Pemaknaan Identitas Melayu di Kalimantan Barat dan Implikasinya bagi Komunikasi Injil Lintas Budaya: Kajian Pustaka dalam Kerangka Kontekstualisasi Kritis

Abstract

The meaning of Malay identity in West Kalimantan cannot be reduced to an ethnic category, because it is intertwined with Islam, customary law (adat), language, and post-Reformasi identity politics. For Christian missiology, this complexity calls for gospel communication that does not rest on outsider assumptions or stereotypes. This article maps how scholarly literature interprets Malay identity in West Kalimantan, analyzes the relation between that identity, religion, and cultural practice, and formulates implications for cross-cultural gospel communication. Using a qualitative literature review with thematic analysis of ten journal articles and four books, the findings are brought into dialogue with Paul G. Hiebert’s critical contextualization. The review shows, first, that “Malay” in West Kalimantan is layered: closely linked to Islam, maintained through adat and cultural institutions, and used in contrast with Dayak identity. Second, the literature reads conversion from Dayak to Islam as a shift of social identity (“turun Melayu”), which suggests, as a proposition to be tested, that the encounter between the gospel and Malay communities touches communal membership and not only personal belief. Third, critical contextualization yields six principles: listening before speaking, separating identity from stereotype, sensitivity to conflict history, critical and appreciative discernment of adat, ethical dialogue, and the faith community as a hermeneutical community. The article offers a conceptual framework to be tested through further fieldwork.