This editorial note introduces Vol. 10 No. 1 (2026) of Religious: Jurnal Studi Agama-Agama dan Lintas Budaya by situating its five articles within a shared narrative on religious life across diverse social, political, spatial, aesthetic, and academic contexts. The issue brings together five original research articles authored by eight scholars from six countries: Cameroon, Portugal, Bulgaria, Russia, Indonesia, and Turkey. The articles collectively explore religious extremism and symbolic domination, sacred space and contemplative atmosphere, illuminative ontology and political thought, Orthodox hymnography and iconography, and the production of knowledge within Religious Studies. This editorial note argues that religion should not be understood only as doctrine, ritual, or institutional affiliation, but also as a symbolic force, spatial experience, political imagination, aesthetic expression, and academic practice. By reading the articles through the themes of symbolic power, sacred space, political thought, and knowledge production, this issue contributes to the development of Religious Studies through interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives. It opens further discussion on how religion shapes collective life across regions, traditions, and scholarly formations.
This study analyzes the relationship between Religious Studies and the discourse of religious moderation in Indonesian higher education by challenging the dominant view that positions religious moderation primarily as a state-driven normative agenda or a mechanism for transmitting moral values. The purpose of this research is to explain how Religious Studies operates as an epistemic space that shapes intellectual dispositions for managing religious diversity, rather than as an instrument of normative harmonization. This study employs a qualitative approach, using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) with lecturers and students at Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga and Universitas Gadjah Mada, complemented by an analysis of curricular documents and institutional practices. The findings reveal three main results. First, Religious Studies systematically produces epistemic humility, enabling subjects to recognize the limits of truth claims without falling into relativism. Second, through the repetition of academic practices, a reflexive habitus emerges that shifts religious engagement from identity defense toward argumentative reasoning. Third, Religious Studies equips subjects with the capacity to manage tensions among religion, culture, and nationalism critically and contextually. This study offers an original contribution by proposing the concept of critical religious moderation as an intellectual-ethical capacity produced through scholarly practice. The implications of this research underscore the importance of protecting epistemic autonomy and strengthening reflective educational ecosystems within policies on religious moderation in higher education.
This article examines how Islam, lived as everyday practice, operates as a moral infrastructure shaping welfare meanings, ethical compliance, and state–society relations in the implementation of Indonesia’s Family Hope Program (Program Keluarga Harapan, PKH) in Palu City, Central Sulawesi. The study aims to address the limitations of dominant administrative and economistic approaches to welfare policy by demonstrating why religion must be taken seriously as an operative moral force within public policy practice, particularly in Global South contexts. Employing a qualitative descriptive–interpretive design, the research draws on field observations, in-depth interviews with PKH beneficiaries, program facilitators, local officials, and religious leaders, as well as analysis of policy documents and program guidelines. Data were analyzed thematically through iterative processes of data reduction, categorization, and interpretation to capture the lived religious meanings embedded in welfare practices. The findings reveal three key patterns. First, beneficiaries conceptualize welfare not as material accumulation or class mobility, but as a condition of sufficiency, calmness, and security, sustained primarily through children’s education, food provision, and basic healthcare. Second, PKH assistance is understood as a religious amanah (trust), generating compliance and disciplined assistance management through internalized moral emotions such as gratitude, fear of sin, shame, and parental responsibility rather than fear of administrative sanctions. Third, PKH functions as an arena of moral governance in which state regulations gain effectiveness by resonating with local Islamic moral idioms, mediated by program facilitators, local authorities, and kiai. The study has important implications for welfare policy and religious studies. It demonstrates that welfare governance in the Global South cannot be adequately understood through secular or technocratic lenses alone, as policy effectiveness depends on its capacity to engage existing religious moral ecologies. The originality of this research lies in its contribution to reframing welfare policy as a site of lived religion and moral governance.
This study aims to analyze the relationship between conspiracy belief, religion, and the stability of authoritarian regimes by examining the structural similarities between religious modes of thinking and conspiracy belief in contemporary political contexts. The study departs from the growing use of conspiracy narratives by authoritarian state actors and the involvement of national religious actors and groups in supporting such narratives. The research adopts a qualitative approach and applies narrative analysis to ten conspiracy narratives disseminated by the governments of the United States, Russia, Israel, Turkey, and India through the internet and digital media. The findings show that conspiracy belief and religious belief share structural equivalence in their psychosocial functions, particularly in providing self-certainty, group affiliation, meaning orientation, and identity stabilization amid social complexity. However, conspiracy belief consistently operates as a defensive mechanism against threats to a narcissistic self-concept and perceived loss of control through the distortion of reality, whereas religious belief displays a broader and more context-dependent range of functions. The study also demonstrates that digital media and platform algorithms function as cognitive and emotional accelerators that intensify the reproduction of conspiracy narratives and the legitimation of authoritarian power. The implications of this research underscore the importance of critical approaches in the study of religion and politics, particularly for understanding how religion and conspiracy narratives operate as sources of power legitimation and regime stabilization in the digital public sphere. The originality of this study lies in its integration of political narrative analysis with perspectives from cognitive psychology and neuro- and biopsychological explanations within the study of religion and culture.
This study analyzes the ethical architecture of the teaching profession in Indonesia by examining how teacher ethics is governed and evaluated within a context of institutional and religious pluralism. It seeks to explain why teacher ethics has largely functioned as an instrument of professional governance rather than as a framework of public moral reasoning that supports teachers’ moral agency. This study adopts a qualitative normative–philosophical approach, analyzing Indonesian education policy documents—particularly the Regulation of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology No. 67 of 2024—and codes of ethics issued by major teacher professional organizations (PGRI, IGI, PERGUNU, and Muhammadiyah). The analysis employs conceptual and argumentative methods, using Kantian ethics as an evaluative framework, while media-reported cases are referenced illustratively to contextualize normative tensions. The study identifies three central findings. First, teacher ethics in Indonesia is primarily framed in the language of compliance, discipline, and procedure, positioning ethics as a mechanism of professional governance. Second, the pluralism of organizational codes of ethics produces ethical fragmentation, whereby similar professional actions may be evaluated differently depending on institutional affiliation and adjudicative authority. Third, this configuration constrains teachers’ moral agency by prioritizing administrative conformity over rational moral justification that is public and universal in character. The findings suggest that addressing ethical fragmentation in the teaching profession requires more than regulatory harmonization or procedural standardization. Instead, there is a need for a shared framework of public moral reasoning that enables plural religious and institutional ethics to be evaluated through consistent and publicly justifiable criteria. Such a framework has implications for education policy, professional ethical governance, and the cultivation of teachers as autonomous moral agents in plural societies. This study contributes to religious studies and professional ethics scholarship by reframing ethical fragmentation not as a technical governance problem but as a problem of public moral justification within plural moral traditions. By employing Kantian ethics as an evaluative lens rather than a prescriptive doctrine, the study offers an original conceptual contribution to debates on religious pluralism, professional ethics, and moral agency in highly regulated educational contexts such as Indonesia.
Climate change poses a global challenge that has prompted the search for alternative mitigation approaches beyond technological solutions and formal policy frameworks, including those grounded in religious practices and indigenous local wisdom. This study analyzes the Baduy worldview through the selametan ubar pare ritual as a form of ecological ethics rooted in intersubjective relations between humans and nature. The research adopts a qualitative approach using ethnographic methods. Data collection involved participant observation and in-depth interviews conducted over a 30-day period within the Baduy community, complemented by systematic documentation of ritual practices, customary institutions, and huma agricultural activities. The findings demonstrate that the Baduy community constructs a relational ontology and epistemology that positions nature not as a passive object but as a living, responsive, and morally agentive relational subject. The community institutionalizes this relationship through pikukuh karuhun and enacts it concretely in the selametan ubar pare ritual, which integrates religious beliefs, traditional ecological knowledge, and sustainable agricultural practices. The ritual functions as a preventive mechanism that limits resource exploitation, regulates planting and harvesting rhythms through the customary calendar, and strengthens social solidarity and community resilience. Accordingly, climate change mitigation in the Baduy context operates not through technocratic interventions but through the internalization of ecological ethics and reciprocal human–nature relations embedded in everyday practice. The implications of this study affirm that indigenous religious ritual practices can serve as an ethical infrastructure for ecological sustainability at the local level. The originality of this research lies in interpreting indigenous ritual as an intersubjectivity-based ecological epistemology and ethic, thereby extending the field of religion and environmental studies while challenging perspectives that reduce indigenous rituals to symbolic, irrational, or premodern practices.
This article examines the role of practical theology in responding to femicide and gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa, one of the countries with the highest rates of violence against women globally. The study aims to analyze how practical theology can function as a reflective–transformative framework to challenge religious patriarchy, to build victim-centered pastoral praxis, and to promote prevention and social transformation through the engagement of faith communities. The research employs a qualitative approach with an exploratory–descriptive design, combining thematic analysis of interviews with church leaders and local religious actors with a critical review of literature on practical theology, African feminist theology, and faith-based intervention studies. The findings reveal three main points. First, patriarchal theological language and interpretation operate as a symbolic architecture that normalizes violence through the sacralization of family unity, the privatization of suffering, and the spiritualization of women’s sacrifice. Second, church pastoral praxis remains ambivalent: it can provide an initial space of protection for survivors, yet it can also prolong risk when it lacks victim-safety standards such as do no harm, security-based confidentiality, informed consent, and cross-sector referral mechanisms. Third, faith community engagement proves most transformative when practical theology operates as public ethics—through relational education on respect, consent, and non-violence; the formation of men and young men; bystander interventions; gender justice advocacy; and interdisciplinary collaboration with health, legal, and social services—supported by traceable impact indicators. This article argues that practical theology holds strategic capacity to transform churches from ambivalent normative institutions into public moral actors that contribute concretely to GBV prevention, survivor protection, and social norm change. In terms of originality, the study offers a conceptual contribution by positioning practical theology as a bridge between faith, survivors’ lived experiences, and measurable social transformation within the South African context.
This article examines Sundanese tafsīr as lived religion by analyzing Tafsir Ayat Suci Lenyepaneun by Moh. E. Hasim as a form of vernacular Qur’anic exegesis that operates as multicultural Islamic education within a plural urban society. The study aims to demonstrate that locally grounded tafsīr functions not only as a textual interpretation of the Qur’an but also as a pedagogical practice through which Islamic values are taught, experienced, and internalized in everyday social life. The study employs a qualitative descriptive design that integrates phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches. Data were collected through textual analysis of Tafsir Ayat Suci Lenyepaneun, participant observation of tafsīr study circles, and in-depth interviews with Muslim religious leaders, congregants, and non-Muslim residents in an urban neighborhood of Bandung. The data were analyzed thematically to trace how Qur’anic interpretations are articulated, transmitted, and internalized as lived ethical practices. The findings reveal three main patterns. First, the use of the Sundanese language enables Qur’anic messages to operate simultaneously at cognitive and affective levels, facilitating deep internalization of values such as justice, empathy, and respect for difference. Second, tafsīr functions as an oral and contextual pedagogy, in which key verses are conveyed through narratives and social illustrations that cultivate inclusive religious ethics and emotional self-restraint. Third, the internalization of tafsīr-based values produces cross-communal effects, reflected in harmonious interreligious relations and non-Muslim residents’ perceptions of safety and social cohesion. These findings imply that vernacular Qur’anic tafsīr can serve as an effective community-based model of multicultural Islamic education beyond formal educational institutions, contributing to social harmony in plural urban societies. The originality of this study lies in its empirical demonstration of how local tafsīr operates as lived religion and in positioning vernacular exegesis as a transformative pedagogical resource within the field of religious studies.
This study examines the life of KH Dauglas Toha Yahya (Gus Lik) as a contemporary expression of non-institutional social Sufism in Indonesia. Over the past two decades, the rise of symbolic religiosity, the popularity of celebrity preachers, and the commodification of religion have created a gap between outward religious expressions and substantive forms of social piety. This study aims to explain how Gus Lik’s everyday practices present an alternative model of religiosity rooted in simplicity, social proximity, and service to the community. Using a qualitative design and a historical–hermeneutic framework, the study draws on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. The data were analyzed using content and thematic analysis. The main findings identify three central patterns: first, Sufi asceticism (zuhud), manifested in a minimalist lifestyle, rejection of wealth and privileges, and closeness to marginalized groups; second, ta’dzim toward one’s teacher, which forms moral ethos, emotional discipline, and non-institutional charismatic authority; and third, khidmah (social service), reflected in direct engagement with the community, the formation of horizontal solidarity, and the creation of inclusive religious spaces. The study’s implications indicate that these Sufi values can play a significant role in strengthening social cohesion, offering critique against the commodification of spirituality, and presenting a model of religious leadership grounded in ethical exemplarity. The originality of this study lies in its systematic mapping of a contemporary Sufi figure who has received limited scholarly attention, as well as the formulation of a typology of “social Sufism” as a theoretical contribution to religious studies in Southeast Asia.
This study investigates the role of Rambu Solo funeral rituals and Tongkonan ancestral houses in fostering interfaith harmony and social cohesion in Rembon, Tana Toraja, Indonesia. The research aims to explain how these traditions, beyond their symbolic functions, operate as practical mechanisms for conflict resolution and community solidarity in a highly plural society. This focus is crucial given Indonesia’s recurring challenges in managing religious diversity, where pluralism, if not effectively governed, can lead to social tension and communal conflict. A qualitative case study design was employed, drawing on in-depth interviews with traditional leaders, religious figures, and community members, complemented by participant observation and document analysis. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to uncover the mechanisms, values, and processes embedded in Rambu Solo and Tongkonan. The findings reveal that Rambu Solo serves as a site of interfaith cooperation through collective participation in rituals, while Tongkonan provides a deliberative forum for consensus-building on social and religious issues. The implications suggest that Toraja traditions can serve as models for multicultural policy and practice, particularly in promoting local wisdom as instruments of peacebuilding. Adaptive strategies, including simplifying ritual obligations, integrating cultural values into education, and fostering interfaith dialogue between adat and religious leaders, are recommended to sustain harmony. The originality of this research lies in its demonstration that interfaith harmony emerges not only from doctrinal ideals or abstract principles but from living cultural institutions that embed pluralism into daily practices. By bridging Durkheim’s concept of collective consciousness and Weber’s theory of communal solidarity with empirical evidence from Toraja, this study contributes a distinctive model of sustainable pluralism rooted in indigenous traditions.
The transformation of the Thousand Doors Mosque (Masjid Seribu Pintu) in Tangerang reflects a shift in function from a place of worship to a multifunctional space encompassing religious, social, cultural, and economic dimensions. This study aims to examine the historical and cultural factors driving this transformation, the mosque's role in religious tourism, and its impact on the local community. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected through field observations, in-depth interviews with mosque administrators and visitors, and a review of relevant literature. The findings reveal that the mosque’s unique architectural elements—such as its numerous doors, dark corridors, Islamic calligraphy, and tawasul chamber—not only enhance the spiritual experience but also serve as key attractions for religious tourists. This transformation is supported by active local community participation in economic activities and the preservation of spiritual values, although it poses challenges in maintaining the sanctity of worship. These findings suggest the need for sustainable religious tourism policies that balance the mosque’s sacred function with its socio-economic role. The originality of this research lies in its integration of religious architecture, Islam Nusantara spirituality, and cultural capital within the context of contemporary tourism. This study contributes conceptually to scholarship on sacred space, religious tourism governance, and the mosque’s role as a cultural and economic hub in modern Muslim societies.
This study explores the symbolic and ritual parallels between the agricultural and fertility cults of the Adyghe people and the religious practices of ancient Anatolian civilisations, particularly the Hatti and Hittites. The research aims to demonstrate that Adyghe spiritual traditions are not isolated but form part of a broader Eurasian religious continuum shaped by cultural diffusion and shared cosmological archetypes. Using a qualitative, historical-comparative approach, the study analyses mythological narratives, ritual texts, linguistic terms, and archaeological records drawn from both Adyghe ethnographies and translated Hittite sources. The findings reveal striking similarities: the thunder god who defeats serpent-like forces, the symbolism of sacred trees and animal skins, and springtime fertility rites aligned with agricultural renewal. These elements suggest a structural continuity in agrarian cosmology across regions and epochs. The research contributes to the study of indigenous religions and ecospirituality by highlighting how local rites preserve ancient symbolic systems and maintain environmental ethics rooted in spiritual cosmology. The originality of this study lies in its cross-cultural synthesis and structural comparison of ritual motifs, which uncovers historical and theological connections between the Adyghe and Anatolian traditions—an area largely overlooked in prior scholarship. By bridging cultural histories of the Caucasus and Anatolia, the study provides new insights into the transregional development of religious thought within ancient agrarian societies.
This study examines the role of community structures in preventing the emergence and growth of Fundamentalism, Radicalism, and Terrorism (FRT) using Cherian George’s Assertive Pluralism theory as its conceptual framework. The relevance of this research lies in the increasing challenges to social cohesion in pluralistic settings, including spatial segregation and exclusivist narratives that have the potential to fuel radicalisation. Employing a qualitative approach, the study draws on literature review, in-depth interviews, and field observations, focusing on an interfaith cooperation model developed in Salatiga City, Central Java, by the Salatiga Church Cooperation Agency (BKGS) in partnership with Muslim and Christian community networks. The findings reveal three main points. First, community-based organizations such as BKGS, Banser NU, Forum Hati Beriman, and the Interfaith Young Friends Movement (Gerakan Sobat Muda Lintas Iman) play a central role in fostering trust, solidarity, and mutual respect through interfaith collaboration in religious events, public services, and humanitarian programs. Second, interfaith education initiatives by UIN Salatiga and UKSW—through the integration of Islamology courses, halal studies, and the Kampus Kebangsaan program—strengthen interreligious understanding and engage students as agents of tolerance. Third, challenges remain, including the development of exclusive sharia housing, moral superiority narratives, rejection of interfaith activities, and weak assertiveness among local authorities, all of which can limit interfaith interaction and create fertile ground for radicalism. The study’s implications underscore the importance of synergy among four pillars—grassroots organizations, educational institutions, collaborative public initiatives, and responsive local governance—in community-based pre-conflict prevention. Its original contribution lies in the practical application of Assertive Pluralism in the Indonesian context, offering a conceptual model that can be replicated in other pluralistic regions to strengthen social resilience against FRT.
This study aims to analyze the layered meanings of the hijab within the Pendaki Hijabers community in Indonesia. The research seeks to explain how the hijab functions not only as a religious obligation but also as a cultural signifier of piety, agency, and resistance, making it important to understand its role in shaping Muslim women’s identity in unconventional public spaces. Using a qualitative approach, the study employed in-depth interviews, participant observations during mountain expeditions, and documentation of community campaigns. The data were analyzed through Roland Barthes’ theory of cultural semiotics to identify the denotative, connotative, and mythological meanings of the hijab. The results reveal three key layers of meaning. At the denotative level, the hijab serves as a sign of obedience and piety. At the connotative level, it becomes a symbol of freedom and inclusivity, challenging stereotypes of restriction. At the mythological level, the hijab embodies resistance and social transformation through activities such as daʿwah, the GEMAR (Gerakan Menutup Aurat) campaign, and community service. These findings contribute to religious and cultural studies by offering new insights into the relationship between faith, gender, and physical endurance. They also suggest practical implications for gender equality advocacy, daʿwah strategies, and the promotion of inclusive public spaces for women. The originality of this research lies in situating the hijab within the context of extreme outdoor activities—a domain rarely addressed in previous studies—and in demonstrating how religious symbols operate as dynamic cultural signifiers that bridge devotion, empowerment, and ideological resistance.
This editorial note situates the articles in Religious: Journal of Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies, Vol. 9 No. 1 (2025), within broader global debates on religion, culture, and social change. It argues that religion, far from receding under secularization and globalization, continues to function as an adaptive social infrastructure. Drawing on case studies from Indonesia (Bali, Toraja, Maluku, Papua) and comparative contexts (Ghana, Rwanda, Europe, and beyond), the contributions collectively highlight five interrelated themes: religion as a framework for social cohesion and conflict resolution, the transformation and re-enchantment of sacred spaces, women’s agency and visibility in religious life, religion’s ambivalent role in radicalism and security, and the historical reinvention of traditions as cultural memory. By weaving together classical theories with contemporary phenomena—including digital media, commodification, and gendered visibility—this issue demonstrates the continued relevance of religion in negotiating identity, fostering peace, and sustaining plural societies in a global age.
This study examines the transmission and transformation of the Gendong dance among the Akit community in Riau Province, focusing on how ritual knowledge and practices are sustained or disrupted without formal institutions. The research addresses the urgency of safeguarding this endangered intangible heritage, which has undergone functional shifts under modernization and socio-economic pressures. Employing a qualitative ethnographic approach, data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and documentation, and analyzed using descriptive-interpretive methods informed by cultural sociology and anthropology. The findings reveal three key dynamics: (i) the transmission of the Gendong dance is primarily genealogical, reinforced by informal apprenticeship and ritualized knowledge such as prayers, chants, and taboos; (ii) its role has shifted from sacred purification rituals, notably in Bele Kampung, to public performances at civic celebrations and tourism events, entailing changes in choreography, duration, and media; and (iii) the community negotiates between maintaining sacred elements in limited ritual contexts and adapting performative aspects for modern audiences. These findings imply that cultural sustainability requires integrated strategies to balance preservation with adaptation, including educational inclusion, creative economy support, and digital documentation. The originality of this research lies in its focus on micro-level processes of genealogical transmission and cultural negotiation—an underexplored dimension in previous studies that primarily emphasized symbolic, ritual, or commodified aspects. This contribution enriches academic discourse on intangible heritage and practical frameworks for inclusive cultural policy.
This study aims to examine the formation and transformation of religious institutions in ancient China through an institutional approach, focusing on the role of religion not only as a tool of the state but also as a compensatory mechanism in response to systemic crises. Using a qualitative-historical method and document analysis of primary sources from the Shang, Zhou, and Han periods, as well as secondary scholarly literature, the data were analyzed through institutional theory and comparative historical approaches. The findings reveal two main phases in the development of religion: first, the early phase, characterized by ancestral cults and the concept of the Mandate of Heaven, which reinforced political institutions based on redistribution; second, the transformative phase, when Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism evolved into adaptive ethical-philosophical systems in response to social upheaval. These three teachings formed a unique syncretic configuration—Three Teachings Harmony (san jiao he yi, 三教合一)—that functioned as an institutional balancing force in a highly hierarchical society. This study highlights the important role of religious syncretism as an ideological and socio-political balance and proposes that this model explains the continuity of religion in China despite official secularization efforts. The originality of this research lies in its institutional approach to religious history, demonstrating that syncretism in China is not merely cultural but structurally shaped by its redistributive political economy. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the adaptability of religion in hierarchical societies and offers an analytical framework for religious pluralism in other Eastern contexts.
This study aims to examine the role of pawongan—a principle of interpersonal harmony in the Tri Hita Karana philosophy—as a local wisdom-based mechanism for preventing social conflict in Bali’s multicultural society. The urgency of this research lies in the rising identity-based tensions across Indonesia, which require conflict prevention strategies that do not solely rely on institutional or coercive approaches but instead draw from cultural values. This study employs a qualitative method with a library research design. The data consist of secondary sources such as peer-reviewed journal articles, academic books, policy documents, and relevant research reports. The data collection process followed a systematic procedure that included identifying key concepts, selecting primary literature on pawongan and Tri Hita Karana, and conducting thematic and narrative synthesis of the findings. The results reveal that pawongan has been actualized through four main strategies: first, the socialization of customary norms and rituals such as matatah and ngejot jerimpen; second, the promotion of interreligious tolerance by traditional and religious leaders; third, the integration of pawongan values into education and interfaith forums; and fourth, the revitalization of communal solidarity through customary institutional structures. These strategies demonstrate that pawongan is not merely a normative teaching, but a functional framework for community-based peace governance. The findings reaffirm the relevance of local wisdom in shaping inclusive conflict prevention policies and sustainable peacebuilding. The originality of this research lies in its reinterpretation of pawongan as an institutionalized and context-specific value model that contributes a new perspective to the discourse on conflict resolution in Southeast Asia.
This issue presents interdisciplinary research that explores the intersection of religion with contemporary global and local challenges, including ecological sustainability, pluralism, and social vulnerability. The articles in this issue introduce significant contributions to religious studies by examining how religious practices can respond to environmental and social crises. Key contributions include the role of indigenous wisdom and ecological spirituality in environmental conservation, as well as the impact of religious pluralism in educational contexts that foster interfaith understanding and tolerance. Additionally, this issue discusses the importance of a pastoral approach emphasising relational accompaniment in pluralistic societies and the need to develop policies that are sensitive to social trauma. Through these approaches, this issue affirms that religious studies must be viewed as a source of ethical reflection and social transformation in addressing the complexities of the contemporary world. The primary focus of this issue is on integrating theological perspectives, ethics, and social action as a step towards building inclusive and just societies.
This study examines the dynamics of interfaith relations and religious tolerance among students and lecturers in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Indonesia—a pluralistic region known for its strong communal values and peaceful coexistence. The research aims to uncover how everyday interfaith interactions, embedded in local traditions, contribute to maintaining religious harmony amidst global trends of rising extremism and polarisation. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 961 respondents across 47 universities through a structured questionnaire. Statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA, were conducted to explore patterns of interfaith engagement, negative experiences, and exclusivist attitudes. Findings indicate a high frequency of positive interreligious interactions and minimal negative experiences such as discrimination or exclusion. Both students and lecturers strongly reject religious exclusivism and violence, with lecturers demonstrating slightly higher tolerance levels. Based on these insights, the study introduces the NTT Interfaith Pluralism Model, which comprises four core principles: interpersonal proximity, cultural anchoring, mutual visibility, and educational responsibility. These principles reflect how religious harmony in NTT is sustained through daily practices, local wisdom, and the role of educators as moral exemplars. The study offers practical implications for fostering inclusive religious environments, especially in multi-faith societies across the Global South. Rather than focusing solely on policy or formal dialogues, this model highlights the power of informal social interaction and community-embedded ethics. The originality of this research lies in its context-sensitive approach and contribution to understanding pluralism in peaceful settings, offering a scalable and replicable framework for other plural societies.
