While doing research on the New Apostolic Reformation, a growing movement already studied, from a French-speaking perspective, by Prof. André Gagné and Prof. Philippe Gonzalez, I found this book.
French Windows - Page 3
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The New Apostolic Reformation (Weaver)
The author, John Weaver, is not the typical social science researcher.However, his synthesis is remarkable, and a must-read. The NAR is a movement dedicated to the restoration of the so-called fivefold gospel of Ephesians, in which the roles of apostles, and prophets in particular, are restored to the contemporary Evangelical church. -
Prayer and the Political Praxis of Spiritual Warfare in Nigeria
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.
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"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
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Center for Afro-European and Religious Studies (CARES)
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.
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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).
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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.
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Happy Summer 2022
(Photo glass ceiling of the Library of the History of French Protestantism, SHPF in Paris)
Happy bright summer to all!
And looking forward to seeing you back on this blog in September 2022.
(in the meantime, you can continue to follow me on the Twitter feed, @SebFath, https://twitter.com/sebfath)
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French Evangelical Armenians
Did you know ? There is a vibrant Armenian diaspora in France. Among them, many Evangelicals, strongly attached to Biblical orthodoxy (as they understand it) and Christian orthopraxy.
On the occasion of the 175th Anniversary of the Armenian Evangelical Church (worldwide), French Armenians, oganized within the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in France, have recently updated they website with a very detailed narrative about their History and identity in Contemporary France.
Thank you for that, Pastor Joel Mikaelian.
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Nepali Pentecostal Christians
Let's thank Samuele POLETTI for this remarkable piece of research just released in the TERRAIN review :
"Miracles matter and the matter of miracles, The miraculous reshaping of world and self among Nepali Pentecostal Christians".
The author skillfully demonstrates how the overlapping of everyday life with the biblical narrative acts as an imaginary device that supports the conversion of unprivileged people in a context in which they do not enjoy much freedom of choice.
Fulfilling the promise of a better life, the production of the miracles that I present provides a glimpse of what it might mean to “live in a book”.
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African Pentecostalism in India: Being Born Again in the Diaspora
Over the past four decades, since the 1960s, there has been a steady flow of Africans moving to India for short-term activities: education, medical treatment and trade.
This just released article explores how debates and rituals in primarily Pentecostal- Charismatic churches – which have emerged as the focal point of community interaction for contemporary Africans in India – become crucial in shaping, reconfiguring and showcasing the markers of an imagined Africanness.
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Manufacturing Huguenot identity (Cabanel)
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.
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Faithful Deliberation: Rhetorical Invention, Evangelicalism, and #MeToo Reckonings
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.
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Religion and Secularism in France Today
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 !
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Professor Andrew Walls (1928-2021), legacy of a baobab
At the beginning of the 19th century, more than 90% of Christians lived in Europe and North America. By the end of the 20th century, over 60% lived in Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific.
The historian and missiologist Andrew Walls was among the first to highlight and study this shift in the Christian centre of gravity. Professor Andrew Walls (1928-2021) passed away in Aberdeen less than one year ago, on the 12th of August, 2021. This prominent Scottish historian of missions left for us groundbreaking research, re-centering Christianity from West to South. Author of many insightful books, he has taught in universities in Africa (Sierra Leone, Nigeria), Europe and North America, and has also lectured in Asia and the Pacific region.
Founder of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity located at the University of Edinburgh, Andew Walls was considered by many as a "Baobab", rooted, mighty and generous.
The news came today that the Andrew Walls Fellowships have been established in honour of jim. It will provide visiting Fellowships for African scholars at the University of Edinburgh, to further research into African Christianity.
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Grateful for Jim Beckford (1942-2022)
A Prominent British Sociologist of Religion, James A. Beckford passed away last week.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Warwick, he leaves a great legacy. President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion (1988-89), of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (1999-2003), he taught also in France as a visiting professor, first at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, 2001), then at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE, 2004). Many French scholars working on the field of religion will miss him greatly. His research legacy remains and will inspire the coming generations.
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History of French Baptist Churches, a video serie to follow
Did you know that Baptist chiurches started in France before they started in Texas ?
If you master just a little bit of French, please try to follow this video, which is the first of a serie of short History videos retracing the long story of Baptist Churches in France from 1810 to 1950 (based upon a PhD).
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Evangelical missionary & accusations of souperism in Ireland
Good news ! Under the title of "Education, Famine, and Conversion: Evangelical missionary strategies and accusations of souperism in Ireland, 1800-1853", Karina Wendling (PSL / EPHE, GSRL) completed her PhD.
It will be defended on the 13th of June, 2022.
Professors Peter Gray and Patrick Cabanel directed the thesis.
In the particular context of Protestant Ascendancy, Catholics perceived Protestant charity during the Great Irish Famine (1845-51) not as genuine relief but as Souperism - or the bribing of souls. This thesis comes within the framework of preceding research that has focused on the cultural and political implications of this fight for souls and examines overlooked aspects of the context in which these accusations appeared to better understand how missionary strategies disrupted the religious territoriality in a time of growing Irish nationalism.
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Evangelical belonging and Migrant experience (USA)
In the Hands of God: How Evangelical Belonging Transforms Migrant Experience in the United States
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.
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"Protestants continue to support Macron" (interview)
Amid fear and polarisation, French evangelicals share “hope” as “churches continue to multiply”, says historian
Uncertainty and discontentment give the far-right a chance to win the Presidential election on Sunday.
But Protestants continue to support Macron, says researcher Sebastien Fath.
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African Pentecostalism in Britain
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.
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Essays on the new Green theology
The way churches consider ECOLOGY arises in an increased way in our current society. How can we think theologically about this awareness? How to integrate the ecological dimension without excessively sanctifying nature?
How to act for the safeguard of Creation from a Christian perspective?
Thinkers from different Christian traditions (Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox), from three generations of theologians (pioneers, consolidators and new thinkers) and from various sensibilities in green theology discuss in this volume the emergence of an essential Christian concern: the relationship between man and his environment.
Directed by Prof. Christophe Monnot and Frederic Rognon, written in French, this scholarly book (247p) is a must-have.
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Ethnographic studies on Creole religion (ASSR)
Started in 1956 and currently published by Editions de l'EHESS, Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions has a tri-part objective: to promote a comparative perspective, broadened by all religions, both living and dead; to encourage collaboration between all social sciences in order to shed light on the many facets of the phenomenon of religion; and to welcome the exposition of theoretical developments in research.
The journal is bilingual (French and English) and occasionally trilingual (Spanish). It publishes two thematic issues and two bibliographic issues per year. The current issue, just released, has been coordinated by Valérie Aubourg and Mathieu Claveyrolas. It is about Creole religion, studied through ethnographic lenses. Two papers are written in English. Others are also provided with an abstract in English.
A must-read ! Link.
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Madeleine Albright (1937-2022)
Former secretary of State (USA), Madeleine Albright (1937- 2022)i s gone.
She left a mixed legacy of strong committment to Democracy worldwide, but also of ambiguous global interventionism (including strong support for embargo on Irak, indirectly leading to DAESH's birth).
Smart and well-trained, interested by the role of Faith on Geopolitics, she published a significant book in 2006.
Its title : The Mighty and the Almighty. Introduced by President Bill Clinton.
In that book, she argued that politics and religious values can work together to promote peace. In her seventeenth chapter about Africa, she pleaded for a better training for diplomats, who should take faith seriously. A good lesson that applies to French diplomats too.
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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
Please help us diffuse the call!!
From @hillarykaell
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Nigerian Pentecostalism and Development
Some scholars suggest that the combination of an enchanted worldview, an emphasis on miracles and prosperity teaching, and a preoccupation with evangelism discourages effective political engagement and militates against development. However, Nigerian Pentecostalism and Development argues that there is an emerging movement within contemporary Nigerian Pentecostalism which is becoming increasingly active in development practices.
This book goes on to explore the increasingly transnational approach that churches take, often seeking to build multicultural congregations around the globe, for instance in Britain and the United States.
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The Quest for Russia's Soul, Evangelicals and Moral Education
What were American Evangelicals doing in Russian public schools after the collapse of the USSR?
Actually, the Russian Ministry of Education had invited them. Faced with the need for new approaches to moral education after the demise of communism, the Russian Ministry of Education turned to a group of Western evangelical Christians called the CoMission for help. Oddly enough, a government that had promoted atheism, destroyed churches, and persecuted Christians for more than seventy years now found itself partnering with Christians to train their educators to teach ethics.
While a few books have described the changes in Russian public schools, this book, first published in 2002 and then in 2018 (new edition) provides the first in-depth case study of moral education in Russia after communism. Link
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Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism
As a terrible war has started in Ukraine, let's remind the wider public that the Ukrainian society has considerably evolved since the end of the Soviet Union.
Increased religious pluralism is part of it. The rise of Ukrainian Evangelicalism is one of its main features.
It has been studied by Catherine Wanner, who released in 2007 a very good book (Cornell University Press).
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Knoxic Masculinity? The Scottish exception in female religious leadership
Female religious leadership in Protestant churches is trendy. However, things don't always go smooth.
The Protestant landscape displays very contrasting trends.
If we consider the British isles, situations vary enormously.
Just to take an example, England is way ahead Scotland in terms of Female access to Pastoral leadership.
How come ? Let's consider the Baptist case. The first English Baptist female minister was ordained in 1918.
In Scotland, the same happened in..... 2009 !!!!
The Scottish Kirk (the main Presbyterian body in Scotland) did no much better. The main Presbyterian Church in Scotland ordained its first female minister in..... 1969 (40 years after France. Madeleine Blocher Saillens was ordained as a Baptist minister in Paris as early as in 1929).
Why is it like this ? Why SCOTLAND, whose History is so full of Freedom fighters, is so way behind England, France and many countries in terms of female religious leadership ?
One BIG reason may be rooted in far history.
Actually, John Knox (1514-1572), a huge towering figure in Scotland's religious history, played a pivotal role in the implementation of Protestant Reformation in Scotland.
And he was very much AGAINST any kind of female religious leadership, as this article ot the Scotsman reminds us (link).
Knoxic masculinity ?
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How Christian Communities React to Right-Wing Populism
Right-wing populists across Western democracies have markedly increased references to Christianity in recent years. While there is much debate about how and why they have done so, less attention has been paid to how Christian communities react to this development. The present study addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of Christian responses to right-wing populist politics in Germany, France and the US.
Read more (link)
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Popular culture and the economic imperative in Nigerian Pentecostalism
Nigerian Pentecostalism continues to assume many of the externalities of popular culture in the country, creating a unique composite of spirituality and secular entertainment. In an emergent trend, church leaders invite popular entertainers into church services and other church-related events with the declared aim of energizing their congregations.
Where does the imperative in Nigerian Pentecostalism to outsource the work of inspiration to performers and jesters come from?