Catholics in Indonesia 1808-1942. A Documented History. Vol. 1: A Modest Recovery, 1808-1903 (review)

This is the first of two volumes on Catholics in Indonesia. It is noteworthy that Steenbrink titles it Catholics in Indonesia, rather than the Catholic Church in Indonesia. Although there is much about the institution, the focus is on the efforts of individual missionary priests in the nineteenth century to minister to Europeans and Eurasians in the major cities and to convert the natives in both Java and the eastern islands of the colony.

The book is in two parts: first, a well-written and insightful analysis and second, a selection of well-chosen documents that help the reader better understand the minds of the missionaries, their noble ideals, and their not so noble personal (and sometimes very public) failings; their frequent despair at the crassness of Dutch colonial society; and, most of all, their determination to plant their faith in the colony. Histories of missions and churches can be unexciting, but Steenbrink writes with a light touch and a keen eye for the very human characteristics of the missionary priests.

Catholics in Indonesia is located in the broader conversion narrative and the wider literature on missionary endeavor. Right at the beginning Steenbrink poses the central question for an historian of comparative religion: "Is the process towards a general acceptance of world religions the common thread and the choice of a specific religion only a matter of individual and regional preference or even chance?" This is no "Church triumphant" history; rather, it is a sophisticated attempt to understand the spread of one of the major world religions within the context of European colonialism and the conversion histories of other world religions.

Understandably the emphasis is on the European priests, but as the story of missionary endeavor unfolds, the reader is provided with fascinating portraits of Indonesians, both those who converted and those who resisted conversion. The interaction between local rulers in eastern Indonesia and the nineteenth-century Catholic priests is fascinating reading, providing much insight into what local rulers believed they were doing when they either converted or rejected conversion. As in so much missionary endeavor, most of the spectacular success stories revolve around missionaries with large charismatic personalities. For most missionary priests, however, the nineteenth century was pretty much fallow ground:try as they might, they found it difficult to build up congregations of any size, and many expressed their frustrations that they were unable to extinguish "heathen" beliefs even among converts.

The conversions in the nineteenth century were not as thorough as desired by most of the priests and their superiors. Steenbrink's analysis of the conversion process is nuanced, empathetically discussing the frustrations of priests who felt they were failures and subtle in his understanding of the continuities of belief systems. Despite the efforts of many, the Catholic community was still very small at the end of the nineteenth century, yet much was achieved. The Bible was translated into many languages, small communities of believers were scattered throughout the archipelago, and the basis was laid for the enormous expansion in the last forty years of colonial rule.

Through both Steenbrink's history and the complementary documents, the reader sees a colonial government more concerned with maintaining "rust en orde" than in promoting the Christian faith. Of course, the Protestant-Catholic divide had to be managed. Christian missionary work was only possible in the colony because of the support of the colonial government. Yet the alliance between church and state was often an uneasy one. For the Catholic Church and its missionary priests, their work was complicated by a colonial government determined to restrict Catholic proselytizing to avoid conflict with Islamic adherents and largely Protestant local officials. The clashes between priests and secular officials at both the local and central levels illuminate the differences...