YOGYAKARTA - Religion and sciences in the academic world cannot be separated from each other. Both have transformative capacity to do social transformation. Combining sciences and religion in the prophetic thought is expected to provide a new view in the development and changes of social sciences in Indonesia, as what has been pioneered by Prof. Kuntowijoyo.
"Accustoming prophetic thinking on campus environment is very important because of the failure in the busy politics due to the absence of changes from corruptive behavior and the presence of regulatory inconsistencies," Professor of Governmental Science, Prof. Dr. Purwo Santoso, MA, Ph.D said in a discussion which explores the thought of Prof. Kuntowijoyo, Prophetic Science and Intellectual Ascetism in the seminar room of UGM Graduate School on Thursday (23/6).
According to Purwo Santoso, the breakthrough idea pioneered by the late Prof. Kuntowijoyo more emphasizes on the actualization of social sciences diversity. This is very relevant to the context of Indonesia and the Muslim world, accustoming prophetic science by practicing Islam as a science. "Fostering culture of praxis of science and diversity is by producing methodology of prophetic science," he said.
In the same occasion, a historian, Prof. Dr. Bambang Purwanto, M.A., more highlighted the thought of Prof. Kuntowijoyo about the importance of new historiography in history writing in Indonesia. Because since the Independence, historical thoughts have been dominated by decolonization and social sciences issues.
"For Kuntowijoyo, writing and reconstructing the past are used to describe the present and to design the future. He introduced the forgiving historical science by building reconciliation," he said.
Purwanto added, in various occasions, Kuntowijoyo often emphasized the importance of building optimism in history writing in Indonesia by making history which is more dynamic, relevant and useful because of the transcendental relationship to God. "The historical science that he offered is an egalitarian history. But it does not have to be a consumer of Western social theories," he concluded.