ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the main themes of the book. It starts with an ethnographic snippet, a Kathina event in East Java, which condenses several of the issues at stake throughout the monograph. A few contextualising theoretical grids are given, with reference to the “living religion” approach and the position of this study with respect to the existing area scholarship. The chapter also provides a broad overview of the Indonesian sociocultural context since independence, in which significant shifts in religious policy and affiliation took place. Special attention is dedicated to the introduction of “ID-card religions” in the 1960s. Lastly, the chapter explicates the usage of the “Javanese” and “revival” tropes mobilised through the book.
