Reminder: Conference on the Christian Right (22 and 23th of oct, 2021)

British Protestant Missions, Europe and "imaginary colonialism"

"This (excellent!) 2021 book is the first account of British Protestant conversion initiatives directed towards continental Europe between 1600 and 1900.

Continental Europe was considered a missionary land—another periphery of the world, whose centre was imperial Britain. British missions to Europe were informed by religious experiments in America, Africa, and Asia, rendering these offensives against Europe a true form of "imaginary colonialism".

British Protestant missionaries often understood themselves to be at the forefront of a civilising project directed at Catholics (and sometimes even at other Protestants). Their mission was further reinforced by Britain becoming a land of compassionate refuge for European dissenters and exiles. This book engages with the myth of International Protestantism, questioning its early origins and its narrative of transnational belonging, while also interrogating Britain as an imagined Protestant land of hope and glory."

Link.

"God needs no defense": Evangelicals and Muslims share views

Yes, Evangelicals and Muslims compete, but they also do talk.

In April of 2020, leaders of the World Evangelical Alliance and Nahdlatul Ulama — including Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, Dr. Christine Schirrmacher, Dr. Thomas K. Johnson, Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf and C. Holland Taylor — established the Humanitarian Islam/WEA Joint Working Group. This volume is a product of the Joint Working Group’s Subcommittee on Jurisprudence, Human Rights and Ethics.

Founded in 1846, the World Evangelical Alliance is the largest international organization of evangelical churches, representing over 600 million Protestants and national evangelical alliances in 140 countries. It refers to the Gospel of Jesus-Christ as the main teaching, and promotes faith and evangelism through local communities.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) federates 90 millions of Indonesian Muslims, and develops within its ranks a movement called Humanitarian Islam, rooted in the principle of rahmah — stressing the need to contextualize and adapting Islamic teachings, while presenting Islam not as a supremacist ideology or vehicle for conquest, but rather, as one of many paths through which humans may attain spiritual perfection. Link

"The Christian Right: What Convergences today?"

An international conference not to be missed! Research on evangelicals being at the heart of current events, the objective of this international conference will be to broaden the field by crossing analyses and observations in order to better identify the dynamics at work in the Christian world on the level of interactions between religion and politics.

The conference intends to put forward early career researchers. Papers will be in French or in English, to be followed by ensuing publications.

Link

Transatlantic Charismatic Renewal, c.1950-2000, a MUST READ

In Transatlantic Charismatic Renewal, c.1950-2000, Andrew Atherstone, Mark Hutchinson and John Maiden bring together leading researchers to examine one of the globally most important religious movements of the twentieth century. Variously referred to as the charismatic ‘renewal’ or ‘revival’, it was a key Christian response to globalization, modernity and secularization. Unlike other accounts (which focus either on denominational pentecostalism or charismatic phenomena outside the West), this volume describes transatlantic Christianity drawing deeply on its pneumatic roots to bring about renewal. New research in archives and overlooked journals illuminate key figures from David du Plessis to John Wimber, providing insights which challenge the standard interpretations of the charismatic movement’s origins and influence. 

Link.

Faith in Flux, Pentecostalism and Mobility in Rural Mozambique

Anthropologist Devaka Premawardhana arrived in Africa to study the much reported "explosion" of Pentecostalism, the spread of which has indeed been massive. It is the continent's fastest growing form of Christianity and one of the world's fastest growing religious movements.

Yet Premawardhana found no evidence for this in the province of Mozambique where he worked. His research suggests that much can be gained by including such places in the story of global Christianity, by shifting attention from the well-known places where Pentecostal churches flourish to the unfamiliar places where they fail.

A must-read book (link)

Why the world is becoming more French

From industrial policy and nuclear power to "strategic autonomy" and the 35-hour week, the 2020s are popularising many French instincts about world affairs and the state.

Thank you Jeremy Cliffe for this stimulating analysis (NewStatesman)

The History of Evangelicals and Religious Freedom (Baylor)

An international online conference from the Evangelical Studies Program at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and co-sponsored by Baylor’s Truett Seminary

After a successful conference last year on the history of Evangelicals in Latin America, the Evangelical Studies Program at Baylor ISR will hold a conference on the history of Evangelicals and religious freedom. It will range over the period from the eighteenth century to the present and will have papers on many parts of the globe.

Link

Church & Land in Basutoland: the Paris Evangelical Mission

Thanks to Ntabanyane S. K. Tseuoa (University of KwaZulu-Natal), a new light is shed on the interactions between the Paris Evangelical Mission and the people of the Basutoland (now in South Africa).

This paper (2020) investigates how the Paris Mission acquired land in Basutoland upon the arrival of its missionaries in 1833 and in subsequent years. It also looks at changing notions of land and the missionaries' utilisation of it throughout their tenure in Basutoland. It explores how the Basuto as a people understood the possession of land vis-â-vis the European notion of buying and selling land as a commodity.

Grateful for the full-text access! Good work! But disappointed by the total lack of french-speaking research. A great deal of quality work has been done, particularly by Historian Jean-François Zorn, world-wide specialist of the Paris Evangelical Mission. None of this research is used here. Hey, English-speaking friends, using a bit of french should not be an option if you work on French missions!

Link

Evangelicals in the Latino political arena: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay

The advance of evangelical congregations in the Latin American religious scene is one of the most significant cultural transformations of the last decades.

It is so because of the speed with which it has occurred, because of the important number of people involved and because of the depth with which it challenges the Catholic Church, one of the most emblematic institutions of the continent since the conquest.

In this paper, the authors analyze one of the areas in which this religious revolution is manifesting itself in three different countries: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

 

Link.

French Secularism in Crisis ?

François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), buried in the Paris Pantheon, remarked: “God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” Voltaire, invoking his chronic sense of absurdity, would be smirking at the new social harmony in France as hardcore French secularists and Muslim women in public places conceal their faces (noses, mouths, and eyes) to protect themselves from Covid-19.

Thnak you L. Ali Khan for this interesting piece boosting debate. Link

Baptist Churches and War in Eastern Congo between 1990 and 2011

Langham is one ot the major publishers providing today fresh quality content from skilled African authors.

Social science researchers would greatly benefit from paying closer attention to the many good books released each year, including this one: written by Eraston Kambale Kighoma  from a Christian scholarly point of view, this missiology study is worth reading.

It provides a deep insight into the way Baptist churches in Congo dealt with the war in Eastern Congo between 1990 and 2011.

 

Link.

French mainstream press covering a Hollywood pacifist war drama

This article outlines and discusses two aspects of the French mediatization of Tu ne tueras point (Hacksaw Ridge) film: the relationship between media, normative secularism and religion in the context of the hegemony of mediatization as ‘media and communication-centered’ phenomenon.

Based on the content analysis and discursive strategies of the biographical war drama chronicles, the contribution points out less developed empirical aspects in France regarding the relation between religion and media:

(a) the media discourse is dependent on a normative narrative of secularism,

(b) the media discourse represents and expresses a confusion between the sacred, religion and faith, deliberately created and maintained by the journalists, and (c) the media discourse is based on a conception of violence with modern origins.

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

Innovation and Competition in Zimbabwean Pentecostalism

"Using the concept of a “religious market”, this volume explores how African Traditional Religions and churches within Prophetic Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe seek to attract and retain members and clients.

Chapters provide extensive coverage of two of the leading churches, namely, Emmanuel Makandiwa's United Family International Church (UFIC) and Walter Magaya's Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries (PHD)"

Innovation and Competition in Zimbabwean Pentecostalism is an important contribution to understanding the marketization of religion.

 

Link

Christian Zionist religiouscapes in Brazil (Social Compass)

he increasing appropriation by Charismatic Evangelicals of Jewish narratives, rituals, and even Zionist anxieties is now evident in many parts of the globe. Drawing on two cases, one based on a Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal church and another based on an ethnographic investigation of a ‘Judaizing Evangelical’ community in Brazil this study interrogates to what extent we can comprehend this emerging tendency within Brazilian Charismatic Evangelicalism...

 

Link

"Evangelicalism & Religious Experience in Black Women’s Activism"

This article centers Black religious women’s activist memoirs, including Mamie Till Mobley’s Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America (2003) and Rep. Lucia Kay McBath’s Standing Our Ground: The Triumph of Faith over Gun Violence: A Mother’s Story (2018), to refocus the narrative of American Evangelicalism and politics around Black women’s authoritative narratives of religious experience, expression, mourning, and activism.

Available in full access here (link)

Island Gospel Pentecostal Music and Identity in Jamaica and the US

Pentecostals throughout Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora use music to declare what they believe and where they stand in relation to religious and cultural outsiders. Yet the inclusion of secular music forms like ska, reggae, and dancehall complicates music's place in social and ritual practice, challenging Jamaican Pentecostals to reconcile their religious and cultural identities.

Melvin L. Butler journeys into this crossing of boundaries and its impact on Jamaican congregations and the music they make. Using the concept of flow, Butler's ethnography evokes both the experience of Spirit-influenced performance and the transmigrations that fuel the controversial sharing of musical and ritual resources between Jamaica and the United States.

A rare and important research ! Link

Prosperity Gospel : at least 5 varieties

Who did not hear about Prosperity Gospel ? However, even if it's easy and simple to remember, the label misleading.

The more I read (for example, Blessed, from Kate Bowler, and Coleman, The Globalization of Charismatic Christianity) and the more I do field research (In France, Congo, Madagascar Burkina Faso etc), the more I come to realize that there is at least FIVE distinct theologies behind the "Prosperity Gospel" label. In a nutshell, let me share these varieties with you:

-A magico-religious variety

-A performative variety (Word of Faith)

- A gift /countergift version (Mauss)

-A contract variety (Covenant, Laws of the Kingdom)

-A postcolonial version

To be followed....

The Religious Liberty & COVID-19 Research Project

The Religious Liberty and Covid-19 Research Project is a joint effort by an interdisciplinary group of international scholars, professors, and lawyers who seek to monitor the impact of public health guidelines and restrictions on the worship and faith practices of religious groups and individuals.

The project is initially focused on monitoring developments in the United States and the countries of the European Union, though it may be expanded to include other countries. 

 

Link to know more about this project led by Nicholas Miller and Alexis Artaud de la Ferrière

Nationalism, American evangelicals, and conservatism

Historians Anthea Butler and Heather J. Sharkey (picture) and political scientist Michele Margolis share their thoughts on the history of American evangelicals in politics, Trump’s appeal, and what it means for the future of the GOP.

Thank you University of Pennsylvania for sharing these bright analysis.

 

Link.

British Evangelicals, German Pietists & Revival in Hungary

This article demonstrates how British evangelicals, German pietists, and Hungarian Protestants sought to ‘educate’ the masses outside the educational framework of ecclesiastical and state structures within the Hungarian Kingdom in the nineteenth century. More specifically the study intends to offer a concise overview of the history of Protestants who spread the gospel through the distribution of affordable Bibles, New Testaments and Christian tracts. 

To read more, click here (link)

 

Rokhaya Diallo, Researcher in Residence in Georgetown Univ (USA)

Bright French author of many books, Washington Post monthly columnist and powerful anti-racism activist, award-winning filmmaker Rokhaya Diallo is one of the major French figures of the new intellectual generation.

Tired to still face the same gap between the so-called "universalist" French republican values and the reality of remaining discriminations, she is one of the leading advocates of social and cultural mixity and tolerance.

She's fighting for an applied version of Human Rights at all levels of French society. In a nutshell, she does not want to be payed with words, and is pleading for day-to-day translation of the French motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

Did Church-State separation REALLY slow down Slavery Abolition?

Joseph Prud'homme (Ph.D. Princeton) is the Burton Family Chair in Religion, Politics, and Culture and the Director of the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture at Washington College in Chestertown, MD, USA.

He just released a very interesting piece of research, "Separation of Church and State, American Exceptionalism, and the Contemporary Social Moment: Viewing Church–State Separation from the Priority of Slavery"

 His main point is this :

White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America

The American political scene today is poisonously divided, and the vast majority of white evangelicals play a strikingly unified, powerful role in the disunion. These evangelicals raise a starkly consequential question for electoral politics: Why do they claim morality while supporting politicians who act immorally by most Christian measures? In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American religion and politics, Anthea Butler answers that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power.

A very much needed scholarly book to put in historical perspective White Evangelical's contemporary positioning.

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

French Secularism Isn’t Illiberal

Thanks to @ForeignPolicy, here is a slightly more nuanced & balanced piece than what we've read recently on the notion of #Laicite (secularism) in #France.

This text has been written by Nicolas Cadène, a high skilled French official in charge ot the main French official structure designed to regulate secularism, "laïcité", French way.

 

A must-read !

 

Link.

Religion and the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe (2021)

In Western Europe, populist radical right parties are calling for a return to Christian or Judeo-Christian values and identity. The growing electoral success of many of these parties may suggest that, after decades of secularisation, Western Europeans are returning to religion. Yet these parties do not tell their supporters to go to church, believe in God, or practise traditional Christian values. Instead, they claim that their respective national identities and cultures are the product of a Christian or Judeo-Christian tradition which either encompasses—or has produced—secular modernity.

A new book written by Nicholas Morieson. Link.

Urban Secularism Negotiating Religious Diversity in Europe

While French laïcité is often considered something fixed, its daily deployment is rather messy. What might we learn if we study the governance of religion from a dynamic bottom-up perspective? Using an ethnographic approach, this book examines everyday secularism in the making. How do city actors understand, frame and govern religious diversity? Which local factors play a role in those processes? In Urban Secularism: Negotiating Religious Diversity in Europe, Julia Martínez-Ariño brings the reader closer to the entrails of laïcité. She provides detailed accounts of the ways religious groups, city officials, municipal employees, secularist actors and other civil-society organisations negotiate concrete public expressions of religion.

To read more, and order Dr. Julia Martinez-Arino's book, click here (link)

France: at least flowers are not locked down

Visiting the French Protestant Historical Society (SHPF), rue des Saints Pères, Paris, on the day French Prime Minister announced a third lock-down.