New Publications by KITLV Press

P.J. Zoetmulder
Pantheism and Monism in Javanese Suluk Literature: Islamic and Indian mysticism in an Indonesian setting. Translation Series 24, xvii + 381 pp. ISBN 90 6718 082 3
This translation into English by M.C. Ricklefs of Zoetmulder's 1938 dissertation is long awaited. Zoetmulder, who died 8 July 1995 in Indonesia, is well known for his scholarship in Old Javanese - vide his Old Javanese dictionary he published with the assistance of S.O. Robson, at KITLV in 1982. However, his carreer in Javanese Studies started with more modern forms of Javanese, for instance his prizewinning translation of the Wedhotomo in the journal Djawa in the nineteen thirties. This book shows his unprecedented knowledge of his subject matter and is a prime source for information on this - too little studied - subject in Javanese. It focuses on the extent to which pantheistic or monistic ideas underlie suluk literature and in what form they appear. The heart of the book is an analysis of early nineteenth-century Javanese suluk texts which still play a major role in Javanese thought. Doctrines of emanation, of ecstatic union with God, and of a radical monism that posits the unity of God and all creation are rigorously analysed on the basis of the Javanese sources.

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