Traditional Religious Authority Research Articles

Religiosity in the Digital Era and the Challenges of Hoaxes, Post-Truth and Radicalism on Social Media

In the era of globalization and advances in information technology, social media plays a key role in shaping the dynamics of people's daily lives. This phenomenon not only affects social and economic aspects but also penetrates the diverse dimensions of religious life. This article examines the impact of social media on people's religiosity, specifically in context post-truth and hoaxes. There is a trend where urban people prefer to get religious understanding from ustaz/clerics on social media rather than from traditional religious authorities. Freedom of expression on social media, without an adequate selection process and credibility, creates a diversity of interpretations that can confuse the public. The rise of hoaxes and information post-truths on social media poses a serious challenge to quality religious understanding and traditional religious authority. This article highlights the potential for religious disintegration and radicalism as a result of hoax information and post-truth on social media. Through a qualitative approach and case studies, this research explores the transformation of religious paradigms, freedom of expression, and the diversity of interpretations that occur on social media. This article suggests efforts to verify information and increase media literacy as a solution to overcome the negative impact of social media on people's religiosity.

NEGOTIATING TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY IN INDONESIAN ISLAM : THE CASE OF MADANI VILLAGE

This article deals with traditional religious authority in a given context, namely the village of Madani in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia. It specifically asks how this traditional religious authority is established and shaped in the context of an Indonesian rural Muslim society. This article uses observation and interviews to collect data based on an ethnographic study. This village is selected to be the place of study because it represents the typical characteristics of Indonesian villages. This article finds that traditional religious authority in Indonesia is not established and shaped linearly. However, it is compromised and contested. Although Muslims in this community regard a Kiai as a respected man having a religious charisma, this society also contests his religious authority to contribute to the resignation of the kiai from the Pesantren (Islamic Boarding School). This resignation supports him in developing his Tariqah (Sufi Order), followed by many community Muslims. Although he does not own a Pesantren, it indicates that his religious authority has been negotiated through the Tariqah. This negotiation implicates that traditional religious authority in Indonesia is not given without contestation from the Muslim community. Furthermore, it also indicates that traditional religious authority's trajectory and shape in rural areas are not monolithic, depending on society's social and cultural context.

Religious Authority in the New Media Era: Sabilul Huda Islamic Boarding School Da'wah on Social Media

This research aims to discuss religious authority in the new media era, with the object of study being the Da'wah model of the Sabilul Huda Tasikmalaya Islamic boarding school. This paper uses ethnographic and netnographic methods. Ethnography was carried out by interviews and following book studies at the Sabilul Huda Islamic boarding school. Meanwhile, netnography conducts data searches on online participants. The results and discussion of this research include the relationship between religion and social media, the Sabilul Huda Islamic Boarding School's da'wah strategy on social media, and the authority of Islamic boarding schools and kiayi on social media. This research concludes that the interaction between religion and the internet causes positive and negative impacts. Another important finding is that about religious authority, the internet and religion follow the logic of discontinuity, namely viewing the internet as destroying traditional religious authority. Moreover, at the same time, the internet and religion can also follow the logic of continuity and complementarity. The Internet extends, complements, and strengthens traditional religious authority. Then, the strategy carried out by the Sabilul Huda Islamic boarding school in preaching and spreading its traditional religious sources on social media is carried out by live streaming the study of the Yellow Book on social media accounts, namely Sabilulhudamedia. Then, the authority of the traditional and charismatic Kiai is preserved by carrying out his preaching via social media. This research implies that this new da'wah model that utilizes online media keeps the influence of traditional religious authorities and Islamic boarding school Kiai.

Reinterpretation of Social Media as Resource for Ministry and Missionary Work

Abstract Previous studies have primarily analysed religious media practitioners (rmp s) as authoritative figures who either challenge or project online traditional religious authorities. However, the routinised internet becomes more of a resource used by rmp s to communicate religious message. Given this, our study focuses on rmp s agency manifestation when they mobilize the internet as a resource. We conceptualize agency as related to structure (Sewell, 1992) and unfolding across time (Emirbayer and Mische, 1998). Our analysis is based on two cases from the Russian Orthodox Church. We argue that religious socialization (internalized schemas and access to resources) empowers rmp s agency and shapes the format of media project (traditionalist ministry or modernist missionary work). It affects the way rmp s ‘manoeuvre’ between Orthodox and media schemas while working on social media – they either reproduce the bounded community space or stimulate open discussions. In both cases rmp s’ knowledge endows them with certain power over hierarchy.

Intersection of Traditional Religious Authority and New Authority in the Digital Space of Indonesia

<span lang="EN-US">The emergence of new media, such as social media, has provided a space for religious communities or groups to create religious narratives or religious discourses in the digital realm. Religion is represented in a more contemporary manner, supported by advanced information technologies, packaged, and reproduced in a more modern style. Religious discourse in the digital space has thus made religious authority fluid and complex, no longer rigid and solely held by religious institutions. This condition has given rise to what is known as online authority. Online authority, in the early studies of digital religious authority, is considered by several scholars to potentially shift the existence and legitimacy of traditional authorities that have been in existence for a longer period. Traditional authority is deemed unable to adapt to digital practices. Through a literature review approach, this paper concludes that traditional and online authority are not separate entities; traditional authority can enter and exist in the online domain with packaging, styles, and innovations that align with digital practices. Traditional authority, with its strong legitimacy, is capable of presenting itself in the online domain, being repackaged and represented in ways or styles that are in line with contemporary and modern trends.</span><p> </p>

Reclaiming Traditional Religious Authority in the Contemporary Era

Reclaiming Traditional Religious Authority in the Contemporary Era

Papal Bull: Print, Politics, and Propaganda in Renaissance Rome by Margaret Meserve

Reviewed by: Papal Bull: Print, Politics, and Propaganda in Renaissance Rome by Margaret Meserve Christa Lundberg (bio) Papal Bull: Print, Politics, and Propaganda in Renaissance Rome By Margaret Meserve. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. Pp. xii + 437. Historians of the Reformation have long emphasized the seminal role of printing in spreading Luther's critique of the papacy and galvanizing support for this cause. In associating printing with reform and innovation more generally, it has been thought that traditional religious authorities were suspicious of the new technology—hesitant to adopt it and prone to censorship of it. Margaret Meserve's Papal Bull sets out to challenge this narrative by showing how printing served the papacy in the period between Gutenberg's first publication and the posting of Luther's theses. Eight substantial, thematic chapters convincingly prove this point, highlighting the diverse publications that bolstered papal authority or propagated its message. Along the way, Meserve sheds new light on the cultural and political significance of printing and publication in this period. The titular "papal bull" is one of the many genres of printing that Meserve's book explores, alongside polemical pamphlets, guidebooks for pilgrims to Rome, devotional works, and orations to popes. Still, bulls are particularly central to Meserve's case for papal involvement in printing and for considering communicative practices before and after Gutenberg. The earlier history of these letters or orders reveals how concerns about how to communicate with a wide audience significantly precedes printing (ch. 1). One strategy of publication was to post messages on prominent doors in Rome and other places—this was considered equivalent to personal delivery of the bull. A particularly revealing and recurring challenge was giving notice of excommunication. This was a message that no target audience was interested in receiving. Therefore, it required special measures of posting in surrounding areas. As Meserve shows, printing could not remove these challenges. Instead, the new technology came to play a part within wider systems of publication. The thematic chapters of Papal Bull facilitate consultation on a variety of historical topics from the Pazzi conspiracy to the cult of the Madonna of Loreto. Meserve's method of surveying all printed materials relating to such themes is moreover productive from a book historian's point of view—particularly for considering the question of why certain texts were printed. It is often difficult to explain why a particular edition was made, but patterns emerge in [End Page 606] broad, comparative perspective. In this way, Meserve distinguishes between editions made in pursuit of patronage from others catering to a popular cult and traces collaborations between the papal chancery and various Roman printers. Book historians will also gain fresh perspectives on other, more familiar themes, as Meserve traces the emergence of a "papal" title page in the first decade of the sixteenth century (ch. 8) and discusses how printing could promote greater iconographical flux rather than stability (ch. 6). Papal Bull establishes that the papacy in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries used printing with increasing frequency and for a variety of purposes. Meserve thereby extends and adds to Paolo Sachet's Publishing for the Popes (2020), which showed that the papacy pursued printing strategically in the decades after 1527. While Meserve thus contributes to challenging the view that the traditional religious authorities were hesitant to embrace printing, she nevertheless maintains that the papacy made less innovative use of printing compared to its opponents. We encounter examples of the latter throughout Papal Bull, such as the bishop of Trent who attempted to convince an unwilling Pope Sixtus IV to declare Simon of Trent a martyr in the late 1470s by launching a remarkably extensive (if ultimately unsuccessful) press campaign. Another striking use of print by papal critics is the case of two editions of faked proceedings from supposedly ongoing Church councils, one in Florence and another in Basel, produced as attempts to conjure such meetings. Meserve argues that an important reason why the papacy did not turn as eagerly to print is that it had other, more potent political tools at hand: diplomacy, legislation, and warfare. This argument reframes the problem of printing and innovation in a nonjudgmental way by...

Esther Fernández. To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain

Esther Fernández. <i>To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain</i>

Right-Wing Populism and Political Instrumentalization of Religion

Abstract The study investigates the online debate sparked by the political instrumentalization of religious symbols by right-wing populist leaders, taking as a case study the campaign communication of Matteo Salvini—leader of the Italian “Lega” party—in the run-up to the 2018 and 2019 general and European elections. Against the backdrop of theories on populism, religious publicization and politicization in a social media context, the research analyzes over 2,000 Facebook posts referring to Salvini and religion by using a mixed computational and qualitative method including semi-automated frame analysis and correspondence analysis. Results show that right-wing populism is capable of successfully appropriating religious symbols and setting the agenda for religious topics on social media, even challenging the authority of traditional religious authorities on their own ground. By attacking the Church, defending the religious sentiment of the people, and opposing Christian identity to Islam, religion is effectively integrated into the populist worldview.

The Victorian Cult of Shakespeare: Bardology in the Nineteenth Century

The Victorian Cult of Shakespeare: Bardology in the Nineteenth Century

Digital Islam and Muslim Millennials: How Social Media Influencers Reimagine Religious Authority and Islamic Practices

Digital platforms have empowered individuals and communities to re-negotiate long-established notions of religion and authority. A new generation of social media influencers has recently emerged in the Muslim world. They are western-educated, unique storytellers, and savvy in digital media production. This raises new questions on the future of Islam in the context of emerging challenges, such as the openness of technology and the often-perceived closedness of religious and cultural systems within Muslim societies. This paper uses a multiple case research design to examine the roles of social media influencers in reimagining Islam and reshaping spiritual beliefs and religious practices among young people in the Gulf Region, the Arab world, and beyond. We used thematic analysis of the Instagram and YouTube content of four social media influencers in the Gulf Region: Salama Mohamed and Khalid Al Ameri from the United Arab Emirates, Ahmad Al-Shugairi from Saudi Arabia, and Omar Farooq from Bahrain. The study found that social media influencers are challenging traditional religious authorities as they reimagine Muslim identities based on a new global lifestyle.

Women, religion, and digital counter-publics: introduction

ABSTRACT Even after decades of critical scholarship on religion and the Internet, a rapidly changing field and a febrile global political climate demand renewed questions about the relationships between online spaces and gender-related activism. This is particularly the case, in the post-#MeToo era, in relation to women and religion. While digital activism both promotes and challenges gender inequalities, reflecting prejudices apparent in the offline world, women and men continue to create and adapt online spaces that question received wisdom about their roles in religious traditions. We argue that using Nancy Fraser’s concept of the ‘subaltern counter-public’, adapted by Marc Lamont-Hill as the ‘digital counter-public’, allows us to explore the extent to which digital spaces enable traditional religious authority structures to be challenged in ways that might not be possible in the offline environment. The aim of this Special Issue Section is to provide four detailed case study examples, drawn from Sikhism, Wicca, Hinduism, and Buddhism, across varied geographical and political contexts, in order to examine how women have engaged the digital to create spaces that challenge mainstream narratives about their religious attainment and belonging, raising key questions for the ongoing study of religion online.

Necessary Questions of Chö: Uses and Abuses of Religion in Dondrup Gyel’s “Tulku”

“Why do you ask questions of roots and branches instead of the necessary questions of chö (Tib. chos)?” asks a character in Tibetan author Dondrup Gyel’s (don rgrub rgyal) controversial 1980 short story, “Tulku” (sprul sku). The Tibetan term chö can be translated in many ways, including to mean ‘the Buddhist teachings,’ ‘religion’ more generally, or even ‘the nature of reality.’ In “Tulku,” however, what chö means is not at all clear, and the various characters claim authority to determine what is legitimate chö. In the story, a Tibetan village is visited by a mysterious stranger claiming to be a tulku—a reincarnated religious leader— but who is actually a fraud. Most scholars have interpreted “Tulku” as a critique of traditional Tibetan religious devotion, and as a call by Gyel for Tibetans to modernize. This paper, however, proposes a new reading of “Tulku.” It suggests that Gyel pairs overt criticism of the corrupt tulku with a subtler critique of the Chinese government’s policy towards Tibetan Buddhism. It argues for such a reading by tracking how the word chö is used in “Tulku.” It shows that Gyel places the word not in the mouths of the Tibetan villagers, but rather in the mouths of the fraudulent tulku and the representatives of the Communist Party. Both thus use chö in order to appeal to the Tibetan villagers, claim power for themselves, and exclude the opposing party. “Tulku” thereby creates parallels between the ways in which the Tulku and the Party use chö to appeal to and manipulate the Tibetan villagers. On this reading, “Tulku” highlights the way chö can be weaponized by both traditional religious authorities and Communist party ideology, and suggests that in this modern period, any claimant to chö must be treated with caution and skepticism.

Beyond Disenchantment

Beyond Disenchantment

Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts against Domestic Violence

Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts against Domestic Violence

Traditional Religious Authorities in New Media: A Study of The Cariustadz.id Platform as An Alternative Cyber Fatwa and Da’wah Media among The Middle-Class Urban Muslims

This study examines the recent developments of religious authorities among middle-class urban Muslims. It is constructed due to the emergence of new religious authorities in Indonesia after the collapse of the New Order and the response of traditional santri involving the use of new media technology. With a phenomenological approach, the study focuses on the Cariustadz.id platform as a Cyber Fatwa and Islamic preaching media developed by Pusat Studi Qur’an/PSQ (Center for Qur’an Studies) to respond to the trending pengajian (sermon) activities among urban Muslims, the majority of whom are transnational groups including Salafi and Jamaah Tabligh. The Cariustadz.id platform has actively played a part in accommodating their aspirations with various facilities and easy access through an information technology-based application (a new media). As a result, the study argues that the moderate Islam discourse offered by the Cariustadz.id platform is not a mainstream but an alternative to religious activities for middle-class urban Muslims. In addition, Cariustadz.id is a new media used for traditional religious authority to compete with new religious authority in religious fatwa and Islamic discourse in Indonesia. This study is significant to show that Cyber Fatwa and Islamic preaching in the form of new media can be used as a counter narrative for traditional religious authorities in dealing with the proliferation of the so called new religious authorities dakwah movement and Salafi and radical preaching movement in new media. Abstrak:Artikel ini mengkaji perkembangan terkini otoritas keagamaan di kalangan kelas menengah Muslim perkotaan. Hal ini dilatarbelakangi oleh munculnya otoritas keagamaan baru di Indonesia pasca runtuhnya Orde Baru dan respons santri tradisional yang melibatkan penggunaan teknologi media baru. Dengan pendekatan fenomenologis, penelitian ini berfokus pada platform Cariustadz.id sebagai media fatwa siber dan dakwah Islam alternatif yang dikembangkan oleh PSQ (Pusat Studi Qur an). Plaform itu untuk merespons kegiatan pengajian yang sedang tren di kalangan Muslim perkotaan, yang mayoritas pesertanya adalah kelompok transnasional termasuk Salafi dan Jamaah Tabligh. Cariustadz.id berperan aktif dalam menampung aspirasi mereka dengan berbagai fasilitas dan kemudahan akses melalui aplikasi teknologi informasi. Penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa wacana Islam moderat yang ditawarkan oleh platform Cariustadz.id bukanlah mainstream, melainkan kegiatan keagamaan alternatif bagi Muslim perkotaan kelas menengah. Selain itu, Cariustadz.id merupakan media baru yang digunakan otoritas keagamaan tradisional untuk berkompetisi dengan otoritas keagamaan baru di bidang fatwa keagamaan dan wacana keislaman di Indonesia. Studi ini signifikan untuk menunjukkan bahwa fatwa siber dan dakwah Islam dalam bentuk media baru dapat digunakan sebagai kontranarasi bagi otoritas agama tradisional dalam menghadapi menjamurnya apa yang disebut gerakan dakwah otoritas keagamaan baru dan gerakan dakwah Salafi dan radikal di media baru.

Pesantren and the preservation of traditional religious authority in the digital age

Kiai is the Javanese term of ulama in the traditional Muslim community. It generally refers to a person who has a deep understanding of Islam and leads the institution of traditional Islamic education called pondok pesantren or Islamic boarding school. Indeed, the strength of a Kiai is based on his leadership at the pesantren that has functioned as a space for cultural-social reproduction. While the attention of many researchers focused on the shifting of Islamic authority in the digital age, not much of them paid special attention to the survival of Kiai’s authority. This study aims to examine the role of pesantren in preserving the authority of the Kiai in the digital age. This study employed qualitative method and utilized the cultural reproduction theory of Pierre Bourdieu. This study found that Kiai’s authority continues to survive because pesantren functioned as a space for transmitting cultural values, including the recognition of Kiai’s high position. As a social and cultural reproduction space, pesantren becomes a field that forms habitus through the transmission of its cultural values which is naturally formed in the daily practices of the santri.

Konstruksi, Kontestasi, Fragmentasi, dan Pluralisasi Otoritas Keagamaan Indonesia Kontemporer

Noorshahril Saat and Ahmad Najib Burhani (eds). 2020. The New Santri: Challenges to Traditional Religious Authority in Indonesia. Singapore: ISEAS Yusuf Ishak Institute.After the New Order, religious movements become increasingly popular both offline and online. The internet has become a medium for disseminating ideas and practices of religious patterns that are different from traditional religious authorities. On the other hand, there are increasing opportunities for transnational religious movements seeking to build their influence in Indonesia. Another interesting phenomenon is the presence of New Santri coming to color the world of da’wah in Indonesia through new media. Through this book, the authors try to explain the phenomena that are happening in the struggles for religious authority in Indonesia. This book describes at least three factors that significantly influence recent religious competitions, namely: globalization, post-Reformation democratization (after 1998), and the growth of various private television channels and social media users. These three factors have a strong impact in shaping and internalizing the construction, contestation, fragmentation, and pluralization of contemporary Indonesian religious authorities.

USTAZ YOUTUBE: USTAZ ABDUL SOMAD AND THE DYNAMICS OF CHANGING RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES

This article examines the dynamics of changing religious authority, especially in Ustaz Abdul Somad, whose lectures are widely uploaded via Youtube. This study is important because Youtube does not only act as a medium for contemporary da'wah but also a means to build and strengthen traditional religious authority. The questions that will be answered in this article include: First, what were the discourses that initiated the emergence of ustaz Youtube in Indonesia? Second, what are the dynamics of changes in religious authority taking place on Youtube? Third, how does the Youtube media change and strengthen Ustaz Abdul Somad's religious authority? To answer these questions, researchers conducted online ethnographic work and personal communication with Ustaz Abdul Somad's audience. This article finds that three concepts influence the dynamics of changing Ustaz Abdul Somad's religious authority on Youtube, including the nature of Youtube technology itself, the role of Ustaz Abdul Somad's fans, and the aesthetic forms in Ustaz Abdul Somad's lectures.

Otoritas Keagamaan Baru: Habituasi dan Arena Dakwah Era Digital

The presence of the hijrah community in Indonesia directly resulted in the emergence of a new religious authority. Social media is a key factor in the massive campaign and regeneration carried out by the hijrah community. 'Terang Jakarta' and 'Shift Bandung' are two hijrah communities that have a very large number of congregations, especially on social media. This research attempts to answer the role of social media in shaping new patterns of new religious authority and to describe its relationship with traditional religious authority. Using a qualitative approach, this research finds that the formation of new religious authorities is more dominated by the prseference for preaching through social media, both by public figures and new religious teachers at the local level. These new religious authorities were actively involved in the hijrah community which they directly cultivated. Traditional religious authorities such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah need to synergize programs with hijrah groups, especially in dakwah activities and religious moderation. This research considers that the Islamic Progressive group is an alternative movement capable of providing advocacy to all groups in Indonesia.