Appreciation of art of the traditional music for Christian worship in Irian Jaya

Abstract

The title of this thesis is "Appreciation of Art of the Traditional Music in Christian Worship in Irian Jaya". This thesis is a reflection on the developments of the traditional arts in Irian Jaya and how they can prove to be a bridge for Evangelism to break through to the people through their own culture. The Evangelical Christian Church in Irian Jaya (GKI) has been discussing about the contextualization of theology for a long time now and their focus has been on the development of Theological Contextualization in accordance with the existing culture of the people. In 1986, the Sekolah Tinggi Theologia (STT-GKII S. KIJNE) held a scientific discussion on the effort that has been made about contextualization, its aim being to publish a book about Theological Contextualization in Irian Jaya. When I looked at what the GKI needed for its development, I considered that it was important for the churches to carry out their evangelization of the people with the local culture of the people in mind. So， this thesis’ purpose is that it will be a means through which the development of Theological Contextualization can be initiated, maybe starting from one ethnic group in Irian Jaya especially the Mej-Brat tribe in Sorong Regency. Many traditional songs and traditional music instruments were found among this particular group of people during the time that I spent doing my research among them. I found out that many of them were not used for praise as well as for response to God as the creator of art because of the prejudice that had been developed by the missionaries, among the people, against using the traditional culture for worshipping God. In this thesis, the following matters have been discussed with the view of providing an insight on how to appreciate the use of traditional music in worship: Chapter I and II: These two chapters focus on the ethnic Mej-Brat tribe in Irian Jaya. The central attention has been given on how the traditional arts can be developed, and how their music can be used to express themselves. Chapter III: This chapter focuses more on the opinions of other writers about Theological Contextualization in connection with the use of traditional music in Christian Worship. Chapter IV: Clarifications of the forms of the basics of theology and the development of Theological Contextualization in connection with the church and the culture of the people. In this part too, the various opinions of the critics about Theological Contextualization in Asia have been taken into consideration and then combined with the context of GKI in Irian Jaya. Chapter V : This chapter forms the conclusion about the role of traditional music in Christian Worship， and also hopes that the traditional arts will be taken upon the future, and utilized responsibly by the Gereja Kristen Injili in Irian Jaya (GKI), Sekolah Tinggi Theologian Isaac Samuel Kijne (STT-GKI I.S.KIJNE), and the Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music (AILM), the institutions that produce artists and theologians from countries all over Asia, who become the leaders in their own churches.