Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan

Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Dean of Student Affairs at Jakarta Theological Seminary and Associate Professor in Systematic Theology. [email protected]

Summary Pastoral Worker, Preacher, Theologian, Interpersonal and Leadership Trainer, Intercultural-Inter Religious dialogue campaigner, Drummer, Song Writer, God's servant. My motivation comes from my personal belief, connected to my context and my experience in life.

Specialties Systematic Theology, Reconciliation Issue, Conference Designer, Inter Religious Dialogue, Anti-Corruption Movement, Motivational Speaker, Music and Leadership.

Experience Associate Professor at Jakarta Theological Seminary (Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Jakarta) January 2012 - Present (4 years 1 month) Lecturer on the subjects: Western Philosophy & Modern Philosophy Social Theology Religion and Society Christian Ethics Pastor at Huria Kristen Batak Protestan May 2008 - Present (7 years 9 months) Pastor of HKBP ordained in 2008. HKBP is the largest Protestant church in South East Asia, with 3,5 million members, mostly from the ethnic group Batak. Was working as assistant for the Secretary General in 2004. Was serving as junior-pastor for HKBP Salemba, Jakarta (2005-2007). Pastor at Gereja Kristen Indonesia Nederland August 2010 - December 2011 (1 year 5 months) GKIN is Indonesian - Netherlands Christian Church. Full time pastor responsible for the GKIN congregations in the regio Arnhem/Nijmegen and Tilburg. PhD Student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam June 2007 - December 2011 (4 years 7 months) PhD Student on Systematic Theology with the dissertation tittled: "God Remembers: Towards a Theology of Remembrance as a Basis of Reconciliation in Communal Conflict" Drummer & Custodian at Crossroads International Church of Amsterdam August 2007 - May 2010 (2 years 10 months) Drummer for Crossroads Int. Church. Custodian for the Operation Team: set up and break down the facility. Page1

Conference Designer & Speaker at Other Experiences 2003 - 2009 (6 years) 1. Speaker at “Religion in Freiheit und Würde" Mission 21, Luzern, Swiss, Oct 2009. 2. Conference Assistant, Human Security Conference, Swiss – July 2008. 3. Initiator International Youth Forum, Bandung Indonesia, June 2008. 4. Speaker at “Agenda for Reconciliation Conference” at Caux, Switzerland, August 2007. 5. Trainer and facilitator for Youth Leadership Camp of GKPI, March 2007, Samosir, North Sumatera. 6. Resource person, Statement Committee in Youth Forum of 50th Assembly of Christian Conference of Asia, March 2007, Siantar, North Sumatera. 7. Organizer and facilitator of Camp Pemuda Nusantara (national Youth Camp), January 2007 in Cipanas, with the Theme ‘Peace within Diversity’. 8. Facilitator of Anti Corruption Workshop in Jakarta, Padang and Bali (November, December 2006). 9. Facilitator for Youth Session of Asian Muslim Action Network Conference, Jakarta, October 2006. 10. Core Team of the Coordinator of the 12th Asia Pacific Youth Conference, Cipanas, 23-30 July 2006. 11. Participant in Global Youth in Action and also the Conference of Quest for Global Healing in Bali, May 2006. 12. Has participated as contributor on International Theological Conference of IRTI in Seoul (July 2005), Houten – Netherlands (October 2004, 2005, and 2007). 13. Has participated as member of music and worship team, as well as facilitator, in PERWATI congress (Persekutuan Wanita-wanita berpendidikan Teologi or The Communion of Women with Theological Background) in Salatiga (2003), and Cipayung (2005). 14. Has participated as musician and participant at the congress of Reformed Ecumenical Churches (REC) in Jogyakarta, 2000. Lecturer at Jakarta Theological Seminary September 2006 - May 2007 (9 months) Lecturer on subjects: Christian Ethics, Kapita Selekta, Ethics, Religion and Science. Assistant for the Secretary General at Persekutuan Gereja-gereja di Indonesia November 2005 - August 2006 (10 months) Persekutuan Gereja-gereja di Indonesia is the Indonesian Communion of Churches, it is a national church council. I was responsible to help the General Secretary to arranging meetings, concept formal letters, handling guests, lobbying, concept official statement, and letter of recommendation.

Skills & Expertise Theology Religion Conferences Music Teaching Research Leadership Development Church Events Books

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Public Speaking Pastoral Care Public Relations Leadership Ethics Nonprofits Community Outreach Coaching Editing Higher Education

Publications Identity and Remembrance Brill February 2008 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Memory and identity cannot be separated. As the later part of the tradition, Christian identity will always be connected with the history of Israel. This article will explore how Israel, as the chosen people of God, shares their identity in their remembrance of God. The Old Testament shows that Israel actively re-experiences those memories as their identity and not just as an act of calling something into mind. Thus, the memory of God’s saving action is very important for Israel to create their identity, and it shapes the present and future Israelites tradition. This brings us to the reflection of what can be our true Christian identity through our memories from the many layers of our identities. Sharing a Common Story for an Indonesian Context Brill 2008 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan People tend to forget their past hurt because it is too much pain to bear. Forgive and forget is a saying that is imposed on victims about their traumatic past. This saying is not entirely wrong, but before we get to that point, we need to remember our hurt in order to forgive. The remembrance of the past is, in fact, needed to be able to forgive and reconcile. This is not an easy thing to do, especially when the role of victim and perpetrator is not clearly defined. However, it is still a better option for achieving real forgiveness and reconciliation than forgetting. Perpetrators and victims need to tell their stories Jakarta Post June 2, 2006 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Indonesia has faced a lot of conflicts that have to be solved in order to move forward towards a new atmosphere of peace and reconciliation. Without true reconciliation among conflicting parties, it would be difficult to go into the future together. Without true forgiveness and reconciliation, there will be prejudice, vengeance and revenge. Therefore, true forgiveness and reconciliation can only be achieved when victim and perpetrator share their stories about painful events. How Remembrance Is Used in Communal Atrocities PMUBooks 2009 Page3

Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan An article in the book Dari Kejadian Hingga Budaya Populer: pemikiran kontemporer teolog muda protestan. Holiness and Reconciliation: The Challenge of an Ecclesiology of Reconciliation Lutheran University Press March 2011 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan The church is a place where God’s love is expressed in the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation and healing are celebrated. Through faith we are gathered as body of Christ in the church. It is a place where we are reconciled not only with God but also with one another. However, stories of church conflicts are not unusual. We find separations there where we are supposed to be reconciled: simul iustus et peccator. Seberkas Bunga Puspa Warna Yamuger Indonesia September 2010 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Editor of the Book of Friends, 75 year ds Harry van Dop. This book consists Indonesian and international writers writing on several subjects: theology, liturgy, and church music, which happens to be the interest of the editor as well. God Remembers: Towards a theology of remembrance as a basis of forgiveness in communal conflict VU University Press 2013 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan God Remembers is a search for a theological basis of remembrance in communal conflict. Starting with a case study of a real conflict within the HKBP/Christian Batak Protestant Church in Indonesia in the years 1992-1998, this book relates a biblical understanding of remembrance to the work of Johann Baptist Metz, Alexander Schmemann and Miroslav Volf, three theologians who have made significant contributions to the understanding of conflict and remembrance in their own respective Christian traditions. The author argues that history’s traumatic wounds are healed by a transformative remembrance of the past rather than by forgetting or ignoring what has gone wrong. And that the act of remembrance in the liturgy of the Eucharist is a highly appropriate place for the actual healing of memory. Teologi Ingatan sebagai Dasar Rekonsiliasi dalam Konflik Jurnal Teologi dan Filsafat Diskursus October 2013 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Abstrak: Dengan semakin majunya teknologi “memori,” sekarang dunia menghadapi cara baru untuk menyelesaikan ingatan-ingatan traumatisnya. Kecenderungan (trend) baru menunjukkan bahwa mengingat, dan bukan melupakan, adalah langkah penting untuk menyelesaikan konflik menuju rekonsiliasi sejati. Teologi Kristen menawarkan kesempatan untuk mengalami kesembuhan dari ingatan yang menyakitkan dalam anamnesis dalam perayaan Ekaristi. Tiga orang teolog dari latar belakang berbeda membantu merumuskan bagaimana mengingat dapat terjadi dalam proses rekonsiliasi. Johann Baptist Metz meminta kita untuk mengingat mereka yang menderita. Alexander Schmemann mengatakan bahwa letak ingatan ada dalam Ekaristi. Miroslav Volf meminta ingatan yang jujur dalam proses mengingat. Penyembuhan dapat terjadi ketika mengingat dilakukan dengan jujur dan ingatan tersebut dibawa menjadi milik komunal, yang

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akhirnya membebaskan individu dari ingatan pahitnya. Kata-kata Kunci: Mengingat, ingatan, rekonsiliasi, konflik, memori, lupa, memaafkan, Ekaristi, komunal, Perjamuan Kudus. EKARISTI DAN REKONSILIASI Sebuah Upaya Mencari Eklesiologi Gereja-gereja Pasca Konflik Jurnal Teologi Gema Teologi April 2013 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Abstract Churches that were established as a result of conflict need to reconcile as an effort toward the reconciliation of the one church. The effort to find good ecclesiology started with the theological foundation found in the celebration of the eucharist as church’s lex orandi. Not only the place to reconcile, the eucharist is a place where hospitality is being exercised toward the whole creation. Therefore, churches are asked to rethink and renew their eucharistic theology, to be reconciled with God, the community, and the whole creation. Keywords growth; separation; conflict; reconciliation; lex orandi; the eucharist; forgiveness; liturgy; ecclesiology; hospitality Is the Indonesian Public’s Amnesia Merely a Matter of Verb Tense and Vagueness? The Jakarta Globe April 10, 2012 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Tale of Misguided Logic in Bekasi The Jakarta Globe April 15, 2013 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Perjalanan Semua Mendayung: Buku 2 - 65 tahun Pdt. Dr. Einar M. Sitompul UPI STT Jakarta February 22, 2014 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Editor. A Fetschrift of Rev. Dr. Einar M. Sitompul for his 65th birthday. The book has 46 articles, with 4 major themes: religion and society, culture and theology, contemporary issue, and personal acknowledgement. Analisis Kritis Liturgi Perjamuan Kudus HKBP Indonesian Journal of Theology, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2014. pp. 42-64. July 2014 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan The liturgy of the Eucharist is a communal rite that becomes a very important foundation of the theological construction of the church. The church must have a good foundation of the Eucharist as a place where they can encounter God as a community. As a result, the theology that comes from this encounter will encourage the church to act out in her theology in the world. In 2014, Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (Protestant Batak Christian Church/HKBP) is trying to reformulate their church order. This research encourages HKBP to look at their theology of the Eucharist more seriously. By using a critical analysis towards the HKBP liturgy of the Eucharist, this paper shows the inconsistency between HKBP church documents view on the Eucharist. The inconsistency is caused by the different times of the writing of the documents, which were never synchronized. Menuju Model (-model) Ibadah yang Membangun: Sebuah Telaah Relasi Pertumbuhan Spiritualitas dan Ibadah dalam Dunia Postmodern Jakarta: Institut Darma Mahardika, 2014. pp: 127-147. June 2014

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Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Ibadah dan spiritualitas selalu memiliki hubungan yang tak dapat dipisahkan namun tidak selalu dibicarakan dalam forum yang sama. Ibadah membantu seseorang mengembangkan spiritualitasnya dan spiritualitas seseorang akan mendorongnya untuk merespon karya sang Ilahi dalam hidupnya. Karena itu, spiritualitas yang baik akan terbangun melalui ibadah yang baik. Pertanyaannya adalah, spiritualitas dan ibadah seperti apa yang baik bagi gereja? “Menuju Model (-model) Ibadah yang Membangun: Sebuah Telaah Relasi Pertumbuhan Spiritualitas dan Ibadah dalam Dunia Postmodern” dalam Robinson Butarbutar, Benny Sinaga, Julius Simaremare (eds.), Spiritualitas Ekologis. Jakarta: Institut Darma Mahardika, 2014. pp: 127-147. Perintah Mencintai Sesama: Memahami Filosofi Cinta dalam Konteks Keberagaman Dunia Postmodern Jakarta: Jusuf Roni Center, 2015. pp: 125-146. March 2015 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Lalu bagaimana kita bisa menghargai keberagaman (sesama manusia) dalam pemahaman cinta di masa postmodern ini? Saya akan mencoba mengangkat hal ini dalam pembahasan mengenai cinta, dilihat dari tiga tokoh utama: Irving Singer, Zygmunt Bauman, dan Søren Kierkegaard. Tulisan ini saya persembahkan untuk STT Apostolos yang telah memberikan banyak waktu dan energi untuk membahas jembatan komunikasi dialogis di tengah konteks keberagaman di Indonesia. Harapan saya, tulisan ini akan membantu kita memahami perjuangan STT Apostolos, dan melanjutkan misi dialog dalam cinta terhadap sesama dalam perkembangan dunia pendidikan teologi. “Perintah Mencintai Sesama: Memahami Filosofi Cinta dalam Konteks Keberagaman Dunia Postmodern” dalam Octafred Yosi Roripandei et. al. (eds.) Lihatlah Sekelilingmu! Jakarta: Jusuf Roni Center, 2015. pp: 125-146. Etika (tidak) Mengingat Bangsa Pelupa dalam Simposium Internasional Filsafat Indonesia, Jakarta September 2014 (to be published 2016) Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Bangsa Indonesia memiliki kebiasaan untuk melupakan masalah yang ada. Pertanyaan utama yang akan dieksplorasi adalah, siapa yang memiliki tugas utama untuk mengingat, dan apa yang harus diingat. Kebiasaan untuk melupakan di Indonesia muncul dari beberapa faktor: bahasa, penerimaan akan kejadian yang dialami, dan pelarian dari masalah yang dianggap tidak bisa diselesaikan. Ingatan juga menjadi sebuah komoditas politik ketika dia diingat dan dilupakan demi tujuan tertentu. Meskipun menyakitkan, mengingat masa lalu untuk perubahan di masa depan adalah pilihan yang lebih baik dari melupakannya. Mengingat adalah tanggung jawab kepada para korban dalam sejarah supaya suara mereka terdengar, masa lalu tidak terulang lagi, dan perjalanan sebuah bangsa ke depan. Beberapa suku di Indonesia menunjukkan bahwa tindakan mengingat juga ada dalam budaya dan dia dapat digunakan menjadi dasar ingatan komunal bagi bangsa Indonesia dalam penyelesaian kasus-kasus masa lalu yang menyakitkan. “Etika (tidak) Mengingat Bangsa Pelupa” presented at Simposium Internasional Filsafat Indonesia, Jakarta September 2014 (to be published 2015) The Role of Memory in the Formation of Early Christian Identity Lutheran World Federation & Faculty of Theology, Seattle University November 2015 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan

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“The Role of Memory in the Formation of Early Christian Identity” dalam Conference on Religious Identity and Renewal: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Explorations, Seattle 10-14 August 2014 (to be published 2015). Shameless and Guiltless: The Role of Two Emotions in the Context of the Absence of God in Public Practice in the Indonesian Context Journal Exchange - accepted to be published in 2016 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan God is very much present in the public domain in Indonesia. Even so, honesty and integrity are absent in public practices, especially with regard to the high number of corruption cases. Biblical communities show that the two character traits were originally inseparable in a shame-based society when acted out as both personal and public conscience by doing what God wanted them to do. In the development of Christian theology, and also specifically in Indonesian context, the two emotions became separated. Such separation has led to the evidential lack of both of these emotions and has shown to be inoperative in the convicted corruptors in Indonesia. Anton Houtepen says that we can trace God from operative emotions. The lack of emotions of shame and guilt shows that public religiosity does not correlate with the presence of God in public practices in Indonesia. “Shameless and Guiltless: The Role of Two Emotions in the Context of the Absence of God in Public Practice in the Indonesian Context” in Journal Exchange 2015 (accepted to be published). To Remember Peacefully: A Christian Perspective of Theology of Remembrance as a Basis of Peaceful Remembrance of Negative Memories Submitted to be reviewed - Journal of Public Theology, 2016 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Abstract: Memory plays an important role in peace building efforts and reconciliation processes. In the modern world, memory is a contesting battleground, where the winner has the merit to write down the story. However, the advancement of technology of memory, and the rise of postmodern philosophy that addresses the importance of alternative memories have contributed to the complexity of the web of memories of the past. How do we deal with contesting memories, and more importantly, how do we heal them? This paper will explore the possibility of a Christian theology of remembrance that serves as a basis of peace-building and reconciliation. Christian worship and theology are based directly on the order to remember. The act of remembering Christ that is being celebrated in the liturgy of the Eucharist is a demanding remembrance. It has a three-fold demand: First, we are asked to remember the suffering as memoria passionis – as our responsibility towards others; second, we are asked to love our neighbors who come to the table as a consequence of God’s command to love; and third, we ask God to remember us, because every time we remember Christ, we are demanding that God remember the parousia as the fulfilment of God’s promise. Through these consequences of the remembrance of the past, we are offered a chance of changing the meaning of our painful memories, and instead to remember them peacefully. “To Remember Peacefully: A Christian Perspective of Theology of Remembrance as a Basis of Peaceful Remembrance of Negative Memories” in Journal of Public Theology 2015 (accepted to be published).

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New Form, New Chance: An Analysis of the Impact of Postmodernism in Indonesian Churches and Its Effect on Ecumenical Movement Submitted to be reviewed, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 2016 Authors: Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Abstract: Postmodernism has posted a challenge on several fronts to churches all over the world: ecumenical movement, the question about the truth, marketing scheme-client oriented service, and interreligious dialogue. The encounter between Indonesian churches and new emergent style of worship has its challenges and chances. This situation asks Traditional churches and Pentecostal and Charismatic churches to come to dialogue on several fronts: mission, worship and liturgy, ecclesiology, theological education, and the ecumenical movement. Since Indonesia is very plural society, and that Indonesian churches are also very plural from the beginning, the challenges can be seen as an opportunity to bring churches closer together.

Languages English Indonesian Dutch Batak

(Full professional proficiency) (Native or bilingual proficiency) (Professional working proficiency) (Full professional proficiency)

Education University of Münster Dr. Habil., Systematic Theology, 2016 - 2018 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Systematic Theology, 2007 - 2011 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Master of Theology, Systematic Theology, 2004 - 2005 Activities and Societies: IRTI Jakarta Theological Seminary Bachelor, Pastoral Theology, 1998 - 2003

Interests Faith, Love, Family, Friends, Theology, Drum, Books, Football, AC Milan, Food, Travel, Movies, Adidas.

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Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan Dean of Student Affairs at Jakarta Theological Seminary and Associate Professor in Systematic Theology. [email protected]

Contact Binsar Jonathan on LinkedIn

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