RELIGIOUS MODERATION AND THEOLOGICAL EXCLUSIVISM: State Hermeneutics in Indonesia’s 2008 Qur’anic Commentary

Abstract

Religious moderation has emerged as a central framework of Indonesia’s state policy for governing religious diversity, yet its epistemological coherence with authoritative state-sponsored Qur’anic exegesis remains underexamined. This study investigates this tension by examining how the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ Al-Qur’an dan Tafsirnya engages with national commitment, tolerance, non-violence, and accommodation of local culture. Employing qualitative textual, discourse-analytical, and critical-hermeneutical approaches, the study analyzes the 2008 revised edition alongside the state’s religious moderation framework. The findings reveal a persistent disjuncture: while the exegesis accommodates moderation at civic and social levels, it simultaneously reproduces hierarchical and exclusivist representations of religious others, particularly Jews and Christians, theological boundaries, and political leadership. This contradiction exposes an epistemological incoherence within the state’s moderation project, wherein inclusive civic rhetoric coexists with inherited exclusivist theological assumptions. The study underscores the need to scrutinize the hermeneutical structures through which states authorize religious knowledge.