Humanitarian Catholicism: Practical theology and interreligious dialogue in the Indonesian context

This study examines practical social theology in the Catholic Church, particularly in accounting for the content of faith in the face of science and religious diversity. The primary focus is on addressing the tension between humanitarian and doctrinal religious approaches by proposing religious moderation as a middle path. This moderation is crucial for constructive interfaith dialogue, which often gets limited to shared values and conceptual agreement. Extreme doctrinal stances can lead to violence and radicalism. The study employs a qualitative method with library research, based on Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as interpreted by Armada Riyanto's Dialogical Catholicity. The findings indicate that CST is effective as a practical social theology in facilitating more concrete and profound interfaith dialogue. Thus, CST offers an approach to addressing concrete issues in Indonesia while communicating the faith with other religions.