A Model of Humanistic Religious Understanding: A Study of the Thoughts of Abdurahman Wahid

This study discusses the phenomenon of the fading humanistic side in terms of the religiousness of people and the phenomenon of various conflicts, disintegrations, and disputes emerging in the name of religion. This study analyzes the model of humanistic understanding of religion from the thoughts of Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur). This study is vital since the fading of the humanistic side emerges the ambivalent face of religion which becomes legitimacy for destructive actions: a reality against its claim as the source of peace and mercy. Religion is then accused as “scapegoat” for integration and considered as the opposite of the changes of life’s modernity. This study employs a phenomenology method to analyze the religious social phenomenon and employs a hermeneutic approach in interpreting and analyzing the humanistic thoughts of Gus Dur. The result of the study is that, religious critical logic of the Indonesian people has not been constructed so that religiousness emphasizes more on symbols than meanings. As a result, that religions are not able to participate in dialogue with culture and modernity, the face of religion isn't appealing/interesting. The Humanism philosophy of Gus Dur rejects the dialectics in which ideological substance become the reference to other values and ideologies. For Gus Dur, humanism is the most important value of all religions; it calls upon the religious people to practice religion through more than just religious symbols and practices.