Religion and reconstruction in the wake of disaster

Abstract

Whether they are one-off, or part of cycles, disasters have exerted profound long-term cultural impacts on societies around the world. The verses quoted above, excerpted from a Malay poem written just after the cataclysmic eruption of Krakatau in 1883, comprise part of one cultural artifact produced in response to natural disaster. More specifically, these lines open a window onto the roles that religion, and debates about religious interpretation, can play in post-disaster contexts. In this particular case, the poet first describes an almost stereotypically “fatalist” response on the part of some believers in his Muslim community. Immediately thereafter, however, he turns to make a critical intervention—arguing that in his understanding of Islam, the situation demanded not a retreat into theodicy discourse, but rather a renewed sense of communal solidarity and social action.