Jakarta- Christian education in Indonesia needs a fundamental shift—from doctrine-centered instruction to learning rooted in lived faith, culture, and social reality. That is the core message of a 2026 study by Afriani Manalu, Jofrito Helong, and Dirk Roy Kolibu from the Universitas Kristen Indonesia, published in the East Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (EAJMR). Drawing on historical studies of Christian epistemology, the authors show why education that treats faith only as abstract knowledge no longer meets the needs of Indonesia’s diverse and dynamic society.
The study matters because Christian education in Indonesia operates within a pluralistic nation shaped by cultural diversity, social change, and modern educational standards. When religious education relies too heavily on Western rationalist models, it risks disconnecting faith from everyday life. According to the authors, rethinking how knowledge of faith is formed—based on the long history of Christian thought—offers a more relevant and transformative path forward.
Why Christian Education Needs Rethinking
Modern education systems prioritize objectivity, measurable outcomes, and rational reasoning. These values have strengthened academic rigor but have also reshaped how religious education is delivered. In many classrooms, Christian faith is taught primarily through cognitive mastery: definitions, doctrines, and moral rules.
Manalu, Helong, and Kolibu identify this as a core problem. In Indonesia, Christian education has largely adopted Western epistemological traditions—rationalism, empiricism, and positivism—without sufficient adaptation to local culture and lived religious experience. As a result, faith is often reduced to theological information rather than understood as a relational and transformative way of life.
The authors argue that this approach weakens the social and spiritual impact of Christian education. Students may understand religious concepts but struggle to connect them with family life, community responsibility, and broader social engagement. In a country built on Pancasila values and religious coexistence, that gap has real consequences.
How the Study Was Conducted
The research uses a qualitative, literature-based approach rather than surveys or experiments. The authors systematically analyzed 18 key academic sources, including classical theological texts, contemporary philosophy of religion, and recent studies on Christian education in Indonesia.
Their analysis followed a historical-hermeneutical method, meaning they traced how Christian epistemology—the way believers understand and know God—has developed from early church history to modern thought. They then examined how these insights can inform present-day educational practice.
Instead of focusing on statistics, the study builds a conceptual framework. It connects historical theology with current educational challenges, offering a clear model for reforming Christian education in Indonesia.
Key Findings Explained Simply
The study highlights a major shift in Christian epistemology over time. Early Christian thinkers did not separate faith from reason. Instead, they viewed reason as a tool that deepens faith, not replaces it.
From this historical review, the authors identify three important transitions:
- From rationalistic to relational understanding of faith Faith is not just something to be logically explained, but something experienced in relationship with God and others.
- From abstract doctrine to contextual meaning Christian truth has always been shaped by historical and cultural contexts, not detached from them.
- From knowledge transmission to lived practice Faith becomes meaningful when it informs daily actions, ethical decisions, and social responsibility.
Based on these insights, the authors propose a contextual paradigm of Christian education with four defining characteristics:
- Incarnational – Faith is expressed through real actions in everyday life.
- Participatory – Students actively engage, reflect, and contribute, rather than passively receive instruction.
- Narrative-based – Life stories, local traditions, and community experiences become learning resources.
- Transformative – Education shapes character, moral integrity, and social engagement.
What This Means for Schools and Society
The implications extend beyond theology classrooms. For educators, the study redefines the role of the teacher. Teachers are not only transmitters of theological knowledge but spiritual mentors and facilitators of reflection. Classroom learning can include reflective journaling, discussion of real-life cases, community service, and dialogue about cultural experiences.
For curriculum developers, the findings encourage integrating biblical values such as love, justice, forgiveness, and solidarity with Indonesian social realities. Faith education becomes a space where students learn to interpret their own experiences through Christian values.
For society, the model supports a form of religious education that strengthens civic responsibility and social harmony. Students educated under this paradigm are more likely to live out their faith through ethical behavior, tolerance, and constructive engagement in a pluralistic nation.
As the authors emphasize, the challenge facing Christian education is not the content of faith, but how faith is epistemologically framed and taught.
Author Insight
According to Afriani Manalu of Universitas Kristen Indonesia, historical awareness is essential for meaningful reform. She and her co-authors stress that Christian epistemology has never been static. “When historical epistemological insights are internalized,” they argue, “faith, reason, experience, and culture can be integrated into an educational paradigm that is both theologically grounded and socially relevant.”
This integration, they conclude, allows Christian education to remain faithful to its tradition while responding effectively to Indonesia’s multicultural context.
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