<![CDATA[Background: Conceptual ambiguity around religious moderation and tolerance persists in Indonesia’s plural society, complicating both discourse and practice. Objective: To clarify the meanings and limits of religious moderation and tolerance through a focused review. Method: This library research, conducted in 2023, used documentation to gather sources and applied Miles and Huberman’s stages of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. Results: The literature converges on moderation as a middle path that aligns religious commitment with local wisdom and civic coexistence. Tolerance is framed as respectful acceptance of difference within legal and ethical boundaries. Moderation delineates boundaries that avoid both relativism and extremism while encouraging reflective dialogue, empathy, and shared responsibility. Conclusion: Religious moderation functions as a culturally grounded strategy for sustaining social harmony in Indonesia, enabling principled faith practice alongside mutual respect in daily life. Originality/Value: This review article provides comprehensive conceptual and analytical novelty in the field of sociology of religion and multicultural policy by synthesizing scholarly developments concerning the conceptual ambiguities, boundaries, and working definitions of religious moderation and tolerance within Indonesia’s pluralistic society, which have previously received limited systematic review. This study maps existing theoretical and methodological gaps while serving as a strategic reference and contributing to the development of a culturally grounded conceptual framework and guiding future research agendas, including the establishment of empirical indicators for cross-regional and media evaluations, curriculum design, and social-religious policymaking.]]>
