five administrative staff, cultivated academic partnerships, developed relationships with funding sources, recruited students, raised scholarships and brought 30 faculty members from disparate backgrounds into dialogue with each other on the curriculum. Recently, we were promised a million-dollar grant over the next five years. The Indonesian Department of Higher Education named us a Center of Academic Excellence in Indonesia. We’ve outgrown our offices and are moving into larger space at GMU. We can hardly believe how fast and well we have grown in just over a year.

The potential of ICRS-Yogya is staggering. We are training people who will be among the top educators and religious leaders in a country of 220 million people. And we’re linking them to global networks where they can have an international impact for inter-religious reconciliation. Our students will spend at least six months in another country. But the challenges are equally staggering. As our vision expanded into detailed plans for a world-class institution, the challenges grew exponentially. The challenges are spiritual, intellectual, organizational, financial, political, and moral. We live in a country of rapid social change and growing religious extremism. Yet amid sensational reports of violence and disaster, we believe God is doing a great thing in our midst. There is no denying our excitment, but we covet your prayers. See the ICRS Web site for more information and pictures.

Farsijana is now representing Indonesia in a Fulbright program for academic activists who are working for inter-religious peace. She is a visiting scholar at Barnard College, Columbia University, from September through November. Her work this year is amazing. She will send you a letter soon to tell about it. Write to her at pondokjatirasa@yahoo.com.

Finally, for those of you who are Presbyterians, please note that PC(USA) will bring news to your church of the unique work of Presbyterian mission during the month of October 2007. Please take this opportunity to learn and support the work of those who, like us, are sharing the love of God throughout the world.

Warm regards,