Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Our nature world is in a serious crisis due to climate change, global warming, natural disaster, environmental degradation, and so on. The development of science and modernization positions humans as the center of the universe. Nevertheless, the greed to exploit nature leads to natural destruction and affects human life. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1968) noticed that many natural disasters caused by human’s moral crisis as the key problem of modernization. In response to this issue, many religious believers tend to trace back their religions, and are teaching about treating nature and dealing with it through an ecological perspective. This article explores the notion of Indigenous Religions in Indonesia dealing with the sustainability of nature. One of the fundamental elements in Indigenous Religions is kinship. Kinship in Indigenous Religions is not only with humans but also with other creatures, like the animal, the plant, the earth, the sky, the water, etc. However, some rituals of Indigenous Religions are closely related to nature and the environment in order to establish a good relationship, or in other words to build an environmental intimacy. By looking at some Indigenous Religions in Java, Indonesia, this study examines the norms, values, and ethics related to sustaining nature as part of micro cosmos (jagad cilik) and macro cosmos (jagad gede), where humans live and interact with other creatures. As a result, modernization doesn’t mean neglected tradition, but regarding it as renewing the value of traditions, especially in maintaining a relationship with nature.