Islamic Revival in Indonesia: From Purification of Religion to Social Innovations

Abstract

This paper studies the development of Indonesian Muslim modernist movement, Muhammadiyah (established in 1912) especially in responding to the current global modernity - to the extension of nation-state system and the development of world capitalist economy. The study starts by a historical analysis which provides us with different modes of Islamic revival in Indonesia represented by Muhammadiyah. It argues that Muhammadiyah has been evolving into three main modes of articulations: socio-religious, socio-philosophical, and socio-technical. The next part identifies and elaborates more on the latest mode of revivalism (socio-technical) which is defined as Islamic social innovations. This mode approaches religious and social problems in totally different way from the previous modes. It is neither a liberal nor Islamist approach, but it is a type of hybridization which is defined by Cevik as Muslimism. In conclusion, this study confirms the insufficiency of traditional sociological approach of studying Islam and modernity or Islamic revival in general, and suggests a new framework of studying Islamic revival in a global age.

Keywords: Islamic movement, social innovations, Indonesia, Muhammadiyah

JEL Classification: Z12