Becoming sacred: Humanity and divinity in East Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Retsikas’ study focuses on Muslims in East Java, Indonesia and is primarily concerned with the ways in which local Sufi healers have acquired the capacity to heal. This leads him into an investigation of the connections people seek to forge with spirits, saints, and Allah Himself through the undertaking of ascetic practices under the guidance of the notion of ‘self-annihilation’. Retsikas is also interested in emphasising the kinds of bodies – open, yet powerful composites of detachable human and non-human parts- healers’ acquire in such process and the conceptual challenges their practices presents us with in terms of understanding the relation between the human and the divine.