Religion and Francophonie (French speaking world)

A GSRL program led by Pascal Bourdeaux and Sebastien Fath (GSRL)    

 321 million people worldwide are able to express themselves in French (OIF data 2023).  

From a social sciences perspective, these French-speaking spaces lead us to think differently about religious interaction and dynamics. The French-speaking global framework (including Africa, Americas, Asia, Carribean isles, Pacific islands....) invites to reshape analysis beyond a hexagonal prism (French-centered) that remained hegemonic for long.

 

Deploying the analysis of religion in society in this French-speaking and postcolonial space-time, such is the purpose of this program “Religion and Francophonie (French-speaking world)”.  

Disaffiliation within Canadian Evangelical communities

Evangelical Protestantism is often studied from the angle of proselytizing and conversion dynamics.

Research on departures and defectors from Evangelicalism are much rarer. For example, Canadian evangelical communities have not received much attention in recent years regarding disaffiliation, even though this phenomenon exists throughout Canada and most notably in the Quebec province.

This excellent article (written in french) from Benjamin Gagné sheds very useful analytical light on theses processes.

 

Available in full text here (Studies in Religion)

New prize offered to talented students working on Religion in Quebec

Do you work on religion & Quebec or #francophonie in North America or #FrancoAmerican?

Know smart grad students who do? CHECK this NEW PRIZE from the Société Québécoise pour l’Étude de la Religion

@SQEtudeReligion

Please help us diffuse the call!!

From @hillarykaell

Link

 

After the Revival Pentecostalism and the Making of a Canadian Church

Early Pentecostal revivals swept through Canadian communities, big and small, in the early 1900s. .. Following these revival meetings, Pentecostals organized, built churches, and expanded across the country, while many churches were beginning to decline. How did these Pentecostal "holy rollers" move from the fringe to take centre stage in Canada's religious landscape? 

After the Revival offers a state-of-the-art review of the academic study of Canadian Pentecostalism.

Link

Christian Right today: International Conference in Paris (October 2021)

This is a very exciting news ! Thanks to the great work already completed by  Karina Wendling, a bright French PhD. candidate from the GSRL research team, a GSRL-CNRS International Conference will be held in Paris next october 2021, with Prof. Paul Freston, Prof André Gagné and PhD. Tobias Kremer as keynote speakers.

Research on Evangelicalism being at the heart of current events, the goal of this international conference will be to broaden the field by crossing analysis and observations in order to better identify the dynamics at work in the Christian world. Religion and politics will be the main focus, through the particular lense of the Christian Right.

The preliminary program is already available here: link

A major comparative book on immigrant faith (Phillip Connor)

It is more than likely that the majority of religious attenders in the Paris area today do come from an immigrant background. Immigrant faith? It's not a footnote. It is a major aspect of contemporary religion!

Thanks to Phillip Connor, Immigrant Faith (NYU Press, 2014) is providing new comparative insights on this major topic.

It examines trends and patterns relating to religion in the lives of immigrants. The volume moves beyond specific studies of particular faiths in particular immigrant destinations to present the religious lives of immigrants in the United States, Canada, and Europe on a broad scale.

Religion is not merely one aspect among many in immigrant lives. Immigrant faith affects daily interactions, shapes the future of immigrants in their destination society, and influences society beyond the immigrants themselves. In other words, to understand immigrants, one must understand their faith.

Read more here (link).

Regulating religion in Europe: a French author to read

As the French (and Canadian) debate is still quite polarized by "laïcité" (laicity) and the challenge of public regulation of religion, let's have a wider look and remind (among others) the works of Jean-Paul Willaime (link to his page).

A worldwide leading sociologist of religion, Director of studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Religious Studies section) and former president of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR), visiting professor at the College of Europe, Dr Jean-Paul Willaime is always worth being read.

He has authored many articles in English, including "European Integration, Laïcité and Religion" (link).

Protestants in Canada: a forthcoming book from Brill

I juste received an email from Jason Zuidema (Concordia University) and I want to share the good news: a manuscript on French Protestantism in Canada has been officially accepted by Brill. 

Henry Gooren, the general editor, has officially accepted the manuscript into the 'Religion in the Americas' series. 

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