Contenu du sommaire : Religion et Politique

The Virgin, the Christians, the Muslims and the nation Lebanon, 2004-2007 On the 24th of July 2004 the Virgin Mary manifested herself in the village of Bechouate in the Bekaa valley. As a consequence of this event the village became the focus of a major multi-religious pilgrimage. Two types of links were forged as a result : one, which can be termed vertical, involves the relation of the devotee to Mary; the other, horizontal and collective, linked people of different religions. The paper examines how political actors, religious officials and intellectuals made use of this state of affairs in order to create a possibility for reconciliation, where groups differing greatly in terms of religious affiliation might consider living together. This possibility for reconciliation, however fragile and uncertain, thus appeared as an alternative to the renewed warfare that was widely believed to be inevitable.

« GetReligion » The “revoicing” practices of the American religious right American evangelicals are once again in the process of repositioning themselves in public life and altering the meaning of modern secularity. These post-religious right evangelicals remain theological and social conservatives, but they are remaking and multiplying the public expression of evangelicalism in ways that check and discipline, and in the end may marginalize, the militants among them. Far from reinstalling a narrow secularity that relies on everyone playing by the rules of a religious reason, we are more likely looking at the emergence of a more “robust secularity”. This essay argues that American evangelicals reposition themselves in public life through “revoicing” practices and examines two of the many kinds of practices that are currently morphing American evangelicalism: green evangelicalism and the Emerging Church.

Spiritual peace makers Notes on anabaptist and evangelical groups in America The distinctive way Mennonites and certain evangelical groups have involved themselves in peacemaking in countries of the southern hemisphere enables us to specify the character of what may seem their predictable involvement in peace making processes. The reason why these groups have became specialised in peacemaking “from below”, through establishing dialogue between “ordinary people”, are varied, ranging from peace activism, group maintenance, theological exploration, and creating jobs for elite members. Thus Mennonites and evangelicals have developed techniques of peacemaking that value informal conflict resolution and view the individual as the source of social change.

Pluralism without conflict Sant'Egidio: diplomatics and religion For twenty years now the catholic community of Sant' Egidio organises an annual meeting consisting of an international prayer for peace. The event is widely commented in the media. It brings together a variety of religious institutions as well as leading figures from the world of politics and religion. The aim of an ethnography of such an event is to understand the assumptions that underpin such a “dialogue”. The event is used to legitimate various religious identities and institutions, above all that of the catholic church which “frames” the sessions. Rather than confronting the various versions of the “truth” held by the participants the framework focuses on shared cultural and ethical “values” i.e. peace, sharing, and the value of cross-cultural dialogue. In this way it implies common agreement over the principle of co-existence rather than confronting pluralism. The study aims to decode this particular way of handling religious conflict.

Victims or torturers ? The greco-catholics Ukrainians and the « Holodomor » What is the significance and the role of the written traces left by those who died victims of the genocidal famine of 1933 for the rituals of memory of the Ukrainian community in France? We examine the way calling the dead “martyrs” links the past to the present continued existence of the group and ultimately with the Ukrainian motherland. It is also shown, by including these “proofs” of the authenticity of suffering in various rituals, how written documents become the means of demonstrating the very existence of a Ukrainian nation traumatized by different remembered crises that have occurred during its history.

Questions of qualifications A Bosnian Mufti facing the ICTY The witness statement made by the Mufti of Mostar, who had been called for the prosecution by lawyers acting for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) shows well how the different parties to the conflict narrate the situations in which they found themselves in the war and how they attempt to turn these to their advantage when in the witness box. They manipulate categories, classifications and qualifications. The article shows how, in the light of the extreme case of a war being tried in a “liberal” judicial context, the “political” and the “religious” interact in such a legal account of the conflict.

Victims, heroes or martyrs ? The anti-mafia judges The paper examines the creation of the notion of “martyrs of the mafia” within the context of the peculiar intertwining of politics and religion in Sicily manifest in the mobilization of the fight against the mafia, starting in the 1980'. This occurred in particular at the time when the mafia killed judge Giovanni Falcone on the 23rd of May 1992 and in the evocation of a new kind of “martyr” being created in the still running canonization process for a judge, Rosario Livatino, and a priest, father Giuseppe Puglisi, both killed by Cosa Nostra. The controversies within the catholic community, the legal world and the Antimafia movement reveal the fundamental assumptions that lie behind this religious categorization where the political has not only legitimizing effects but also is made subject to criticism because of its structural links with the mafia.

“I was hungry and you fed me…” The practice of charity On the basis of participant observation, this article consists of notes on the way food distribution by volunteers is carried out in an office of the Secours catholique (a catholic charity). It is shown how the volunteers understanding of their catholic duty is implicitly based on the notion of traditional charity whereas what they explicitly talk about is how to reinsert the people they help into normal life. The problem they face is how to give meaning to the traditional practice of catholic volunteers in this sort of association: giving food to the hungry while what would seem more relevant would be to coax people back into professional life through working together with professional social workers.

Baseball, immaculate conception and pastoral nostalgia A legendary account of originsLegendary accounts which tell of the birth of sports generally proceed via simplification. They foreground the action of a heaven-sent individual at the expense of the long and complex process of elaboration in which many people take part: this is notably the case with rugby (W. Webb Ellis), basketball (J. Naismith) and volleyball (W. G. Morgan). In the case of baseball, this characteristic is enriched by specific traits which mobilise the representations that a certain America likes to accord itself: national claims with relation to England (“No, baseball does not come from cricket”), anchorage in rural life, the cult of family and the playing-out of inter-generational values, notably between father and son.

A flower “for the sake of tradition” Edelweiss in the Ossaue Valley (Atlantic Pyrenees) On the 25th August 2005, appearing on the front page of the daily newspaper Le Monde was an article entitled “Traditional poaching of edelweiss in the Pyrenees”. The author incriminated the youth of the Ossaue Valley, suspected of going to pick armfuls of edelweiss in the central zone of the Pyrenees National Park, where it is strictly prohibited to touch the flower. Among other things the journalist suggested that edelweiss was an endangered species and affirmed that these harvests had a purely “mercantile” destiny. This article incited a lively response in the valley. Accused of putting the existence of edelweiss in peril, the people of Ossaue responded by developing an argument whose terms and the stakes are examined in this article. In particular two of the arguments invoked to legitimise the gathering of edelweiss are examined: the innocuousness of the activity – said to contribute to the preservation of the species –, and its traditional character.

Birds of ill omen and medical geography Bird flu and the region of the DombesWhen bird flu appeared in the French region of the Dombes in February 2006, the inhabitants were faced with a major crisis. This event was experienced as a sharp break in the continuity of time which was a temporary challenge to the way the environment and social life were conceptualised. The article describes how the event was locally perceived and the narratives it occasioned as well as the misunderstandings which came to the fore when the area was cordoned off in order to curtail the spread of the disease.