SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY IN CONTEMPORARY PESANTREN AS A FRAMEWORK FOR FORMING SANTRI INTEGRITY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54437/ilmuna.v8i2.3795Keywords:
spiritual ecology, pesantren, santri integrity, Islamic education, moral ecology, character formationAbstract
This conceptual article addresses a problem in Islamic education: religious compliance in pesantren is often treated as evidence of spiritual transformation, even though repeated ritual practice does not automatically produce integrity. The study is important because contemporary pesantren operate as dense educational environments in which authority, worship, textual learning, peer relations, service, digital pressures, and material resource management shape students’ moral agency. Using an integrative conceptual review, the article synthesises scholarship on pesantren, Islamic educational philosophy, character education, lived religion, practice theory, and Muslim environmental ethics. The synthesis produces a spiritual ecology framework that understands pesantren as a relational moral environment rather than a collection of programs. Its central model links six processes: exemplarity, habituation, religious experience, reflection and discernment, internalisation, and spiritual agency. The framework argues that integrity becomes visible when santri can transfer religiously grounded values across self-regulation, social relations, knowledge practices, and care for creation. The article contributes a sharper bridge between pesantren studies and spiritual ecology by showing how ecological responsibility can function as a site of Islamic moral formation, not merely as an additional environmental activity. Future research should test the model through ethnography, comparative case studies, longitudinal research, and mixed-method assessment of moral agency, relational trust, and ecological responsibility.
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