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Gregorius Soetomo: The Jesuit priest who studied Islam
When Jesuit priest Gregorius Soetomo was working on his master’s and doctorate degrees on Islamic studies from Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University, he raised more than several eyebrows within his inner circle.
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Jesuit priest Gregorius Soetomo (JP/Sebastian Partogi)
"Some people questioned why I should learn Islamic studies, as if I was done with my studies on Catholicism. Others were quite anxious because they perceived me to be ‘too sympathetic’ with Islam, while others asked me whether studying Islam for four years had somehow made me doubt the teachings of the Catholic church,” the 52-year-old priest told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview in Jakarta.
He added that the anxieties expressed above were unfounded as studying Islamology actually strengthened his Catholic faith.
Greg, as he is fondly called, successfully completed his master’s and doctorate degrees by defending his dissertation titled, Language, Power and History: Marshall G.S. Hudgson’s Islamic Historiography Through the Perspective of Michel Foucault’s Poststructuralism Studies.
He graduated on May 24 with flying colors; cum laude with a grade point average of 3.75. One of his dissertation supervisors and examiners was prominent Islamic scholar Azyumardi Azra.
Greg’s graduation was arguably historical because he became the first Catholic priest from the Jesuit order to earn a doctorate in Islamology from the prestigious Islamic university.
“I use a historical approach to interpret contemporary social phenomena on Islam and politics. Religious fundamentalism and exclusivism have become issues everywhere,” Greg said.
Read also: Essay: Losing my religion
According to Greg, modern society’s tendency to measure everything based on money, business and the economy using a very myopic paradigm on socio-political development has only excluded and marginalized people, who then turn to religious identities as the only rock they can cling to.
Certain people with strong political and economic ambitions seem to be able to recognize this trend, seizing opportunity to grab power through divisive identity politics, like the one that took place during the recent Jakarta gubernatorial election.
While many people are getting pessimistic about the future of Indonesia’s interfaith tolerance after going through the recent highly divisive election in Jakarta, Greg retains a cautious optimism on the country’s future.
“If you really look at history, human beings are always destined to progress. We never regress. The process to attain that progress, however, is never linear; it is a spiral. Human beings are quick to learn, but at certain periods, they can be quite slow,” he said.
“For instance, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Christians were massacring one another and branding followers of different denominations infidels when the church was having an affair with politics. But that has led to positive reforms within the church itself,” he illustrated.
Prior to the second Vatican council from 1962 to 1965, for example, the Catholic Church insisted that there was no salvation outside the church. During that council, however, the church changed its stance and asserted that people were also redeemed outside the church through their goodwill and kindness.
Because of this, the Catholic Church has since encouraged its followers to open themselves up to the outside world and discuss with people from all walks of life outside the church — Muslims being one of them.
He said that this doctrine was a driving force behind his choice to pick Islamic studies. Another reason was just a matter of chance. In 2013, while accompanying Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Driyarkara (Driyarkara School of Philosophy) students in a live-in experience at the late Abdurrahman Wahid’s Islamic boarding school in Ciganjur, South Jakarta, he was taken to Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic University.
There, he learned that it was the last day to apply for the school’s master’s degree program in Islamology. Greg, who planned to continue his postgraduate studies, applied right away.
His learning experience in the Islamic university not only expanded his intellectual horizons, but also heightened his appreciation of human connections.
“They invited me to their homes during Idul Fitri. They also really cared about me. For instance, when I left my bag, one of them asked me where I put it and offered to carry it for me — very similar to how Islamic boarding school students treat their clerics, and how the Catholic congregation looks after its priests,” he said.
“I was surprised that amid all the prejudices and sectarianism out there, I felt very comfortable [at the university].”
He said that in order to build strong relationships with people from a different faith system, you had to be transparent about your own religious faith. Second, you also have to learn about their customs and respect them.
“For instance, I learned that according to fiqh jurisprudence], non-Muslims can’t use assalamualaikum [peace be upon you] as a greeting. So, I never used that as a greeting during my presentations,” he explained.
Greg is currently working as the supervisor of a student boarding house in the Driyarkara School of Philosophy in Jakarta. He previously served as chief editor and delegate of the Catholic magazine Hidup from 2002 to 2014.
In order to encourage more interfaith understanding, Greg will head to Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines in August to teach subjects related to the MuslimChristian relationship from its socio-political, history, theology and scriptural aspects.
“We need more Muslim-Christian interfaith dialogues in the Asia Pacific region because nowadays, when you talk about Islam, you always look toward the Middle East,” he said.
