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“Davis’s masterful treatment of the historical rise of French laïque culture provides a foundational understanding for the revolutionary changes in contemporary, French self-understanding as a post-Catholic nation. It also builds a framework for understanding the new secularized consciousness with its contingent practical challenges currently emerging among youth and immigrant populations in France.”
—Daniel Sheard, Assistant Professor, John W. Rawlings School of Divinity,
Liberty University
“In his book, Rise of French Laïcité, Stephen Davis has done what few Anglophones have dared to attempt, address and translate a unique French concept—laïcité—for the non-French. In so doing, Davis provides painstaking details as to how and why an understanding of history must inform contemporary social, cultural, and missional engagement.”
—Richard Kronk, Assistant Professor of Global Ministries, Toccoa Falls College; former church planter in France (1995–2013)
“Who can understand La Laïcité à la Française? Often mistranslated, almost always misunderstood, Davis’s historical, sociological, and missiological work meticulously clarifies this complex and fundamental trait of French society. A must-read for all gospel workers who venture onto French soil!”
—Raphael Anzenberger, Director, RZIM France
“This is an excellent and insightful summary of the history of laïcité in France since the Reformation. I strongly recommend it for missionaries in their second to fourth year in France. . . . This book will help them understand the French values and how to better share the gospel in light of these values.”
—David R. Dunaetz, Book Review Editor, Evangelical Missions Quarterly
“Stephen Davis has written an important historical study on the rise of secularism (laïcité) in France. From the domination of the Roman Catholic Church at the Reformation to its separation from the state in 1905, the road was long and rocky. Constitutionally strengthened in 1946 and 1958, laïcité is being challenged today by the rapid growth of Islam, France’s second largest religion, and its pursuit of recognition in the public space. A truly engaging story.”
—Jeff Straub, author of The Making of a Battle Royal: The Rise of Religious Liberalism in Northern Baptist Life, 1870–1920
Evangelical Missiological Society Monograph Series
Anthony Casey, Allen Yeh, Mark Kreitzer, and Edward L. Smither
Series Editors
A Project of the Evangelical Missiological Society
www.emsweb.org
Rise of French Laïcité
French Secularism from the Reformation
to the Twenty-First Century
Stephen M. Davis
Rise of French Laïcité
French Secularism from the Reformation to the Twenty-First Century
Evangelical Missiological Society Monograph Series 7
Copyright © 2020 Stephen M. Davis. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Pickwick Publications
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-6409-0
hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-6410-6
ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-6411-3
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Names: Davis, Stephen M., author.
Title: Rise of French Laïcité : French Secularism from the Reformation to the Twenty-First Century / by Stephen M. Davis.
Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020 | Evangelical Missiological Society Monograph Series 7 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: isbn 978-1-7252-6409-0 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-7252-6410-6 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-7252-6411-3 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Laicism—France—History. | Secularism—France—History.
Classification: lcc bx1528 d38 2020 (print) | lcc bx1528 (ebook)
Manufactured in the U.S.A. 08/06/20
This book is dedicated to my wife, Kathy, who has faithfully served the Lord with me around the world for over forty years. My life and ministry have been immensely enriched by her love, encouragement, and faithfulness. Without her, this book would have never been written. She truly is God’s gift to me.
Abbreviations
APPEL Association pour la promotion et l’expansion de la laïcité
CFCM Conseil français du culte musulman
CLR Comité Laïcité et République
CMB Christian of Maghrebi Background
CNEF Conseil national des Évangéliques de France
EU European Union
FEPC French Evangelical Protestant Church
FLTE Faculté libre de théologie évangélique de Vaux-sur-Seine
FNLP Fédération national de la libre pensée
FPF Fédération protestante de France
IBN Institut Biblique de Nogent-sur-Marne
NC Nouveaux convertis or nouveaux catholiques
RPR Religion prétendue réformée
UEEL Union des Églises évangéliques libres de France
UEPAL Union des Églises protestantes d’Alsace et de Lorraine
Preface
Charles Taylor has argued that secularity must be understood in terms of public spaces “allegedly emptied of God or of any reference to ultimate reality.”1 He then asks the pressing question which his monumental work seeks to answer: “Why was it virtually impossible not to believe in God in, say, 1500 in our Western society,
