French Windows - articles_books

Converting Ireland, Religious education, language and colonialism

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 21 May 2026 22:12:00 +0200

Huge congrats do Professor Karina Benazech Wendling for the release of her new book : Converting Ireland, Religious education, language and colonialism (Manchester University Press, 2026)

Karina Bénazech Wendling offers a re-assessment of 'souperism'-the long-debated claim that food was used to convert Irish Catholics to Protestantism during the Great Famine.

Focusing on the Irish Society for Promoting the Education of the Native Irish through their Own Language, the first group labeled 'soupers' in 1841, she uncovers a more complex picture. Rather than a mere tool of British cultural imperialism, the Society had a deep engagement with the Irish language and Bible translation, while also encouraging religious conversions in the West.

The book explores the Society's role in Ireland's religious and political landscape, the rise of Catholic counter-missions, and nationalist resistance. Offering fresh insights into Ireland's religious history and global missionary movements, this book is essential for scholars of Irish studies, interdenominational relations, and education in Ireland.

As Professor Geraldine Vaughan rightly states,

"This book offers a clear and magisterial reappraisal of Irish identities in the pre-Famine and Famine eras.

Not only does it revise current historiographical assumptions about the use of Irish during the 'Second Reformation,' it also offers ground-breaking insights on the entire socio-religious landscape of Ireland at the time.'

Professor Geraldine Vaughan, University of Lille

Link to the publisher

Minority as a Key Perspective on Religious Diversity

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 14 May 2026 13:43:00 +0200

A must-read :

Minority as a Key Perspective on Religious Diversity

Structure and Interpretation of Religious Life and Communities in European Sociological Minority Settings with a Special Emphasis on Germany

"This book provides a timely and thorough examination of religious minorities in Europe, paying particular attention to the diversity within Christianity.

Drawing on perspectives from Eastern, Central and Western Europe, with a focus on Germany, it examines the complex dynamics of religious life in minority contexts, offering essential insights into the role of faith communities in post-migrant societies.

It investigates how sociological conditions shape religious practices and identities, how migration fosters adaptation and renewal, and the contributions of minority communities to multicultural and plural societies."

Link

The new Evangelical Power

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 13:55:00 +0100

"Evangelicals or evangelists? Those discussed in this book are not the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but rather the evangelicals, the believers who identify with this branch of Protestantism.

A vibrant branch, very vibrant indeed. We see them in our streets singing with fervor, we read their graffiti “Jesus saves” in our cities. Who are they?

Where do they come from? What do they want?"

In 504 pages, this book offers an in-depth historical and sociological analysis of the “evangelical phenomenon,” questioning the nature of the “new power” they represent:

City of God, or God in the city?

Theocratic temptation, or democratic ingredient?

BIG THANKS to GRASSET publishers for their trust.

Link to the publisher

Reflections on Mission as a Category (Social Sciences and Missions)

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Good news !

A brand new issue of Social Sciences and Missions has been coordinated by Philippe Gonzalez (Lausanne University) with his colleague Yannick Fer (CNRS, France).

In particular, three excellent contributions to be noticed, by Matthieu Thomas, Juliette Duléry, and Anne Siggen, addressing the challenges of visibility and discretion in the religious sphere.

Link.

Jason E. Shelton, The contemporary Black Church

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 09:53:51 +0100

Black Americans have moved from traditional Christian denominations into non-denominational institutions but also to the more open identification of being spiritual but not religious.

As this change has happened, the influence of Black preachers has dwindled, as have the community ties once forged in the crucible of ‘the Black Church’ as a singular oppositional body to white racism, Jim Crow, and unfavourable economic conditions.

Jason Shelton's The Contemporary Black Church (New York University Press, 2024) examines how African American religious institutions are evolving through new leadership models, political engagement, and adaptations to social changes while maintaining their historic role in community empowerment.

Link

Romanian Pentecostal Churches in Italy

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 11:51:00 +0100

There are approximately 150 Romanian Pentecostal churches in Italy today. The number has roughly tripled since 2000, from about 50 churches, reflecting the influx of over 1 million Romanian migrants (including many Pentecostal).

To know more, let's read Pietro Cingolani, "Romanian Pentecostal Immigrants in Italy: Between Adaptations and Innovations" in Guglielmi, M. (eds) Immigrant Christianities. Religion and Global Migrations. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025 (p.121-142).

These Pentecostal groups differ from other confessions but show convergences in multicultural Italy. They challenge the Catholic Church's symbolic monopoly and the Romanian Orthodox Church in Italy.

Catholics and Orthodox share strong dogma and clergy-laity separation. Pentecostals prioritize experience over theological preparation. Transnational migration prompts adaptations to Italian context. They adopt a culturally neutral approach to include minorities segregated in Romania.

Despite conservative gender views, they promote women's agency in Italy. Churches enhance assistance and pastoral activism toward youth. They incorporate specific Catholic elements in this process.

Link.

Charismatic Healers in Contemporary Africa

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 19:15:00 +0200

This is a very insightful book : Charismatic Healers in Contemporary Africa: Deliverance in Muslim and Christian Worlds, edited by Sandra Fancello and Alessandro Gusman, London & New York: Bloomsbury Academic/Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.

Let's thank Makku Hokkanen for his review, released in the Journal of Contemporary Religion Volume 40, 2025 - Issue 2.

Link.

Evangelicalism in Europe (Langham), forthcoming

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 12:29:00 +0200

Under the umbrella of the European Evangelical Alliance, this much-needed forthcoming book will give us precious insights about EVANGELICALISM in EUROPE (Langham).

Evangelicalism and religious freedom

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 22:09:00 +0200

Religious freedom as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains a perennial concern across the globe. Over the centuries many evangelicals have not enjoyed this right in practice, but they have generally advocated its acceptance, especially to allow the spread of the gospel. Not always, however, have they supported freedom for religious groups besides themselves, and sometimes they have endorsed discrimination against other bodies.

To know much more about these key issues, here comes this reference book, edited by David W. Bebbington, The Gospel and Religious Freedom, Historical Studies in Evangelicalism and Political Engagement, Baylor University Press, 2023.

Link.

Pan-African encounter

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:39:00 +0100

The current social, cultural, and political mutations in Africa combine two dimensions.

On one hand, there is a rise in postcolonial sovereigntism. On the other hand, new pan-African dynamics are emerging, which could be described as a "pan-Africanism of nations."

This provides an opportunity to recommend the following book:

Adekeye Adebajo, The Pan-African Pantheon: Prophets, Poets, and Philosophers, Manchester University Press, 2021 (680 pages).

This book is a significant academic anthology that explores Pan-Africanism through the contributions of 36 key figures, spanning from pioneers like Edward Wilmot Blyden and Marcus Garvey to contemporary thinkers such as Wangari Maathai and Kwame Anthony Appiah.

Adebajo, a professor and former director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution in South Africa, brings together scholars and writers to offer a multidimensional analysis of the movement, encompassing its historical, intellectual, cultural, and political aspects. Recently published, it provides an updated and comprehensive approach, making it a valuable resource.

Based in Addis-Abeba, the institution at the heart of these pan-African dynamics remains the African Union.

This is an opportunity for me to warmly thank Ms. Paska Nyaboth for her visit to the GSRL earlier this month, and the great discussion provided. I also extend my gratitude to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which supported her visit as part of the PIPA program (Program for Inviting Future Leaders).

With Ms Nyaboth Paska (African Union, PIPA program)

A South Sudanese national, Ms. Paska Nyaboth is one of the very bright minds shaping the pan-African Africa of today and tomorrow. She seeks solutions, informed by the experiences of peoples and nations, including French-speaking ways (in Africa and in France) to deal with religious diversity and secularism.

To be continued!

Stained Glass Ceilings: How Evangelicals Do Gender and Practice Power

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 09:14:00 +0200

In the popular imagination, Evangelical Christianity is a patriarchal religion whose traditions and lasting legacies perpetuate a singular patriarchal social order.

However, as Lisa Weaver Swartz reveals in this meticulously researched book about women in church leadership in USA, Evangelicalism tells two very different gendered stories—one complementarian and one egalitarian.

Mostly based upon a focus on the training of future Church leaders in two Evangelical flagship seminaries, Southern Baptist and Ashbury.

As usual with US monographs,(alas), a wide title, but the data is based upon two field research which are not representing the whole diversity of US Evangelicalism, far from that.

Still a really good book to read, thank you Lisa Weaver Swartz !

Link

Exhibiting Evangelicalism (Devin Manzullo-Thomas)

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:13:00 +0200

Exhibiting Evangelicalism provides the first account of the growth and development of historical museums created by white evangelical Christians in the United States over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Exploring the histories of the Museum of the Bible, the Billy Graham Center Museum, the Billy Sunday Home, and Park Street Church, Devin C. Manzullo-Thomas illustrates how these sites enabled religious leaders to develop a coherent identity for their fractious religious movement and to claim the centrality of evangelicalism to American history.

Link

Trump, White Evangelical Christians, and American Politics

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 23:02:00 +0100

Trump, White Evangelical Christians, and American Politics, political scientists Anand Edward Sokhey and Paul A. Djupe bring together a wide range of scholars and writers to examine the relationship between former President Donald Trump and white American evangelical Christians.

They argue that, while this relationship―which saw evangelicals supporting a famously unfaithful, materialistic, and irreligious candidate despite self-defining in opposition to these characteristics―prompted many to wonder if Trump himself transformed American evangelical religion in politics, this alliance reflected both change and the outcome of dynamics that were in place or building for decades.

In this book, oppotunity is given to find a welcomed balanced and fair view of the very complex issue of the relationships between White Evangelicals in America and Donald Trump.

A must-read.

Link.

Birthing Revival

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:53:00 +0100

The nineteenth century witnessed a flurry of evangelical and missionary activity in Europe and North America. This was an era of renewed piety and intense zeal spanning denominations and countries. One area of Protestant flourishing in this period has received scant attention in Anglophone sources, however: the French Réveil.

Born of a rich Huguenot heritage but aimed at recovering the religion of the heart, this awakening gave birth to a dynamic missionary movement—and some of its chief agents were women.

To know more about this 2022 scholarly book (Baylor University Press) written by Michèle Miller Sigg, click here

And for a review (in english) of Birthing Revival from French scholar Valérie Duval-Poujol, click here

Missionaries in the Golden Age of Hollywood

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 23:22:00 +0100

There are not that many authors who publish significant History books over a period of more than 25 years. Professor Douglas Carl Abrams is one of them.

I remember having reviewed in 2001, for the "Archives des Sciences Sociales des Religions", a very good book released by this Historian of contemporary Evangelicalism in USA. It was Selling the Old-Time Religion. American Fundamentalists and Mass Culture, 1920-1940, Athens, University of Georgia Press, 2001 (link).

In this year 2023, this lover of France has released another very valuable piece of research related to the same fields (mass culture and US Evangelicalism). It is Missionaries in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Race, Gender, and Spirituality on the Big Screen (Springer, Palgrave MacMillan, 2023).

Congrats and thank you Douglas Carl Abrams.

Link

Christianity's American Fate

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 16:36:00 +0100

Christianity’s American Fate (2022) situates the ascendancy of conservative Evangelicalism within the broader transformation of American religion.

"How did American Christianity become synonymous with conservative white evangelicalism? This nuanced and informative work by a leading historian of modern America traces the rise of the evangelical movement and the decline of mainline Protestantism’s influence on American life.

In Christianity’s American Fate, David Hollinger shows how the Protestant establishment, adopting progressive ideas about race, gender, sexuality, empire, and divinity, liberalized too quickly for some and not quickly enough for others. After 1960, mainline Protestantism lost members from both camps―conservatives to evangelicalism and progressives to secular activism".

This book may be also taken as a contribution to the polarization thesis defended, in France, by Philippe Portier, Jean-Paul Willaime and Alain Dieckhoff.

A must-read.

A major book on the Geneva Revival

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 22:35:00 +0200

The nineteenth-century international religious movement known as the Reveil had a major impact on Protestantism, and particularly on Evangelicalism. That impact is still evident today. Yet as a multi-faceted phenomenon, this movement has not received its due share of scholarly attention. This book offers a collection of essays exploring the international dimensions of the Genevan strand of the Reveil, providing an overview of events and trends, outlining the careers of some of its key figures, and highlighting some of the areas in which it made a contribution to contemporary society.

COngratulation to Jean Decorvet and the whole team for this major book.

Link.

(Un)believing in modern society

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 22:04:04 +0100

Professor at Lausanne University (Switzerland), Jörg Stolz was invited today for the GSRL monthly seminar.

He spoke about the secularization process from an international perspective.

An occasion to remind that he was among the editors of this important book:

Stolz, J., Könemann, J., Schneuwly Purdie, M., Englberger, T. and Krüggeler, M. (2016). (Un)Believing in modern society. Religion, spirituality, and religious-secular competition. London: Routledge.

Lien

'Fundamentalism and American Culture', third edition updated

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 22:34:36 +0100

'Fundamentalism and American Culture' (Marsden) has long been considered a classic in religious history, and to this day remains unsurpassed. Now available in a new edition, this highly regarded analysis takes us through the full history of the origin and direction of one of America's most influential religious movements.

In the twenty-first century, militantly conservative white evangelicals have become more prominent than ever in American life. Marsden's volume, which now takes the history through the end of the Trump administration, remains the essential starting point for understanding the degree to which that militancy has been shaped by the fundamentalist heritage of the twentieth century.

To read more about this third and updated edition, click here (link)

Women in Christianity in the Age of Empire (1800-1920)

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 11:03:00 +0100

Edited by Janet Wootton, "Women in Christianity in the Age of Empire (1800-1920)" offers a broad view of the nineteenth century as a time of dramatic change, particularly for women, critiqued in the light of postcolonial theory.

This edited volume includes important contributions from academics in the field.

Overarching themes include the cult of domesticity, the changing impact of Christianity on views of women's nature in an age of scientific thinking, conflation of 'gospel' and 'civilization' in global mission, and the exclusion of women from public spheres of life."

Link

Asia and the secular

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 23:01:42 +0100

This afternoon, I was fortunate enough to attend the GSRL's monthly research seminar at Campus Condorcet.

We enjoyed a remarkable presentation of this book :

Asia and the Secular, Francophone Perspectives in a Global Age

Edited by: Pascal Bourdeaux , Eddy Dufourmont , André Laliberté and Rémy Madinier

This volume looks at the secular state in the context of contemporary Asia and investigates whether there existed before modernity antecedents to the condition of secularity, understood as the differentiation of the sphere of the religious from other spheres of social life. The chapters presented in this book examine this issue in national contexts by looking at the historical formation of lexicons that defined the "secular", the "secular state," and "secularism". This approach requires paying attention to modern vernacular languages and their precedents in written traditions with often a very long tradition. This book presents three interpretive frameworks: multiple modernities, variety of secularisms, and typologies of post-colonial secular states.

Link

Protestantism in Spain: tribute to Frances Luttikhuizen

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:44:00 +0100

As Protestantism (mainly Evangelical/Pentecostal) is growing in Spain, let's not forget Frances Luttikhuizen, an English Philology lecturer, writer, and researcher of Protestantism, who passed away in Barcelona this last summer 2022.

Her main fields of interest included the history of translation, linguistic awareness, Cervantes' works, and the Spanish Reformation.

Among Luttikhuizen’s most important works is the book España y la Reforma Protestante (Spain and the Protestant Reformation, 2018, 468p (link), of which Spanish theologian José Moreno Berrocal has said it is “a work that represents a before and after in the studies of the Reformation in Spain (...).

There is a wealth of data and ideas that will make this book a constant and obligatory reference work”.

Some reviews of this book are available, mostly in Spanish, including in this History of Philosophy publication (link)

Thank you Evangelical Focus for this obituary (link)

The complexity of the French principle of Laïcité

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 12:58:00 +0200

Want to discover The groundbreaking volume published by Philippe Portier and Jean-Paul Willaime about religion and secularism in France ?

Reminder, Philippe Portier is Professor of History and Sociology of Secularism at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France, and Jean-Paul Willaime is Emerite Professor of History and Sociology of Protestantism at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France. Both are outstanding scholars

Here are some points from the Chapter introduction (link)

Prayer and the Political Praxis of Spiritual Warfare in Nigeria

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 11:35:40 +0200

Combining religious studies with ethnography, Powerful Devices (forthcoming) explores Nigerian Pentecostals and US Evangelicals’ praxis of transnational spiritual warfare.

By closely studying spiritual warfare prayers as a “device,” Powerful Devices shows how the rituals of prayer enable an apprehension of time, paradigms of self-enhancement, and the subversion of politics and authority.

Abimbola Adunni Adelakun explores charismatic Christianity’s relationship to science and secular authority, technology and temporality, neoliberalism, and reactionary ideology.

Link.

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

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 00:06:00 +0200

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.

Manufacturing Huguenot identity (Cabanel)

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 10:34:00 +0200

Patrick Cabanel (EPHE-PSL) is the most prolific Historian of Protestantism in today's France, with many major contributions. His last book deals with identity making.

At the beginning of the XIXth Century, the French Huguenots had emerged very weakened from centuries of persecution. But still alive ! These Protestants became specialists in commemoration, in the making of places of memory, of museums, emphasizing heroes and heroines. In doing so, they transformed the identity of the group: it was no longer just religious, as it has been the case for three centuries; it became historical, memorial, cultural.

It is increasingly disconnected from practice and belief, even from endogamy, and capable of being transmitted over generations.

A must-read book, which would deserve a translation in english.

Link

Faithful Deliberation: Rhetorical Invention, Evangelicalism, and #MeToo Reckonings

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 20:25:00 +0200

While often perceived as an insular enclave with a high level of in-group agreement about political and social issues, predominantly white evangelicalism includes prominent voices urging deliberation about appropriate responses to sexual abuse, domestic violence, and the discourses surrounding these traumas. In Faithful Deliberation: Rhetorical Invention, Evangelicalism, and #MeToo Reckonings (University of Alabama Press, 2022), T J Geiger II examines theologically reflective rhetorical invention that reconfigures trauma-minimizing commonplaces in order to facilitate community-internal deliberation.

Link

Religion and Secularism in France Today

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Philippe Portier is Professor of History and Sociology of Secularism at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France.

Jean-Paul Willaime is Emerite Professor of History and Sociology of Protestantism at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France. Both are outstanding scholars.

This groundbreaking volume explores the dynamic life of religion and politics in France and investigates the extent to which the French idea of secularisation has been pushed to be more thorough and radical in its interaction with its other European counterparts.

A must-read !

Link

Evangelical belonging and Migrant experience (USA)

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 09:12:02 +0200

In the Hands of God: How Evangelical Belonging Transforms Migrant Experience in the United States

Johanna Bard Richlin

Why do migrants become more deeply evangelical in the United States and how does this religious identity alter their self-understanding? In the Hands of God examines this question through a unique lens, foregrounding the ways that churches transform what migrants feel.

Drawing from her extensive fieldwork among Brazilian migrants in the Washington, DC, area, Johanna Bard Richlin shows that affective experience is key to comprehending migrants' turn toward intense religiosity, and their resulting evangelical commitment.

Link

African Pentecostalism in Britain

noreply@hautetfort.com (A lire) — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 09:45:00 +0200

This fortcoming book is based on ethnographic research among African Pentecostal Christians living in the UK. Written by by Katharine Stockland, Senior Social Researcher at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), UK, the book title is : African Pentecostalism in Britain Migration, Inclusion, and the Prosperity Gospel

addresses themes of migration and community formation, religious identity and practice, and social and political exclusion. With attention to strained kinship relationships, precarious labour conditions, and struggles for legal and social legitimacy, it explores the ways in which intimacy with a Pentecostal God - and with fellow Christians - has been shaped by the challenges of everyday life for Africans in the UK.

Can't wait to read it ! Link (Routledge)