IMAGINING HELL: A BURKEIAN ANALYSIS OF INDONESIAN RELIGIOUS AFTERLIFE IMAGES

Peter Suwarno*  -  Arizona State University, United States

(*) Corresponding Author

This paper is not only dealing with depiction of hell (divine punishment) which is very popular depicted by the speech and media news in Indonesia, but also description on meaning, and the possibility on motive behind that description. Applying Burke theory on logology, this paper revealed that the depiction of hell punishment constituted the ritual of purity. Based on the cycle of order, feeling of guilty, redemption through sacrifice to achieve the purity, general depiction on hell are a reflection of the challenges and complexity of legal rules and regulation that exactly will be broken off. This violation of the rule creates a sense of guilty and sin which come out as all the problems and difficulties that the majority of Indonesian must hold – the situation that generates scapegoat. The victims of the scapegoat became the apparent sinners, and the punishment is the sacrifaction which create satisfaction and a sense of clean up.

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Tulisan ini tidak hanya untuk membahas penggambaran neraka (hukum­an akhirat) yang sangat populer sebagai­mana digambar­kan dalam pidato dan media di Indonesia, tetapi juga untuk mengungkapkan makna dan kemungkinan motif di balik gam­baran tersebut. Dengan teori logologi Burke, tulisan ini meng­ungkapkan bahwa penggambaran siksaan neraka merupakan ritual pemurni­an. Berdasarkan siklus ke­tertiban, rasa bersalah, pe­nebusan melalui pe­ngorban­an untuk mencapai kemurnian, gambar­an hukum­an di neraka adalah cerminan dari tantangan dan komplek­sitas aturan dan hukum yang pasti akan dilanggar. Pe­langgar­an ini mencipta­kan rasa bersalah dan dosa yang di­wujudkan dalam bentuk semua masalah dan kesulitan bahwa mayoritas penduduk Indonesia harus tahan-situasi yang me­nimbulkan kambing hitam. Para korban yang me­rupakan kam­bing hitam menjadi orang berdosa ter­kutuk, yang hukumannya me­rupakan sebuah pengorban­an, men­ciptakan kepuasan dan rasa dibersihkan.

Keywords: imagining; hell; Burke theory; scapegoats; sacrifice

  1. Burke, K., A Rhetoric of Motives, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969, (Original work published 1950).
  2. Burke, K., (The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970.
  3. Cicero, Philippics, translated by D.R. Shackleton Bailey, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
  4. Lecretius, On The Nature of The Universe, translated by Ronald Latham, New York: Penguin, 1977.
  5. Seymour, Charles, A Theodicy of Hell. Studies in Philosophy and Religion, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.
  6. Stanford, Peter The Devil: A Biography, London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1996.
  7. Turner, Alice K., The History of Hell. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993.
  8. Walls, Jerry L., Hell: The Logic of Damnation, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992.

Open Access Copyright (c) 2022 Peter Suwarno
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Publisher:
Institute for Research and Community Services (LP2M)
Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang, Rectorate Building, 3rd Floor
Jl. Prof. Hamka - Kampus 3, Tambakaji Ngaliyan 50185, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia
Email: walisongo@walisongo.ac.id

 

 
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