Since the fall of the New Order regime, religion has entered the public sphere with its many faces. From the one that calls for peace, to the one that threatens the safety of adherents of other religions. Religious forces seem eager to take over public space, which has been dominated by the spirit of secularism and science in the modern age. This phenomenon is almost the inverse of the emergence of a “civil religion”, once divined to be born in the modern era. It is supposed to be a religion that is not monolithic, a religion that is not to be sidelined but is able to adapt to civilizations, to progress, and to the rational, modern world.

The emergence of religion’s fearsome face, alongside an increase in violence, terrorism, and tyrannical politics in the name of religion, seems to throw us back to the Middle Ages. So, what is the future for civil religion? Will it succumb to its challenger?

Salihari invites you to join the discussion with Ihsan Ali-Fauzi and Tedi Kholiludin. Ihsan Ali-Fauzi is Program Director of Yayasan Wakaf Paramadina, and lecturer at Paramadina University, Jakarta. Meanwhile, Tedi Kholiludin wrote his dissertation “Pancasila dan Transformasi Religiositas Sipil di Indonesia” (Pancasila and the Transformation of Civil Religiosity in Indonesia) at Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Central Java.

Open to public. Register by September 9, 2013.