Christianity in Indonesia
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Christianity in Indonesia is a minority religion. About 5.85 % of the population of Indonesia are Protestants and about 3 % are Catholics.
In Papua and North Sulawesi provinces as well as other areas Protestants form the majority of the population. Nestorian Christians were already present in modern day Indonesia in the 10th to 11th century.[1] Protestantism was first introduced by the Dutch in the sixteenth century, resulting in Calvinist and Lutheran influence. The first Roman Catholics arrived in 1534, in the Maluku islands. They were Portuguese that were sent for exploration. Francis Xavier, a Roman Catholic missionary and co-founder of the Jesuit Order worked in the Maluku islands from 1546 to 1547. Julius Darmaatmadja is the only current cardinal in Indonesia. He is the archbishop of Jakarta.
In the 1960s due to anti-Communist and anti-Confucian legislation many Communists and Chinese claimed to be Christians. Christians are under a level of pressure in several areas with an Islamic majority, such as Aceh, West Java and South Sulawesi. Even today, there appears to be a significant rate of conversions, especially on the island of Java.
The radical Islamist militia Laskar Jihad who comprised at some point several 10,000 fighters (mostly from Java and Sumatra) is responsible for attacks on Christians since 1998.
[edit] References
- ^ Adolf Heuken. Ensiklopedi Gereja (2005)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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