SECULARIZATION AND LAICIZATION :

Transcription

1 SECULARIZATION AND LAICIZATION : EXPLORING ISSUES OF RELIGIOUS DECLINE AND REVIVAL IN FRANCE AND ACROSS THE BRITISH WORLD DURING THE LATE MODERN ERA Teacher : Géraldine VAUGHAN Academic year 2016/2017 : Spring semester COURSE OUTLINE Class 1: A General Introduction to the concepts of Secularization and Laicization Class 2: Protestantism and Modernity in France and Britain (19th-20th C) (I) Class 3: Protestantism and Modernity in France and Britain (19th-20th C) (II) Class 4: Education and Religion: the Enactment of Secular Education in the United Kingdom and in France Class 5: Education and Laïcité: the 1980s-2000s debates in France Class 6: The Death of Christian Britain : The Pill, Miniskirts & Rock and Roll Class 7: The British Monarchy and Religion today Class 8: Religion and the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1970s) Class 9: Understanding Evangelicalism worldwide Class 10: Secular pilgrims and Spiritual Tourists Class 11: What is the Public Definition of Laïcité in France today? Class 12: The Humanist Movement in Britain today: a Secular Religion? Class 1: A General Introduction to the concepts of Secularization and Laicization This opening lecture will endeavour, with the input of the students, to examine, compare and contrast notions of laïcité and secularisation during the late modern era in France and Britain. Peter L. Berger, Reflections on the Sociology of Religion Today, Sociology of Religion, Vol. 62, No. 4, 2001, p Danièle Hervieu-Léger, Religion and Modernity in the French Context : For a New Approach to Secularization, Sociological Analysis, 51, 1990, p

2 Class 2: Protestantism and Modernity in France and Britain (19th-20th C) (I) In the post-lumières period, certain French writers operated a connection between modernity and Protestantism, by bringing out the economic, social and political progress flourishing in Protestant European nations such as Scandinavia, Britain and Northern Germany. Yet in the late nineteenth century, ultra- Catholic writers accused Protestant politicians and thinkers of being the artisans of a secularized society, which they considered as anti-french. There were heated debates and the enemies of Protestantism waged a harsh campaign against those whom they considered as anti-national and anti-patriotic. Caricatures of Protestants in Nineteenth Century France Weekly reading: Hause, Steven C. Anti-Protestant Rhetoric in the Early Third Republic. French Historical Studies, vol. 16, no. 1, 1989, pp Class 3: Protestantism and Modernity in France and Britain (19th-20th C) (II) In her successful opus on the invention of Britishness from the eighteenth century, the historian Linda Colley defined Protestantism and the fight against old Catholic nations such as France and Spain as one of the pillars of modern British identity. When Ireland joined the United Kingdom (1801), the British were faced with a Catholic people (90% of the Irish were Roman Catholics) whom they considered as backward, superstitious and anti-modern. This course will examine anti-catholic prejudice through caricatures and writings and will highlight the racial dimension of religious prejudice and the defence of Protestant democratic modernity against a tyrannical Papist faith. Caricatures of Paddy in Mr Punch Text: Catholicism and Irish backwardness, 19th C Weekly readings: John Wolffe, A Comparative Historical Categorisation of Anti-Catholicism, Journal of Religious History, Volume 39, Issue 2, June 2015, p John Wolffe, Protestant-Catholic divisions in Europe and the United States: an historical and comparative perspective, Politics, Religion & Ideology, 12(3), 2011, p Linda Colley, Britons. Forging the Nation , Yale University Press, Yale, 1992 [Introduction]

3 Class 4: Education and Religion: the Enactment of Secular Education in the United Kingdom and in France Ecole laïque and secular education are not synonymous thus exploring the births of both public, compulsory and free education systems will help us understand the French and British attitudes towards religion in the late nineteenth century. An excerpt from the Education (England) Act, 1870 An excerpt from : Muzzey, David Saville. State, Church, and School in France III. The Separation of Church and School. The School Review, vol. 19, no. 5, 1911, pp Armytage, W. H. G. The 1870 Education Act. British Journal of Educational Studies, vol. 18, no. 2, 1970, pp Class 5: Education and Laïcité: the 2000s debates in France Caricatures: Laicity in France, 1905/2013 Australian Documentary (Journeyman Pictures, ABC Australia, 2015): Saving France s secular identity (20 ) [ Baubérot, Jean, and Arthur Goldhammer. Laicity, in The French Republic: History, Values, Debates, Edited by Edward Berenson et al., 1st ed., Cornell University Press, 2011, p , Véronique Dinner, French Secularism in Debate: Old Wine in New Bottles, French Politics, Culture & Society, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Spring 2008), p Class 6: The Death of Christian Britain : The Pill, Miniskirts & Rock and Roll By examining new sources and enlarging the meaning of religion to practices other than regular churchgoing, historians such a Hugh MacLeod and Callum Brown have renewed the chronological boundaries of secularization since the 1970s. Callum Brown stressed the religious crisis of the 1960s and insisted upon the end of Christendom i.e. the end of Christianity as an overall accepted discourse on standard morals. This course will examine the 1960s as a turning point in the history of the secularisation of British society. An excerpt from Jeremy Morris, The Strange Death of Christian Britain: Another Look at the Secularization Debate, (2003)

4 Poster: A 1960s advertising bill on the Contraceptive Pill Callum Brown, The Death of Christian Britain. Understanding Secularisation , London, Routledge, 2009 [ READ Introduction and Chapter 8]. Jeremy Morris, The Strange Death of Christian Britain: Another Look at the Secularization Debate, The Historical Journal, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Dec., 2003), p Class 7: The British Monarchy and Religion today 20th century scandals associated with the British monarchy include Edward VIII and the divorce crisis which led to his abdication in 1936 or the 1992 separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Both those crises indicated that monarchs or monarchs-to-be were ready, albeit at different time periods, to defy traditional Christian marriage and sexual morality by placing private wishes above public service. This course will question the role of the British monarchy as a pillar of national Protestantism (after all, the actual Queen is still, as her ancestor Henry VIII was, the head and supreme Defender of the established Church of England) and its impact on the definition of British identities. Article: Decca Aitkenhead, God Meets Queen Mum, The Guardian, Tuesday 2 April Excerpts from: Modified 1910 Accession Declaration; Succession to the Crown Act 2013, chap. 20. Reading: John Wolffe, Protestantism, monarchy and the defence of Christian Britain , in Brown, Callum G and Snape, Michael (eds.) Secularisation in the Christian World, Farnham, Ashgate, 2010, p Class 8: Religion and the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1970s) The Troubles in Northern Ireland were a period of civil conflict ( ) which had a strong sectarian component (Catholics vs. Protestants). The attempts by Terence O Neill and his Civil Rights Association to organise pacific marches often turned into riots in 1868 and On Sunday, 30 January 1872, a banned civil rights march in Derry led to a serious incident in which 13 were killed and 17 wounded by the British army. This event marked the end of Catholic support for the deployment of British troops in Ulster, which were supposed to play the role of a neutral buffer between ultra-protestant militias and the IRA. Film: Bloody Sunday, Paul Greengrass, 2002 Urban art: The Belfast Murals, 1970s and 1980s

5 Aileen Blaney, Remembering Historical Trauma in Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday, History and Memory, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2007), p McLoone, Martin. A Review on Bloody Sunday. Cinéaste, vol. 27, no. 4, 2002, pp Lisle, Debbie. Local Symbols, Global Networks: Rereading the Murals of Belfast. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, vol. 31, no. 1, 2006, pp Class 9: Understanding Evangelicalism worldwide The growing success of Evangelical Churches worldwide (North America, Latin America, South Asia and Western Europe) will be examined through an historical reappraisal of the birth and meaning of Evangelicalism. In French, the term is confusing because Pentecostal, Charismatic and Baptist Churches and other Protestant denominations are called Eglises évangéliques. This course will thus endeavour to clarify the origins, nature and expansion of Evangelicalism in 21st French secularised society. Press article: Lizzie Davies, For secular and Catholic France, a shock to the system: the rise of the evangelicals, The Guardian, 6 November John Wolffe and M. Hutchinson, A Short History of Evangelicalism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012 [READ p. 1-24]. Sébastien Fath, Evangelical Protestantism in France: An Example of Denominational Recomposition? Sociology of Religion, vol. 66, no. 4, 2005, pp Directory for Evangelical Churches in France: Class 10: Secular pilgrims and Spiritual Tourists Walking to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle or along ancient pilgrim trails in Britain is becoming more and more popular, and has been defined as a form of spiritual tourism, combining healthy walking, ecological concerns and a journey to one s inner self. This course will study the secularization of faith journeys in France and in Britain. Press article: Robert MacFarlane, Rites of way: behind the pilgrimage revival, The Guardian, 15 June

6 Reading: Marion Bowman, Procession and Possession in Glastonbury: Continuity, Change and the Manipulation of Folklore, Vol. 115, No. 3 (Dec., 2004), p Class 11: What is the Public Definition of Laïcité in France today? As historical and recent aspects of the laïcité debate have now been presented in several preceding courses, this week we shall examine together the contemporary challenges awaiting French laïcité and how the concept can be adapted to the current French social and religious situation. Press article: Farhad Khosrokhavarjuly, Jihad and the French Exception, Opinion Pages, The New Reading : York Times, 19 July Raphaël Liogier, Laïcité on the Edge in France: Between the Theory of Church-State Separation and the Praxis of State-Church Confusion, Macquarie Law Journal Vol 9/25, 2009, Class 12: The Humanist Movement in Britain today: a Secular Religion? In France, militant non-believers tend to define themselves as free thinkers (libre-penseurs) but in Britain and in North America, a new humanist movement has emerged in the past twenty years, claiming to regroup people who share common values, such as science and rational enquiry, and who seek to live ethical lives based on reason and compassion (Humanist Society Scotland). Humanist groups offer celebrants for naming ceremonies, marriages, civil partnerships and funerals. This course will enquire into the nature of the Humanist movement and its possible definition as a secular(ised) religion. An excerpt from the historian Callum Brown s presentation: Problems for the non-believer? Defining religion and non-religion, Richard Cimino and Christopher Smith, Secular Humanism and Atheism beyond Progressive Secularism, Sociology of Religion, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Winter, 2007), p Callum Brown, a talk on Humanism, 8 May 2014 [