Bender, Robert Review of: Income inequality, equality of opportunity and intergenerational mobility, by Miles Corak, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn University, 2013, 32 pages.

Abstrak: Prediksi tentang hilangnya agama seiring dengan proses modernisasi ternyata tidak benar. Agama-agama tetap hadir dan memiliki pengaruh yang signifikan dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat. Kenyataan ini memberikan tantangan tersendiri bagi teologi, setidak-tidaknya karena tiga hal. Pertama, kehadiran agama seringkali disertai dengan kecenderungan kuat untuk melihat relevansi agama hanya pada lingkup kehidupan privat seseorang dan mengabaikan implikasi sosial politis hidup beriman. Kedua, kehadiran agama terkait pula dengan sejumlah tindak kekerasan yang mengancam ketenteraman hidup bersama. Ketiga, agama-agama —khususnya di Indonesia— dituntut menyesuaikan diri (...) berhadapan dengan kenyataan plural dan corak demokratis masyarakat. Teologi ditantang untuk menyumbangkan refleksi yang berguna bagi terbentuknya agama yang tidak lupa akan implikasi sosial-politiknya, yang bebas dari kekerasan dan mampu menempatkan diri dengan tepat di tengah masyarakat demokratis dan plural. Kata-Kata Kunci: Post-sekular, privatisasi agama, kekerasan, multikultural, posisi epistemis, demokrasi, teologi politik. Abstract: The prediction that religion would vanish during and because of the modernization is not really true. Religions are still present and play a significant role in social life. This fact gives a special and interesting challenge to theology, at least for three reasons. First, the presence of religion is often accompanied by the strong tendency among its adherents to find the relevance of religion only to the one’s private life, denying the social and political implication of religion. Second, the presence of religion is connected with the acts of violence, which threaten the peace of the social life. Third, the religions —especially in Indonesia— have to adapt themselves to the pluralistic reality and the democratic system of the society. Theology is challenged to offer meaningful reflection on the formation of religion, which does not forfeit its social and political implications, free from violence and mindful of how to place itself properly in the democratic and pluralistic society. Keywords: Post-secular, privatization of religion, violence, multi-cultural, epistemic position, democracy, political theology. (shrink)