Overview This lecture explores the role of orality as a central epistemological resource—or mnemotext—in Church mission and interreligious engagement within Global South contexts, where storytelling remains the primary mode of communication. In contrast to dominant academic approaches to interreligious dialogue, which often prioritize formal, text-based, and canonical exchanges, this study investigates “inkless” modes of engagement, with focus on Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.

Speaker Izak Y. M. Lattu

About the speaker Dr. Izak Y. M. Lattu serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Professor of Theology and Interreligious Studies in the Department of Sociology of Religion at Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia. He holds a Ph.D. in the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and completed pre-doctoral studies at Harvard University. His research explores themes such as interreligious dialogue, civic engagement, collective memory, mnemo-culture theology, and the sociology of religion. Izak has published widely with academic presses including Brill, Bloomsbury, Baylor University Press, and Routledge. In 2024, he was elected a full member of the Cultural Commission of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI). He actively participates in regional and international scholarly networks, advancing inter-disciplinary collaboration in theology, cultural sociology of religion, and indigenous studies.