Religious Reform & Polarization in Java

Abstract

Pressures for religious reform—in any society or religious tradition—may lead to greater orthodoxy and orthopraxy, but can also invite opposition, social polarization, conflict, and violence. In this context the history of the Islamization of the Javanese is particularly interesting and significant. That history reveals periods of conflict and periods of reconciliation, so it may tell us something about what circumstances make religion a source for social harmony and what circumstances make it a cause of conflict.