(By Zakaria J. Ngelow The author is a lecturer at the Theological Seminary of Eastern Indonesia in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. A graduate of The South East Asia Graduate School of Theology where his dissertation was on the history of Christianity and Indonesian nationalism, he has written articles on Indonesian church history, religion and society, and interfaith reconciliation.)
INTRODUCTION
The theme of this article is the interrelation of religion, culture and globalization among the Torajan Christians in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. For the Torajan, religious identity is mainly Christian, as institutionalized in the Torajan Church, where the encounter between traditional culture and Christianity is very much from the perspective of doctrinal formulations of the church.
Globalization among the Torajan was experienced in three waves, namely Christianization, the tourist industry, and urbanization. These experiences culturally developed a communal identity distinct from Islamic neighbors and revitalized traditional culture as a new way of expressing personal or clan and ethnic self-identity.In contrast to the radical reaction of fundamentalism or secularization towards globalization, the Torajan revival of sociocultural self-identity is conducive to pluralism. Torajan Christians, for example, are remarkably open to peaceful interfaith relations. It seems that the lived reality of plurality in the clan-house system of family life, coupled with the need to live in harmony with others in the close tribal community of Torajan, with exposure to a host of neighbors and foreigners, developed a mentality of tolerance and peace. This tendency was also supported by certain developments in the church as it was exposed to the realities of national reformation and social conflicts.
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