Religious Service Logic (RSL): Kerangka Teoretis Baru Untuk Memahami Otoritas Keagamaan Digital Religious Service Logic (RSL): A New Theoretical Framework for Understanding Digital Religious Authority

Abstract

ABSTRAK: Penelitian ini mengembangkan dan menguji kerangka Religious Service Logic (RSL) untuk membaca reproduksi otoritas keagamaan Islam digital di Indonesia sebagai praktik relasional dan ko-kreatif, mengingat pendekatan mediatisasi agama dan kajian religious influencer masih cenderung menekankan otoritas sebagai atribut yang melekat pada aktor, alih-alih sebagai hasil relasi yang terus dinegosiasikan. Penelitian ini merupakan kualitatif deskriptif dengan strategi netnografi terhadap praktik dakwah digital Felix Siauw dan Dennis Lim di Instagram, TikTok, dan Instagram, mensintesiskan teori habitus-modal simbolik Bourdieu dan tradisi diskursif Talal Asad, dilengkapi wawancara purposive terhadap 270 audiens aktif dan analisis dokumen digital. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa otoritas Felix Siauw dan Dennis Lim dibentuk bukan oleh legitimasi keilmuan formal semata, melainkan turut dibentuk oleh ko-kreasi nilai melalui narasi konversi personal, kerentanan biografis, dan keterlibatan afektif audiens di ruang algoritmik. Data engagement lintas platform dan hasil survei 270 responden ditempatkan sebagai data pendukung yang memperlihatkan pola tersebut secara empiris termasuk temuan bahwa 48,3% responden memandang otoritas keagamaan kini terbuka bagi "semua orang yang penting rasional" bukan sebagai temuan utama itu sendiri. Penelitian ini menawarkan lima proposisi relasional (RP1–RP5) yang menjelaskan pergeseran kecenderungan otoritas dari model struktural menuju model yang lebih relasional-partisipatif, sebagai kontribusi konseptual utama bagi kajian otoritas keagamaan digital.
Kata Kunci: Religious Service Logic; Otoritas Keagamaan Digital; Habitus dan Modal Simbolik; Tradisi Diskursif; Dakwah Digital.

ABSTRACT: This study develops and tests a Religious Service Logic (RSL) framework to interpret the reproduction of digital Islamic religious authority in Indonesia as a relational and co-creative practice. This approach addresses the tendency of existing scholarship specifically regarding the mediatization of religion and religious influencers to view authority as an attribute inherent to the actor rather than as the outcome of continuously negotiated relationships. Employing a descriptive qualitative design and a netnographic strategy, the study examines the digital dakwah (preaching) practices of Felix Siauw and Dennis Lim across Instagram and TikTok. It synthesizes Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and symbolic capital with Talal Asad’s discursive tradition, supplemented by purposive interviews with 270 active audience members and an analysis of digital documents. The findings reveal that the authority of Felix Siauw and Dennis Lim is not shaped solely by formal scholarly legitimacy; rather, it is constructed through the co-creation of value involving personal conversion narratives, biographical vulnerability, and audience affective engagement within algorithmic spaces. Cross-platform engagement data and survey results from the 270 respondents serve as supporting evidence that empirically demonstrates these patterns including the finding that 48.3% of respondents view religious authority as now open to "anyone who is rational" though these statistics do not constitute the study's primary finding. The research proposes five relational propositions (RP1–RP5) that elucidate the shift in authority from a structural model toward a more relational-participatory one, offering a significant conceptual contribution to the study of digital religious authority.
Keywords: Religious Service Logic; Digital Religious Authority; Habitus and Symbolic Capital; Discursive Tradition; Digital Da'wah.