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All Journal Walisongo: Jurnal Penelitian Sosial Keagamaan Living Islam: Journal of Islamic Discourses
Ronald Lukens-Bull
The University of North Florida
Arts Humanities Education Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Social Sciences

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The Linguistic Modeling of Variation in Islam: Constructing Saussure’s Concepts of Langue and Parole to Religious Studies Lukens-Bull, Ronald; Zahn, Kristen Angelucci
Walisongo: Jurnal Penelitian Sosial Keagamaan Vol 26, No 1 (2018)
Publisher : LP2M - Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Walisongo

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.21580/ws.26.1.2088

Abstract

Islam has some basic set of shared symbols, beliefs, and rituals that are found in the Quran and Hadith. These form the foundations of universal Islam. But even with the “universal” foundations of Islam we find considerable debate and disagreement. Dealing with the diversity in Islam, we will develop our model, especially through the more complete linguistic analogies. The core of our model borrows Saussure’s concepts of langue (language as a system) and parole (speech acts) and applied it to religion. The transcendent form of a religion, which is parallel to langue, is an ideal form in the minds and hearts of believers. The expressed form, which is analogous to parole, includes interpretations, discourse, debates, rituals, and daily life of believers. The aim of this paper is more to elucidate an analytical model than to make declarative statements about the nature of religion. We argue that a fuller linguistic analogy moves us further in our understanding of this relationship. The results of the analysis show that linguistic modeling of variation in Islam applied through several ways, there are: (1) dialects and local religious practice (2) the transcendent and the expressed as parallels to Saussure’s langue and parole (3) linguistic analogies (4) myth, doctrine, and grammar (4) syntax, Islam and ritual and (5) creoles and pidgins.
Weeping Toughs and Pretty Militants: Living Islam and Negotiating Gender in a Muslim Militia (Banser) Lukens-Bull, Ronald
Living Islam: Journal of Islamic Discourses Vol. 8 No. 1 (2025)
Publisher : Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.14421/lijid.v8i1.6730

Abstract

This paper explores the intersection of gender, religion, and militarism within Banser, the paramilitary wing of GP Ansor, affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama—the world’s largest Muslim organization. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, it examines how masculinity and femininity are negotiated in this male-dominated but increasingly gender-diverse organization. Through a ritual analysis of training camps and ceremonies, the paper unpacks emotional expression, moral formation, and the performance of Islamic piety in ways that challenge both normative gender roles and essentialist conceptions of Islam. Building on Talal Asad’s notion of Islam as a discursive tradition, the study develops a “linguistic model” to conceptualize Islamic variation as analogous to dialects—local articulations of a shared religious grammar. This model allows for an analysis of Javanese Islam as one such dialect, shaped by mysticism, hierarchy, and local understandings of gender. The paper also traces how militarized masculinity, inherited from Indonesia’s nationalist and New Order legacies, intersects with traditional and Islamic ideals, producing hybrid forms of moral militarism. Finally, it examines how female participation—through structures like Denwatser (Detasment Wanita Banser) and Garfa (Garuda Fatayat)—both challenges and is contained by existing gender hierarchies. Banser thus emerges as a site where lived Islam is actively negotiated through embodied practice, emotional intensity, and the disciplining of gendered selves. This study contributes to the anthropology of Islam by offering a grounded, theoretically rich account of how Islam is lived and contested in contemporary Indonesia.
Co-Authors Zahn, Kristen Angelucci