Developing a Dialogical Community in the Context of Multireligious Indonesia

Abstract

As a multicultural and multireligious nation, Indonesia has Pancasila as the basis of the state and the nation's philosophy of life. Pancasila contains religious-humanistic values extracted from the life experiences of various local communities that are widespread in the territory of Indonesia. Dialogue is one of the essential pillars in preserving Indonesia's plurality. To preserve the identity of a plural nation amid global relations, it is necessary to continue developing dialogue in all areas of life. This qualitative research, using the literature study method, aims to analyse the dialogue of the Pancasila community based on Jurgen Habermas' theory of communicative action. There are two significant findings from this study. First, there is a closeness of thought between communicative action in Habermas's thought and dialogue, which is a communicative action that preserves the values of Pancasila. Second, the communicative and dialogical actions of Indonesian communities, which are multicultural, multireligious, and multiracial, have a rational, egalitarian, and democratic character, as initiated by Habermas. The uniqueness of the communicative dialogue of the Pancasila community lies in the communal-affective and empathic character lived by various multireligious and multicultural local communities. Communicative dialogue is at the level of praxis of living together based on humanistic-religious values for unity in diversity.