Jean-Paul Willaime

The Cultural Turn in the Sociology of Religion in France

The decline in the influence of Marxism and structuralism in the social sciences has led to greater attention being paid to both social actors and cultural identities in the sociology of religion. Prompted by debates between republicans (in the French sense of the word) and democrats concerning the status of cultural and religious identities in the public sphere, the sociology of religion in France has increasingly questioned the classic paradigms of secularization. It has turned instead to the approaches of anthropology and the political sciences, revealing both the structures and the dynamics of religious identities in ultra-modernity. As a result, French laicite is increasingly questioned-the more so given the pressures of the European context. No longer is the sociological study of religious phenomena simply an analysis of social determinants; it becomes instead, in France as elsewhere, the study of symbolic mediations, examining their influence on both social bonds and the formation of individuals as active subjects.

La religion civile à la française et ses métamorphoses

In civil religion, the collective piety a society generates associates elements of civic religion (the political dimension) with elements of a common religion (the cultural dimension). In France, where the State has played a major role in national affirmation, the cult of the Republic and the tradition of France as the “first daughter of the Church” have marked the development of the collective imagination. Thus Frenchstyle civil religion takes the form of a lay religion with a background of Catholic culture. At the end of the 1980s, notably on the occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution, one witnessed the emergence of an ethical recomposition of civil religion around a certain ecumenism of human rights.

Religious and Secular France Between Northern and Southern Europe

France is a Catholic country with a secular culture, a country which belongs simultaneously to the Northern European area and to the Southern European area. In the religious field, France indeed occupies the middle ground between Northern Europe and Southern Europe. Nevertheless, as regards religion, there appears to be no striking difference between Northern France and Southern France. In this secular country, Catholicism continues to play a public role, especially in times of national mourning. Finally, the author considers whether, with the recent secularization of laïcitéitself, we shall shortly see the end of the “French exception”.

L'enseignement religieux à l'école publique dans l'Est de la France: une tradition entre déliquescence et recomposition

Unlike the remainder of the country where separation of church and state is the order of the day, eastern France (Alsace-Moselle) is characterized by a system of recognized cults; priests, pastors and rabbis are remunerated by the state, and a confessional religious education is dispensed in state schools. The author examines this situation and the evolution of this religious education: formerly marked by a significant drop in pupil participation, today there is a noticeable increase in participation in schools where this education is being reshaped in the wider context of an education focusing on values and citizenship. This development seems to be characteristic of the reconstruction of church-state relations in a world of ultramodernity.

Le courant évangélique français: un «intégrisme protestant»?

For the past 10 or 15 years, French evangelism has enjoyed a revival. But it is still poorly known. This article indicates first of all the different trends in French evangelism (orthodox; pietis tic, pentecostalist and charismatic) and shows that, in spite of its diversity, this current gives priority to certain basic orientations, as is shown, amongst other things, by a survey on the pastoral staff.

A favor de uma sociologia transnacional da laicidade na ultramodernidade contemporânea

A discussao critica entabulada com meu amigo Jean Bauberot2 (JB) por ocasiao da publicacao, em 2008, de minha obra intitulada Le retour du religieux dans la sphere publique concentrou-se, sobretudo, na licao de laicidade que ele deu a Nicolas Sarkozy depois dos seus discursos em Roma e em Riad referentes a religiao (2008). Embora o panfleto de JB3 seja, a meu ver, mais um ato politico do que academico, ele oferece mesmo assim os principais elementos de suas analises sobre a laicidade, analises que eu conhecia atraves de suas obras anteriores, mas que apresentam aqui uma discrepância em relacao as posicoes desenvolvidas por ele em 2006, em sua obra intitulada L’integrisme republicain contre la laicite. JB teria se deixado levar por sua paixao politica? Sem duvida. Em todo caso, ha momentos em que me apoio em JB 2006 para criticar JB 2008.

Pluralisme religieux, Etat et éducation

While the State accepts the existence of religious pluralism in so far as private beliefs are concerned, it also expects the various religions to play an increasingly important role in maintaining societal cohesion. This it does by encouraging each religion to contribute to the transmission of a set of common values which are to be shared by all members of the society. Thus confronted by the challenge of cultural pluralism, Western societies find that their value system is not religiously neutral: the State utilizes the sacred. Whether they do so in conflict or in co-operation, State and religion inevitably meet in the sphere of education.

Religious and Philosophical Diversity as a Challenge for the Secularism: A Belgian-French Comparison

In this chapter, I focus on the fact that the diversity is not only religious but also philosophical: in the diversity, we have to take the “non-believers” into account, the persons who define themselves as “non-religious”. Are they indifferent or in favour of an alternative conception of life? Consequently, the question is raised how to consider secularism. The comparison between France and Belgium is all the more interesting from the viewpoint of secularism as these two countries perfectly illustrate these two dimensions of secularism, namely: (1) secularism as a general principle of relations between the State and religions in pluralistic democracies respecting freedom of conscience, of thought, and of religion, as well as everything that freedom implies; and (2) secularism as a philosophical concept that is free-thinking and agnostic promoting a secular-cum-secularist vision of man and the world, as an alternative to religious worldviews. It is in the manner of considering these two dimensions that Belgium and France differ. It is why the Belgian-French comparison is especially relevant on this matter.

Le protestantisme et les modes d’institutionnalité du religieux. Complexifier le type « Église »

Protestantism includes Church-type as well as Sect-type ecclesiastical organizations. Its study therefore allows the Weberian typology to be elaborated. In terms of the way in which religious groups define their legitimacy, their ritual, ideological and charismatic characteristics acquire greater or lesser importance. As regards the Church-type, the author proposes a distinction between a ritual-institutional and an ideological-institutional model. In the Protestant world, legitimacy is better established through ideology (theology) and the authority of the ‘doctor-preacher’ than by ritual and charismatic function. Protestantism represents another mode of Church-type religious institutionalism as well as another mode of Sect-type religious association.

Quelques réflexions sur la compréhension sociologique de la religion/Reflections on the sociological understanding of religion:

C’est un honneur et un plaisir pour moi d’inaugurer cette initiative prise par le conseil de la SISR/ISSR de permettre au président d’adresser, à la fin de son mandat, un discours à tous les membres de notre société. En inaugurant cette initiative, j’espère que cette première donnera envie à la SISR de la poursuivre et de créer ainsi une tradition digne d’intérêt. Bien que ce discours présidentiel ne soit pas tenu de traiter du thème de la présente conférence, Religion et Économie, je partirai néanmoins de ce thème pour vous proposer ensuite quelques réflexions sur la compréhension sociologique de la religion comme phénomène social singulier.