Protestant Social Theological Thinking in Indonesia during the Era of Soeharto’s New Order

Abstract

This article aims to discover and outline the social-theological thought of Protestant Christians during Soeharto’s New Order era. According to the findings of this study, Indonesian Protestants’ social-theological thinking developed into three paradigmatic types over thirty years (1967/68-1998). First, there is the paradigm of modernism, which is in line with Soeharto’s New Order agenda of political modernization and holds that the gospel of the kingdom of God could be consistent with the goals of Indonesia’s modernization agenda, which was seen as an implementation of the Pancasila’s ideology. Second, the type of liberation-related theological thinking that holds that the gospel of the kingdom of God as proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth is a liberating power that frees real people from the political hegemony of Indonesia’s modernization agenda. Third, pluralist theological thinking holds that Christianity is not the exclusive agent of God’s liberating work in the context of Indonesia’s pluralistic culture.