"French secularism and the fight against separatism" (Nancy Lefevre)

French lawyer Nancy Lefevre serves as in-house legal counsel to the Conseil national des Evangéliques de France (CNEF), the main French Evangelical network (officialized in 2010).

She is also considered as a prominent defender of religious freedom in that country.

Published last year in the International Journal for Religious Freedom, this insightful article discusses the historical roots and conceptions of laicity underlying the 2021 reform.

It also focuses on the impact on religious organisations resulting from the state’s greater control over religious groups’ activities

A must-read.

Center for Afro-European and Religious Studies (CARES)

To be noticed !

The Center for Afro-European and Religious Studies (or CARES) is born.

The CARES is a Center for Afro-European Studies and Religious Sciences attached to the University Faculty of Protestant Theology of Brussels (FUTP).

Congratulations to Dr and Dean Bernard Coyault for this new -and much needed- research center.

Link.

A Park renamed in Paris to honor Protestants

The city of Paris has decided to make more visible its commemoration of the St Bartholomew massacre of Protestants 450 years ago on the 24th of August 1572, by renaming a park in the city centre. 

This inauguration will be held tomorrow, on Friday the 16th of September, 2022.

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, will be speaking.

As I plan to attend, expect pictures to be posted on this Flickr album (link).

Aimee Semple McPherson

Within my current researches on Prosperity Gospel, I am in the process of reading Matthew Avery Sutton's book:   

Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America, Harvard University Press (May 31, 2009)

"Her life marked the beginning of Pentecostalism's advance from the margins of Protestantism to the mainstream of American culture. Indeed, from her location in Hollywood, McPherson's integration of politics with faith set precedents for the religious right, while her celebrity status, use of spectacle, and mass media savvy came to define modern evangelicalism".

A remarkable book about one of the most influential women in contemporary Christian america.

Link