World Vision: God's Internationalists

As the amount of research on Christian Nationalism is growing rapidly (for good reasons), let's not forget that Evangelicalism per se can't be simply coined as a whole as "nationalist". A very robust internationalist and transnational trend can be noticed all over its contemporary history, including on the US ground.

Time to remind readers of this highly valuable piece of research published by David P. King in 2019 on one of the World's biggest humanitarian NGO today : World Vision.

"Chronicling the evolution of World Vision's practices, theology, rhetoric, and organizational structure, King demonstrates how the organization rearticulated and retained its Christian identity even as it expanded beyond a narrow American evangelical subculture". 

Link

White US Evangelicals and Politics: a documentary to watch

From the Cold War to the present day, the rise of white Evangelical Christianity in America has brought religion clearly into the public sphere. A must-watch: this three-part documentary (from ARTE Channel) on how the politico-religious machine of US white evangelicalism is determined to reshape USA.... and the world (with the participation of the sociologist Philippe Gonzalez).

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)

Evangelicals and Electoral Politics in Latin America

For a deeper understanding of the various ways through which Evangelicals get involved in Politics in Latin America, this new book from Prof. Taylor Boas (Boston University) is a must-read:

"Why are religious minorities well represented and politically influential in some democracies but not others? Focusing on evangelical Christians in Latin America, this book argues that religious minorities seek and gain electoral representation when they face significant threats to their material interests and worldview, and when their community is not internally divided by cross-cutting cleavages. Differences in Latin American evangelicals' political ambitions emerged as a result of two critical junctures: episodes of secular reform in the early twentieth century and the rise of sexuality politics at the turn of the twenty-first.

In Brazil, significant threats at both junctures prompted extensive electoral mobilization; in Chile, minimal threats meant that mobilization lagged. In Peru, where major cleavages divide both evangelicals and broader society, threats prompt less electoral mobilization than otherwise expected. The multi-method argument leverages interviews, content analysis, survey experiments, ecological analysis, and secondary case studies of Colombia, Costa Rica, and Guatemala."

Link

'Fundamentalism and American Culture', third edition updated

'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)

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

Evangelical belonging and Migrant experience (USA)

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

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

Orthodoxy & Evangelicalism: Contemporary Issues in Global Perspective

Since the 1990s, the Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Evangelical communities have had more direct contact with each other than at any other time. A small but growing number of dialogues have occurred around the globe along with significant comparative studies in history, doctrine, worship, and spiritual life. Few regional studies, however, have examined areas outside the Anglophone world, or the political and legal aspects of relationships between these traditions. Therefore, this volume breaks fresh ground.

This volume is a collection of scholarly essays on current issues and/or developments in Orthodox-Evangelical relations, at both global and national levels, which will inform the ongoing dialogue.

Available in open access here ! Link

Postcolonial revival in the French-speaking world

Just a few days ago, Yvan Castanou, a prominent megachurch pastor (IMpact Centre Chrétien, ICC)  based in the Paris' suburbs, met in Lagos Bishop David Oyedepo, Nigeria's most powerful Evangelical pastor.

The go-between was pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, megachurch pastor based in London (Kingsway International church).

This kind of connection doesn't come by accident. It is a testimony of a much larger movement going on: Evangelical/Neopentecostal Revival is on the way in the global French-speaking world, connecting more than ever before the strongest English-speaking and French-speaking networks.

To know more about African Evangelical networks in Europe from a French-speaking persoective, read Fancello and Mary (link).

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.

"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

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

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)

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.

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.

Evangelicals in Brazil and in USA : a comparative study

Debates do NER is a Brazilian biannual journal, created in 1997 on the initiative of the Center for the Study of Religion (NER), of the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).

Debates do NER is currently one of the most important vehicles for disseminating research related to the Social Sciences of Religion in Mercosur. Thanks to my Brazilian colleagues Marcelo Camurça and Emerson Giumbelli, whom I warmly thank, I had the opportunity to publish in 2020 a comparative historical study on Evangelicalism, USA vs Brazil.

THe French weekly Réforme has got a new director

Founded in 1945, Réforme is the main French protestant weekly.

Notoriously very close to the French Presbyterian identity, rooted in the Huguenot past, Réforme has regularly struggled to widen its horizon.

Widen, enlarge, why ?

Why ? Because a weekly without new readers has no much future.

Réforme's main concern is the medium age of its readers: close to the retirement age-limit.

How to attract the new generations, which are impacted by Evangelicalism, but also Ecumenism and Secularism?

Nathalie Leenhardt, the former Réforme's director, did a great job maintaining Réforme's quality offer over the last years, which have been so challenging.

Diffamation and reply : French pastor Samuel Peterschmitt strikes back

50 years ago, French Evangelicals were still shy sideliners. Today, as they reach 1 million of believers, it is not the case anymore. They have somehow become "mainline", not within French global socieyty, but at least within French protestantism.

An example among many is the open way French world champion Olivier Giroud (who already scored 44 goals for the French football national team) speaks about his Evangelical faith in many mainstream media.

This new visibility of French Evangelicals explains also why they do not hesitate to engage in public debate when they feel wrongly accused. A recent example can be found with Pastor Samuel Peterschmitt, leader of one of the 6 megachurches of continental France (the "Porte Ouverte Chrétienne" in Mulhouse, East of France).

Last february, his church became the scapegoat of Covid19 propagation. Many diffamatory comments lead this church, and his pastor, to be targeted.

Pastor Samuel Peterschmitt did not hide. After having received substantial backing from various circles (including the mainstream weekly Paris Match), Samuel Peterschmitt replied on solid ground, deconstructing the diffamatory accusations through a book which has just been released. Written with a mainstream journalist (from the weekly Marianne), the title is "La déferlante" (the flood), ed. Première Partie, 2020.

French documentaries on Billy Graham

Billy Graham, "America's pastor", is a global figure. The example of France is revealing. Although France can't claim more than 3% of protestants (including 1 million of Evangelicals), Billy Graham has strongly impacted the country. 

This is why the French National TV Network "France 2" has devoted a very detailed documentary to Billy Graham. The first part has been released last sunday and can still be viewed for free here : 

Link

Sunday schools movement in France: read Anne Ruolt

Sunday schools were first set up in the 18th century in Protestant England to provide education to working children. Since then, the movement spread worldwide. Some very insightful researches have been conducted.

For England, let's mention Stephen Orchard, John H. Y. Briggs, The Sunday School Movement : Studies in the Growth and Decline of Sunday Schools, Londres, Paternoster, 2007.

For the United-States, see (among others) Bergler, Thomas E. The Juvenilization of American Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2012.  

The French Protestant landscape has been also impacted early on by the Sunday school movement. Thanks to  (picture), who conducted several researches on Education and Protestantism, a very complete synthesis is available: Anne Ruolt, L’École du Dimanche en France au XIXe siècle, pour croître en sagesse et en grâce, collection religion – sciences humaines, Paris, l’Harmattan, 2012.

This book would largely deserve a translation. Dr Anne Ruolt, who recently defended successfully her habilitation thesis to supervise research,  is currently part of the GSRL research team (Paris, France).

A prominent US Evangelical becomes Catholic

Hot news !

Mark Galli, highly respected figure of US evangelicalism, converts to Catholicism (link).

Until January 2020, Mark Galli edited the world's largest evangelical monthly, Christianity Today (with a circulation of 120,000 copies). Presbyterian, then Anglican, he eventually joined the Catholic Church in Rome.

David Bebbington's landmark visit in France

Professor David W. Bebbington  (University of Stirling, Scotland, UK) is widely known as one of the World's best experts on Evangelicalism. It was a priviledge to see him visiting France for two brilliant lectures given in Paris (IBN on the 16th of Feb, Rue de Lille Baptist Church on the 17th of Feb). There is more to read in my French-speaking blog (link).

This album (link) opens a few windows on this landmark visit.

As a particlarly remarkable historian, but also as a person, David W. Bebbington is a towering and inspirational figure to many scholars devoted to the study of Evangelical History, including myself.

I've started to interact and meet with David W. Bebbington since 2000 (Wake Forest University, USA). David W. Bebbington's visit to France in 2018 gave me the occasion to go back to some of these older memories (see the first 8 pics of the album). Link

New Christianities explored in Afrique Contemporaine

Edited by the Agence Française de Développement (French Development Agency), the quarterly journal Afrique Contemporaine makes available the analyses and opinions of researchers and specialists on the evolution of the African continent with a view towards sustainable development.

 

It has been an honour for me to lead a special issue, with my colleague Dr Cedric Mayrargue, about NEW CHRISTIANITIES in Africa (mostly Evangelicals).

 

This edition (n°252) has been released in July 2015, whith a rich content (related to Congo, South Sudan, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia etc.).

Link.

French Evangelicals through an American lens (GetReligion)

In our last post, we just highlighted the paper published by the Christian Science Monitor on French Evangelicals. A few days after, the GetReligion website (worth a visit!) released a critical review of this paper, written by George Conger.

Although it may be a little bit severe, it is inspiring (read also the comments).

Link here

French Evangelicals screened by the Christian Science Monitor

"For years, intellectuals proclaimed the end of Christianity in France, swallowed by the tides of modernity, science, and reason."

Not so sure! To know more, read this month the Christian Science Monitor, one of the most US respected magazine on christian news.

Robert Marquand, CS's Staff writer, authored a must-read study on French Evangelicals in the July 2012 issue. With facts, analysis, and comparative view (France/America). Link here

French Evangelical News: a new portal

Under the umbrella of an Evangelical network whose main ambition is to support Christian witness in France, let's highlight this website: http://www.scoop.it/t/french-evangelical-news.

This new portal puts together news from many different origins (including this blog), and appears to be a valuable ressource in order to document French Evangelicals' contemporary life.

Immigration impact on an old Parisian congregation: a case study

As migrants flow in increasing numbers in "old Europe", changing forever social and cultural landscapes, more and more studies are currently undergone about new multicultural and immigrant churches.

Although all Christian traditions are impacted by immigration, Evangelicalism is at the frontline, as warm, grassroot and zealous Evangelical congregations appear more attractive to migrants than other more traditional religious forms.