James Haire , Charles Sturt University, Australia

The inquiry will examine the interaction of indigenous Indonesian Christian theologies and other Indonesian religious traditions, within the wider context of Asia. The first phase of the inquiry will examine the development of self-conscious indigenous Indonesian Christian theologies from the late nineteenth century CE against the background of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Attention will be primarily focused on the writings of scholars from the largest Christian communities, that is, from the Reformed, Lutheran and Catholic traditions. This work should be completed in Princeton. The second phase of the inquiry will examine a number of other similar interactions in other parts of Asia. The third phase will evaluate common patterns in the various interactions between the indigenous theologies and the wider religious traditions. The inquiry will thus further my published work in this general area.  Specifically, it will seek to evaluate whether and to what extent Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist traditions see these indigenous Christian theologies as decorative or syncretistic and engage less with them and more with inherited Christian theologies primarily from classical Reformed, Lutheran and Catholic traditions of the West. Furthermore the inquiry will assess the extent to which indigenous Christian theologies are self-conscious of these possible reactions.

James Haire is Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (National Australian Christian Centre) (ACC&C), Professor of Theology of Charles Sturt University (CSU), and Director of the Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre (PACT), all based in Canberra, the national capital of Australia. He took up his appointment in Canberra in 2003. Before coming to Canberra, from 1987 to 2003 he was Professor and Head of the School of Theology at Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Professor of New Testament Studies and Principal at Trinity College, Brisbane, and Dean and President of the Brisbane College of Theology. From 1985 to 1987 he was Uniting Church Parish Minister in Darwin, Australia. Prior to that, he served, from 1972 to 1985, as a Minister and Theological Lecturer and Professor in Halmahera, Indonesia, as a Missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. He was ordained to the Christian ministry by the Evangelical Christian Church in Halmahera (Gereja Masehi Injili di Halmahera (GMIH)) in 1972, and served in that Church from 1972 until 1985. He was also received as a Minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland in 1974. Since 1985 until the present he has been Visiting Lecturer and Visiting Professor at the Theological College of the GMIH (STT-GMIH) and the University of Halmahera (Universitas Halmahera). He has also been Visiting Professor in the Postgraduate Programme of the Christian University of Indonesia at Tomohon, Sulawesi, and in the South-East Asia Graduate School of theology (SEAGST) during those years. He served as President of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA), and was Chairperson of the National Heads of Churches of Australia, from 2000 to 2003. He served as President of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) from 2003 to 2006.