Civil Religion as a Normative Framework for Preventing Radicalism in Indonesia: Integration of Pancasila and Deliberative Democracy —Öffentlichkeit
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15575/socio-politica.v16i1.53428Keywords:
civil religion, deliberative democracy, deradicalization, moral legitimacy, pancasila, radicalism, social integrationAbstract
Existing studies on radicalism and terrorism emphasize security, legal, and ideological lenses, framing it solely as a state threat, while overlooking its normative, symbolic, and moral appeals that foster societal legitimacy. This research analyzes radicalism as a crisis of civic integration and state moral delegitimization, proposing civil religion—synthesizing Durkheim's social facts, Rousseau's social contract, Bellah's civil religion, and Habermas's deliberative democracy—as a preventive framework treating radicalism as counter-civil religion. Through qualitative literature analysis, findings show civil religion builds public ethics, social cohesion, and cultural deradicalization by reframing violence, substituting identities, and integrating religion-nation symbols; in Indonesia, Pancasila embodies this, countering radicalism via inclusive identity, moral legitimacy, and deliberative pluralism alongside social justice, transcending mere securitization.
References
Bellah, R. N., & Hammond, P. E. (2013). Varieties of civil religion. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Bellah, R. N. (1967). Civil religion in America. Daedalus.
Brady, J. S. (2004). No Contest? Assessing the Agonistic Critiques of Jürgen Habermas’s Theory of the Public Sphere. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 30(3), 331–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453704043096
Budiono, A., Amin, M., & Ridho, H. (2025). Strategy for Planting Pancasila Ideology in Countering Terrorism in State-Owned Enterprises. PERSPEKTIF, 14(1), 51–59. https://doi.org/10.31289/perspektif.v14i1.13201
Buehler, M. (2016). The Politics of Moderation in Indonesia: Pancasila, Pluralism, and Deradicalization. In Contemporary Southeast Asia.
Casanova, J. (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. University of Chicago Press.
Chapa, P. I. (2025). The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2025.2550323
Coggon, J. (2012). What makes health public? In What Makes Health Public? (pp. 1–8). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139061032.002
Creswell. (2016). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Sage publications.
Danielson, L. (2019). Civil Religion as Myth, Not History. Religions, 10(6), 374. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10060374
Darmaputera, E. (1988). Pancasila and the search for identity and modernity in Indonesian society: A cultural and ethical analysis. E.J. Brill.
Djulaeka, & Rahayu, D. (2020). Buku Ajar: Metode Penelitian Hukum [Textbook: Legal Research Methods. Scopindo Media Pustaka.
Dryzek, J. S. (2002). Deliberative Democracy and Beyond: Liberals, Critics, Contestations. Oxford University Press.
Durkheim, E. (2016). The elementary forms of religious life. In Social theory re-wired. Routledge.
Habermas, J. (1996). Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy.
Habermas, J. (2005). Religion in the Public Sphere. Philosophia Africana, 8(2), 99–109. https://doi.org/10.5840/philafricana2005823
Held, D. (2013). Political theory and the modern state.
Holidin, D. (2022). Indonesia’s Democratic Decline: Pancasila and Political Islam. POLITICS AND RELIGION JOURNAL, 16(2), 179–202. https://doi.org/10.54561/prj1602179h
Honneth, A. (1995). The Struggle for Recognition. MIT Press.
Horgan, J. (2008). From Profiles to Pathways and Roots to Routes : Perspectives from Psychology on Radicalization into Terrorism. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 618(1), 80–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716208317539
Intan, B. (2019). Religious violence and the ministry of religion:‘public religion’in the pancasila-based state of Indonesia. International Journal of Public Theology, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320‑12341573
Juergensmeyer, M. (2003). Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. University of California Press.
Kamal, E., Rizky, K., & Ashif, M. (2023). Prevention of Radicalism in The Era of Globalization Trough Digitalization of Pancasila Education. JURNAL SETIA PANCASILA, 4(1), 8–16. https://doi.org/10.36379/jsp.v4i1.398
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Muhammad, A., & Hiariej, E. (2021). Deradicalization program in Indonesia radicalizing the radicals. Cogent Social Sciences, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2021.1905219
Nasution, R. D. (2020). Mengakar Kembali Perdebatan Konsep Civil Religion Robert N. Bellah Dan Jean Jacques Rousseau [Re-Rooting the Debate on the Concept of Civil Religion by Robert N. Bellah and Jean Jacques Rousseau]. ARISTO, 8(1), 191. https://doi.org/10.24269/ars.v8i1.2269 [In Indonesian]
Nemeth, S. C., & Hansen, H. E. (2022). Political Competition and Right-Wing Terrorism: A County-Level Analysis of the United States. Political Research Quarterly, 75(2), 338–352. https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211006791
Neumann, P. R. (2013). The trouble with radicalization. International Affairs, 89(4), 873–893. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12049
Notonagoro. (1975). Pokok-pokok Filsafat Pancasila [The Principles of Pancasila Philosophy]. Bina Aksara.
Nugraha, A. N., & Habibah, S. M. (2023). Peran Pancasila Dalam Menangkal Radikalisme dan Separatisme [The Role of Pancasila in Countering Radicalism and Separatism]. Jurnal Setia Pancasila, 3(2), 11–20.
Parmudi, M. (2018). Civil Religion di Indonesia. JSW (Jurnal Sosiologi Walisongo), 2(1), 51–70. https://doi.org/10.21580/jsw.2018.2.1.1995
Rahman, A. (2024). Mainstreaming Pancasila-Based Deradicalization in Indonesia. PESHUM: Jurnal Pendidikan, Sosial Dan …, 3(6), 869–876.
Rhodin, L. (2017). Habermas and Religious Communication: The Insufficiency of the Translation Proviso. Religions, 8(10), 218. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8100218
Rousseau, J.-J. (1997). The Social Contract. (V. Gourevitch, Trans.). Cambridge University Press(V. Gourevitch, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.
Saingo, Y. A. (2022). Penguatan Ideologi Pancasila Sebagai Penangkal Radikalisme Agama [Strengthening Pancasila Ideology as an Antidote to Religious Radicalism]. Jurnal Filsafat Indonesia, 5(2), 147–161. https://doi.org/10.23887/jfi.v5i2.40994 [In Indonesian]
Sari, M. N., Susmita, N., & Ikhlas, A. (2025). Melakukan penelitian kepustakaan [Conducting library research]. CV. Pradina Pustaka Grup.
Shaapera, S. A. (2015). Evaluating the social contract theoretical ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau: An analytical perspective on the state and relevance to contemporary society. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 9(2), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJPSIR2013.0613
Walzer, M. (1977). Just and Unjust Wars. Basic Books.
Watson, M. (2019). The Damned Neighbors Problem: Rousseau’s Civil Religion Revisited. Religions, 10(6), 349. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10060349
Weiss, J., & Bungert, H. (2019). The Relevance of the Concept of Civil Religion from a (West) German Perspective. Religions, 10(6), 366. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10060366
Wibowo, H. H., & Romadhan, A. A. (2023). Pancasila Internalization Model in Overcoming Radicalism Within the Bureaucracy. MUHARRIK: Jurnal Dakwah Dan Sosial, 6(2), 179–190. https://doi.org/10.37680/muharrik.v6i2.3268
Wiktorowicz, Q. (2005). Radical Islam Rising: Muslim Extremism in the West. Rowman & Littlefield.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Faizal Zaky Mubarok, Raihan Aqshal Arighi, Yusuf Zaenal Abidin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
