Epistemological Razor, or What Can the Batak Mission Teach Us?

Abstract

This paper focuses on the theology of mission of the Rhenish Missionary Society (RMS). The RMS succeeded in converting the Batak peoples in North Sumatra (present‑day Indonesia) to Protestantism. The work of RMS missionary Johann Warneck “The Batak Religion” (1909), on the one hand, presented the correct description of the indigenous Batak religion, and on the other hand, criticized it from a strict religious‑exclusionist position. Such a configuration is rare: usually apologetic texts debunk the beliefs of opponents by old traditional templates, when scholars of religious studies strive to minimize their confrontation to another culture. This is namely an “epistemological blade”: Warneck could never himself have developed the methods he successfully employed, while scholars of religious studies would never have agreed with Warneck’s relation to the Batak religion. This case highlights an unobvious problem for further study: in what historical, social, religious, political situations can texts that walk the epistemological razor’s edge be produced? Answers to these questions will pave the way to the correct discussion on whether the Western methodology of science is universal.