MOISSON IMPOSSIBLE? 1
CHRISTIAN MISSION IN 21ST CENTURY FRANCE
By
Gerard Kelly
November 2001
1 ‘Impossible harvest?’ TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ...... 4
Part 1: Background Information ...... 10 Chapter One: CMS ...... 10 Chapter Two: The Research Process ...... 13 Chapter Three: Mission to the West? ...... 18
Part 2: Three Themes Explored ...... 26 Chapter Four: Strangers in a Strange Land on being foreign in France ...... 28 Chapter Five: Rifts Ancient and Modern the Christian denominations of France ...... 40 Chapter Six: Génération Salle-d’Attente? the emerging culture and context of ‘young France’ ...... 55
Part 3: Conclusions for the Practise of Mission ...... 71 Chapter Seven: Learn to Listen: Listen to Learn mission as cultural engagement ...... 73 Chapter Eight: Going Empty-Handed mission as cultural servanthood ...... 77 Chapter Nine: Unfamiliar paths mission as cultural innovation ...... 81
Bibliography ...... 85 Appendix 1: Consultation Participants ...... 89 Appendix 2: Summary of Consultation Outcomes ...... 91
Introduction
‘Now and for the foreseeable future, Europe is unintelligible without knowledge
of its historic communities: who they are, where they live, what makes them
different from their neighbours, how their people identify themselves, how they
fit – and have fitted at successive re-shakings – into the patterns of Europe’s
political kaleidoscope’. Felipe Fernandez–Armesto2
“The French constitute the most brilliant and the most dangerous nation in
Europe and the best qualified in turn to become an object of admiration, hatred,
pity or terror, but never indifference.” Alexis de Tocqueville3
‘l’Exception française’
When Bob Dylan celebrated his 60th birthday in 2001, his life and career were honoured in many parts of the world. His 42nd album, 1997’s Time out of Mind, had been a commercial and critical success in both the USA and the UK, winning three
Grammy Awards including album of the year. But in France, the celebrations were all but unnoticed and the album sales extremely low4. No French radio station was willing to include Dylan’s new material in its playlists and even the Ministry of Culture, when asked for an opinion on the American’s life and work, replied only that the
Minister ‘had better things to do’ than to comment on Dylan5. None of this would be remarkable if it wasn’t for the fact that in his heyday Dylan had a huge following in
2 Fernandez–Armesto, Felipe (Ed.) The Times Guide to the Peoples of Europe, London: times Books, 1994, p 7
3 Quoted in Adamson Taylor, Sally, Culture Shock: France, London: Kuperard, 1991, p7
4 “Dylan: l’Exception française” in ‘Témoignage Chrétien’, Paris, August 9th, 2001
5 ‘Vous ne penser pas qu’un ministre de la culture a autre chose a faire que de parler de Bob Dylan?’ Spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, Paris, quoted in ibid. p6 France. For many of the ‘soixante-huitards’ – the students and intellectuals who in
1968 brought Paris to its knees with their protests – Dylan was a prophet, poet and cultural icon: as lauded in France as in any other nation6.
The collapse of Dylan’s following in France points to issues of culture and national identity far deeper than simple questions of musical taste. “The contrast of musical styles hides the cultural opposition between the French and Anglo-Saxon worlds”, comments the magazine ‘Témoignage Chrétien’7. Whereas successive generations of French young people are influenced by the latest fashions and styles of Britain and
America, there is another, perhaps deeper sense in which such imports are resisted.
Jean-Patrick Laurent comments that the culture of ‘rock and rebellion’ that swept into
France from Britain and the USA in the 1960’s was ‘an implant’ that never took root deeply.8 Anglo-Saxon influences are contested in preference for a deeply held – though unevenly articulated - French identity. The Bulgarian linguist Julia Kritsteva, now resident in Paris, speaks of the ‘strong sense of their own identity’ through which the French tend to push foreigners ‘to the margins’9. Centred partly but not entirely on
6 ‘Apres avoir été une star en France et dans le monde, un symbole de rébellion pour toute une génération, cette dernière semble l’avoir jeté avec l’eau du bain soixante-huitard’ – [‘After being a star in France and in the world, a symbol of rebellion for an entire generation, this same generation seem to have thrown him out with the bath-water of 1968’ ] ibid., p6
7 ‘Cette opposition de styles musicaux cache l’opposition culturelle entre l’hexagone et le monde anglo-saxon’ – [‘This contrast between musical styles hides the deeper cultural contrast between France and the Anglo-Saxon world.’] ibid. p8
8 ‘C’était une vrai culture aux USA et en Grande-Bretagne, mais en France, ce n’était qu’un implant qui n’a pas pris en profondeur.’ [‘It was a real culture in the USA and Britain, but in France, it was only an implant that never took root deeply.’] Jean-Patrick Laurent, Oui FM, quoted in ibid. p8
9 ‘finalement les Français ont un sentiment très fort de leur propre identité, de sorte que l’étranger est constamment et immédiatement repéré, mis en marge.’ [‘Ultimately the French have a very strong sense of their own identity, so much so that the foreginer is constantly and quickly pushed aside to the margins.’] Quoted in de Turckheim, Amélie, Premières Impressions de France, Paris : Editions Ifrane, 1995, p153 language10, this resistance to exterior influences runs deep in the French psyche, and militates against cultural imports at a number of levels. The expression ‘l’Exception
Française ’ is used to describe a widely noted tendency to resist external, even global, trends in favour of uniquely French cultural formulations11. In a sense the area described as “l’hexagone”12 is not a geographical territory at all but a cultural construct, rich in history and strongly loved by its inhabitants13 .
It is in this sense that Bob Dylan might well serve as a metaphor or icon for the fortunes of Christian mission in France. Where mission originates from the Anglo-
Saxon world14 a similar pattern is often seen. Whilst there may be evidence of an initial or superficial acceptance of a ‘foreign gospel’, in the long-term there is resistance, with missionaries from Britain and North America reporting time after time the unexpected indifference of French people to methods and techniques of mission that in other contexts have known significant success.
It is in this context that we must ask the question; do Christian missionaries from the
UK have a role in France? If so, what steps can be taken to overcome cultural obstacles and build a genuine engagement with French people? Should the goal of
10 “… Nothing of significance happens in France without lengthy discussion and deliberation… in French. The biggest single reason people have negative experiences in France is: they will not or cannot speak the language.” Adamson Taylor, 1991, p31
11 See for instance ‘La fin des exceptions françaises’ in Capital magazine, Paris, August 1999 pp78-79
12 ‘Politically, the Western Kingdom or Francia is the direct ancestor of the modern French state and its outline provides an historical underpinning to the popular, if inaccurate image of France today as a hexagon’. Fernandez-Armesto, p99
13 “Foreigners have to remind themselves they are not dealing with a country that really exists … but with a country that most Frenchmen dream still exists.” Luigi Barzini, The Europeans quoted in Adamson Taylor, 1991, p11
14 In terms of Protestant Evangelical mission this has been the predominant case throughout the 20th century mission in France be abandoned as a lost cause: or are there ways in which missionaries from the UK can climb the steep hill of acceptance to create an interaction with real value and potential?
The research on which this report is based emerged from the desire of the London- based Church Mission Society to consider just these questions. One of the longest established mission agencies in the United Kingdom15; CMS has in very recent years begun to explore the potential for Christian mission in Europe itself. Part of the society’s response was to commission a two-year research project from the ‘Theology and Popular Culture’ Unit of King’s College, London. The brief was to examine the criteria by which the cultures of 21st Century Europe can now be considered
‘receiving fields’ for Christian mission, and to explore the role that a UK-based mission agency can have in response. As is explained in greater detail below, the question of mission in France formed a central element in this wider research project.
Sources
The questions being raised by CMS on the future of mission in France and in Europe as a whole can be broken down into three elements:
• firstly, there is the wider question of the legitimacy of mission to the nations of
the West, and of Europe in particular. In the understanding of mission on
which CMS was founded – along with the bulk of traditional sending agencies
– the nations of Europe were the senders, not the recipients, of
missionaries16. The idea that an agency such as CMS should send its own
missionaries into western nations – or into Britain itself – is new, gaining
15 Founded 1799
16 “The original organs of the missionary movement were designed for one-way traffic; for sending, for giving. Perhaps there is now an obligation of Christians to “use means” better fitted for two-way traffic, fellowship, for sharing, for receiving, than have yet been perfected.” Walls, Andrew F, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1996, p260 ground over the last twenty years. There is therefore a process of
missiological reflection to be undertaken on the legitimacy and nature of
Western Europe as a mission field.
• Secondly, there is the more specific question of France, and whether Britain,
its close neighbour, has a part to play in mission. Is there a role for a UK-
based agency, with deeps roots in an Evangelical Anglican experience, in the
unfolding work of the Christian church in France?
• Thirdly – if the answers to the first two questions are affirmative – there is the
question of what form British missionary involvement in France should take.
The wider concern of the CMS research project has been to ensure that the
Society is responding to the needs and questions of the contemporary world.
The discipline of ‘future studies’ has recently been adopted as a key strand in
the society’s ‘Practical Missiology’, leading to a commitment to ‘tomorrow’s
mission, tomorrow’s church17’. This must therefore play its part in the
consideration of a new field of operation: if CMS is to take the new step of
engaging in mission in France, it must do so in a way that connects with
French culture as it is today and will be tomorrow.
This report will respond to these questions by reflecting on data gathered through three sources:
• the results of a consultation process initiated by CMS. This process is
outlined in Chapter Two, below.
• a literature survey; taking in history, missiology, sociology of religion and
cultural analysis in the contemporary French context
• Reflections on my own experience as a child in France for one year
[1967 / 68], as a missionary for two [1993-95] and as a director since
17 See Tomorrow’s Mission, Tomorrow’s Church in A New Culture for Mission: CMS Mission Strategy 2001-2010, London: CMS, July 2001, p9 1995 of Café-net, a small UK-based agency with an ongoing involvement
in France.
Outline
Part 1 will give necessary background information on CMS and the research process they have initiated, and will explore the vital question of ‘Mission to the West?’
Part 2 will carry an extended exploration of three key themes identified through the consultation and reading carried out.
Part 3 will draw-out conclusions from these explorations, and suggest a three-fold model of mission in response: mission as cultural engagement; mission as cultural servanthood and mission as cultural innovation. Part 1: Background information
Chapter One: on CMS
CMS, the Church Mission Society, describes itself as:
‘A voluntary movement of people in mission united in obedience to the call of
God to proclaim the Gospel in all lands as he gathers people into the fellowship
of Christ.’18
Founded in 1799, the society has ‘been active in mission in Africa, Asia and the middle East since its formation’.19 Its core commitments are cited as:
• Evangelism (both directly and through supporting and equipping God’s
people around the world for mission);
• Transforming individuals and communities (by working for justice, peace
and reconciliation, and helping build whole communities): and
• Building relationships with people of other faiths and none (working
alongside them and sharing our faith with them in appropriate and sensitive
ways).20
Two factors in the history and ethos of CMS have proved very significant to this present research project as it has unfolded.
Firstly, CMS is church-centred in its approach.
CMS is a society that it seeks to fulfil its call to mission ‘in partnership with local churches throughout the world’21. This sense of partnership, and of the importance of working with existing churches, has deeply shaped the society’s thinking on
18 Church Mission Society, Report and Accounts, 31st January 2001, p2
19 Oxbrow, Mark, report on the work of CMS in Britain, August 1999
20 CMS, Mission Strategy 2001 – 2010, revised draft, July 5th 2001, London: CMS 2001, p4
21 Strange, Daniel, Filling the Gaps: Church Planting and New Ways of Being Church in Post- Christian Britain, London: Church Mission Society, 2000, p4 mission. CMS has had significant involvement in planting churches where none existed before and is known for its historic commitment to the creation ‘self- governing, self-supporting, self-extending Churches’22. But where historic, established denominations exist already, the society is also ready and willing to work with them. As an example, CMS is working with the Orthodox Church of
Romania:
‘.. Partnering a national church seeking to re-learn how to be ‘missionary’ and
hoping to draw on the society’s mission experience over many years in many
different cultural contexts.’23
Martin Thomas, CMS Regional Manager for Europe, comments that in the Romanian context, “CMS decided to find out a little more of what was under the surface and saw that:
o The Orthodox church was a struggling church (even in the midst of
post communist euphoria)
o That resources were not being evenly shared as a result of mission /
aid activities.
o That the cultural & spiritual heritage of the Orthodox could play a key
part in future mission within Romania.
o CMS could also play a key role in gently challenging churches to
consider working together.”
Whilst unremarkable in itself, this approach contrasts heavily with that taken by many incoming missionaries to Europe, whose view of the historic, pre-reformation denominations is almost entirely negative.
22 Murray, Jocelyn Proclaim the Good News: A Short History of the Church Mission Society, London: Hodder and Stoughton 1985, p49
23Renewal in Romania, in The Church Mission Society: 200 Years, London: CMS, 1999, p35 Secondly, CMS is Anglican in its roots.
Whilst operating across many denominational boundaries, CMS is implicitly an
Anglican organisation, with a long history in Anglican mission and a wide and complex network of contacts, supporters and activists in contemporary Anglicanism.
This is not to say that the society exists solely to explore the possibilities of Anglican mission.
‘CMS carries out its mandate as a voluntary organisation historically rooted in
Anglicanism, but increasingly in relation with other Christian communities and
other mission movements who share in the apostolic mission.’ 24
But it is to say that:
• The society’s history is strongly intertwined with the history of worldwide
Anglicanism in the past two centuries.
• An Anglican approach or ethos is likely to be evident in many of the society’s
activities, even where these involve non-Anglican partners.
• The breadth and diversity of British Anglicanism is reflected within CMS, and
shapes in particular the society’s desire and capacity to partner with
churches across the spectrum of Christianity.
This last factor becomes highly significant when dealing with the post-Christendom nations of Europe, in which the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and mainline Protestant churches are often ignored – and on occasions denounced – by incoming Evangelical missionaries with a narrower ecclesiology. This question is explored more deeply in the particular context of France in Chapter Five: but it is sufficient to note at this stage that the Anglican ethos of CMS has shaped the society’s consideration of such questions, and thus the direction and outcomes of this present research undertaking.
24 CMS, Mission Strategy 2001 – 2010, revised draft, July 5th 2001, London: CMS 2001, p8 In particular the experience of evangelical Anglicans in the UK - whose influences and sympathies take-in both the newer non-conformist churches and the older, traditional denominations – has shaped our response to the fragmented state of Christianity across Europe. A base of ‘tolerant Anglicanism’ has enabled CMS in the UK to develop a “newer from of ecumenism; that of "learning about another’s Christian faith- journey by doing mission together". This is demonstrated in the fact that CMSD has
Anglican, Pentecostal, United Church, Catholic and Orthodox mission partners - working in a variety of ecumenical mission contexts.
In summary CMS is an agency:
. With a long and noted history of strength in Christian mission, and an active
presence in many areas of the world.
. With relatively little experience in mission to the nations of Europe itself.
. With a passionate vision for the future of mission, wherever God calls.
. With an openness to working with churches on both sides of the Reformation,
and across the Christian spectrum.
. With a desire to deepen its understanding of, and response to, the missionary
needs of Western Europe. Chapter Two: Research Background
In 1999 CMS had 150 ‘mission partners’ at work in 30 countries. The majority of these continued to work in the society’s traditional fields, but new developments were also beginning closer to home, particularly:
• A growing body of work in Britain itself. This had begun with exchange
programmes welcoming overseas missionaries into the UK25, and with help
offered to churches in reaching the many minority groups in their own
communities26 . But by the end of the 1990’s, the society was recognising
that ‘the need for mission in Britain has become urgent’ 27, and was looking
at other ways in which it could work alongside UK churches and
communities.
• Increasing requests for help from Churches in Europe. The evident decline
of the Christian church in Western Europe and the new freedom and
openness afforded to the churches of Eastern Europe from 1990 onwards
combined to create a new awareness of Europe as a mission field, and new
opportunities to respond. Fledgling projects in Russia, Romania and the
Czech Republic resulted, and the society began to consider ways in which
this role might expand: and whether it could legitimately be extended to
include the nations of Western Europe. Thus in 1999 CMS General
Secretary Canon Diana Witts was able to speak of ‘the many exciting ways
in which God is calling CMS to share in his mission across Africa, Asia and
25 See Beleo, Rachel, Mission Imperative: Working on the Margins, in The Church Mission Society: 200 Years, London: CMS, 1999, p22
26 See Musk, Bill, The Stranger within our Gates in The Church Mission Society: 200 Years, London: CMS. 1999, p24
27 Witts, Diana, CMS at Work Today, in The Church Mission Society: 200 Years, London: CMS. 1999, p34 Europe at the start of our third century.’ 28 200 years since the first CMS
missionaries were sent out from Europe, the society’s home continent was
on the agenda as a mission field in its own right.
It was important to CMS that any responses made to these changing circumstances in mission were not made purely on the basis of opportunism, but as part of an ongoing, reflective process. A two-year research programme was therefore initiated, to explore the implications for CMS of the recognition of Europe as a mission field; of the increasing demands for mission intervention in the UK itself; and of the needs and opportunities for mission in other nations within Western
Europe.
The approach chosen was to look at national case studies, examining mission in the
UK, France, Czech Republic, Germany and Portugal. The objective in each case was to explore mission conditions in a given context, but at the same time to reflect on the implications for a Europe-wide view. At the time of writing the first three of these studies have been completed. Whilst the focus of this report is exclusively on France, the parallel findings from both the UK and the Czech Republic have been of enormous value in establishing the wider European context and in offering comparative data. My personal involvement in the project began when it had already been underway for one year. Dr Daniel Strange had undertaken the initial research, in which he had looked primarily at questions of new ways of being church and of church planting in the UK. His findings were published in the CMS Report “Filling the
Gaps”29, a valuable source document for this report. I was then asked by CMS to take the research forward by looking at France and the Czech Republic.
28 ibid, p34
29 Strange, Daniel, Filling the Gaps: Church Planting and New Ways of Being Church in Post- Christian Britain, London: Church Mission Society, 2000 2.1 Research Methods
Central to the report on France for CMS was a two-day consultation for practitioners of mission in the French context30. The participants asked to join the consultation were those whose experience and expertise could most help us:
. to better understand the relationship between the UK church and mission in
France.
. to better understand the needs of French mission as they relate to UK-mission
effort.
. to better assess the role a broadly Anglican agency might play in meeting these
needs.
Reflecting these goals, the consultation was English speaking and mostly British in its make-up, with a strong Anglican emphasis. The 18 Participants fell into three categories:
. those resident on a long-term basis in France [8 people]
. those who had previously been resident in France and, though now based in the
UK, maintained an active interest in French mission. [3 people]
. Those who were UK-based, but involved in visiting France and researching
issues relevant to French mission, or were responsible for the oversight of UK
missionaries in France. [4 people]
To these 15 were added 2 representatives of CMS and 1 of King’s College. 31
This was a unique gathering in the experience of those present, and represented a significant depth both of experience and of expertise. Three of the participants had
30 Held at the Oast Houses, Rye on December 4th and 5th 2000
31 A full list of the consultation participants is given in Appendix I recently published high-level research of their own on mission in France 32, providing valuable sources for the wider research process, and the combined ‘French experience’ of the 18 participants ran to just over 200 years. The results of the consultation have formed a key element of this report in terms of:
• providing significant data from the input of consultation participants33
• Establishing core issues for further exploration
• Informing the direction and content of wider reading
2.2 Note on US material
Through both the consultation itself and subsequent reading, I was introduced to a range of materials exploring mission and culture in France from North American rather than British sources. I have chosen to include this material, and to consider reflection on it as a valid process in exploring the British role in France, for three reasons.
• Firstly, because there has been more work done in analysis of the North
American missionary effort in France than of the British. The quality of this
work, and the insights offered, are such that to exclude it would seriously
weaken the research process.
• Secondly, because so many issues are common to both groups. Whilst there
are some distinctives in Anglo-French and American-French relationships,
there are many cultural overlaps. As noted in the introduction above, French
commentators often use the term “Anglo-Saxon” to describe a culture that is
an amalgam of British and North American influences, centred on the use of
32 Bjork, David, Unfamiliar Paths: The Challenge of Recognising the Work of Christ in Strange Clothing, Pasadena, California: William Carey Library, 1997: Brown, David, Une Eglise Pour Aujourd’hui: Expressions Nouvelles sur un fondement immovable, Marne La Vallée: Editions Farel, 2001, 2001: Norman, Andy Anglican Mission en France, London: Intercontinental Church Society and CMS, 1995
33 A summary report from the consultation itself is given in Appendix 2 the English language and perceived as distant from – and at times hostile to -
Francophone culture 34.
• Thirdly, because there is a growing recognition amongst American
missionaries of the significant and often unexpected failure of their methods
in France. American mission agencies have personnel at work all over the
world35, and France has proven to be one of their most barren and difficult
fields36 – some would say the most difficult. On the basis that there is more
to be learned from failure than from success, it seems likely that missionaries
from other nations will benefit from the reflections of the many Americans
who report that whilst they have seen some fruit in France they have not
seen the breakthroughs for which they have hoped, worked and prayed.
34 ‘In many minds it [the influence of the English language] also helped to confuse the English with the Americans - even worldly Frenchmen still talk about ‘the Anglo-Saxons’ as though the two people were more or less the same. Morris, Jan, Fifty Years of Europe: An Album, London: Viking, 1997, p299
35 In 1985 the top 16 Protestant mission agencies in America had a combined missionary force of some 19,000 people and budgets totaling 490 million dollars. Source: Pettifer, Julian and Bradley, Richard Missionaries, London: BBC Books, 1990, p266
36 ‘So there are three problems which have plagued the American evangelical protestant missionaries in France. First, conversions, rare as they were, often failed to lead to church membership. Second, much of the church growth that did occur was transfer growth. And, finally, the American missionaries to France found that their new churches were often based upon foreigners.’ Bjork, 1997, p49 Chapter Three: Go West young missionary?
“Here, without possibility of question, is the most challenging missionary frontier
of our time.” Lesslie Newbigin 37
The consideration by CMS of France as a potential mission field did not arrive in a vacuum. It is part of the much wider process by which mission agencies and Church leaders of many types and shades are recognising the missionary needs of Western
Europe. The belief that Western culture – for so long the centre of global Christianity
– has itself become a mission field has slowly gained credence through the second half of the 20th century. David Bosch points to 1943 as the dawning of this realisation,
“When Godin and Daniel shocked the Catholic world with the publication of
France: pays de mission?38 in which they argued that France had again become
a mission field, a country of neo-pagans, of people in the grip of atheism,
secularism, unbelief and superstition.”39
By 1990, Julian Pettifer and Richard Bradley were able to end their major history of the worldwide mission movement for the BBC by ‘coming full circle’ to Europe. “In short”, they wrote, “Europe, for centuries the cradle of Christian Mission, had itself become a mission field.”40 Several factors are involved in the recognition of Europe as a mission field. Four key indicators are:
3.1 The evident decline of Christian belief
Probably the single most significant change in the sociological profile of Western
37 Newbigin, Lesslie Can the West be Converted? in International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 1997, 11, 1:2-7
38 Godin, H and Daniel, Y France, pays de mission?, Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1943
39 Bosch, David Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1991, p3
40 Pettifer, Julian and Bradley, Richard, Missionaries, London, BBC Books, 1990, p242 European nations through the 20th century was the decline in the membership, power and influence of the Church: a decline predicted to continue into the early decades of the 21st41. As Catholic scholar Ronald Rollheiser says,
"Today we, the children of Western culture, post-modern, adult children of the
enlightenment, struggle with practical atheism. Our churches are slowly
emptying and, more and more, the sense of God is slipping from our ordinary
lives.”42
The significant ‘exodus’ of young adults from Europe’s churches – a well-documented phenomenon of the later 20th century years43 – and the concomitant decrease in the
Church’s influence on popular culture form just one painful indicator of this decline.
Far from addressing, in the West, a ‘Christian’ audience – we are increasingly confronted by people who know little of the Christian story, and care less.
“In our time there is in the Western-European world a growing alienation from
religion and from God. Their reigns a kind of analphabetism as far as religious
symbols are concerned.”44
There is, according to Lesslie Newbigin, a ‘tough new paganism of the Western world’45 , representing an unprecedented missionary challenge. “With the radical secularisation of Western culture”, he writes, “The churches are in a missionary
41 In 1960, 46% of the world’s Christians were in Europe, with 7% in each of Asia and Africa. By 2010, it is estimated that these figures will be 22%, 18% and 17% respectively. Source: Brierley, Peter W Future Church: A global analysis of the Christian community to the year 2010, London: Monarch Books, 1998, p37
42 Rolheiser, Ronald, The Shattered Lantern: Rediscovering the Felt Presence of God, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1994, p170
43 See for instance Peter Brierley, Steps to the Future: Issues Facing the Church in the New Millennium, London: Christian Research and Scripture Union, 2000, The European Context, pp1-8 and Church and Young People, pp35-50
44 Wessels, Anton, Europe – Secularized or Multi-religious Continent: How to speak about God in a western society that seems to have broken away from God and religion? In Yates, Timothy (Ed.), Mission: An Invitation to God’s Future, Sheffield: Cliff College, 2000, p49
45 Newbigin, Lesslie The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, London: SPCK, 1995, p2 situation in what once was Christendom.”46 It is not only the receptivity of a Western audience to the Christian message that is called into question: so too is the capacity of the Western church to maintain its own health and growth. Mike Riddell warns,
"While continuing to flourish in the fertile cultural fields to which the faith was
exported, Christianity has steadily diminished in those lands which were the
'sending nations'. … The one massive gap in the church's expertise is how to
do mission in the post-Christian West." 47
3.2 A widely felt sense of spiritual hunger
Despite the implosion in membership figures for all but a few church groupings, there is also overwhelming evidence of an intense spiritual hunger. John Drane comments that “There is a tremendous – and growing – interest in the supernatural, the mystical and the spiritual among young people in particular.”48 Professors Jacob Needleman and David Applebaum link the cause of this hunger to the inadequacies of scientific materialism:
"In almost every area of our culture the realisation is dawning that material
progress and scientific achievement cannot of themselves lead us towards an
understanding of the meaning of our lives. … Our modern contemporary
civilisation is characterised by its fascination with the technological application
of scientific discovery and its neglect of those aspects of our nature that require
other kinds of perceptions, other kinds of 'food'. These parts of our mind, these
46 Newbigin, 1995, p2
47 Riddell, Mike Threshold of the Future - Reforming the Church in the Post-Christian West, SPCK, London, 1998, p12
48 Drane, John Faith in a Changing Culture: Creating Churches for the next Century, London: Marshall Pickering, 1994, 1997, p16 “This whole phenomenon”, Drane writes, “is both the greatest single threat to Christianity in the West and also its greatest opportunity for many decades.” ibid. p16 aspects of ourselves, are starving, and if they die, we will die with them. This is
not speculation: it is an obvious truth that we are all beginning to sense."49
But widespread as this hunger is: it is not currently leading significant numbers into a
Christian faith commitment. Writing in the American context, Loren Mead observes that:
"…This hunger for spirituality does not today, perhaps for the first time in many
centuries, cause people to come to the churches. If.... we live in the midst of a
time of genuine spiritual search analogous to the Great Awakening, how do we
communicate the riches of our spiritual heritage to a generation not interested in
being in communication with what churches do?"50
This widely recognised ‘hunger for God’ calls for Christian mission activity for two reasons: because it represents an unprecedented spiritual openness, but also because it threatens to accelerate the slide away from Christian convictions, as alternatives sweep in to fill the vacuum of faith and belief. “Europe is poised on a knife-edge” John Drane writes,
“And may be entering a new socially-regressive dark age, not only with the rise
of ethnic strife, but also the re-emergence of neo-Nazi movement.”51.
3.3 The challenge of change
49 Needleman, Jacob and Applebaum, David Real Philosophy, An Anthology of the Universal Search for Meaning London: Arkana (Penguin) 1990 p12
50 Loren Mead in Nash, Robert N Junior An 8-Track Church in a CD World, New York: Smyth and Helwys, 1998, foreword.
51 Drane, 1994,1997, p16 Whether viewed in terms of a technological revolution 52, a philosophical evolution53, a social ‘paradigm shift’54 or the combination of a wide array of incremental social changes55 : commentators are agreed that Western culture is passing through a period of deep and pervasive change. From a missiological perspective, this has great significance. Its implication is that the nations of 21st century Europe will represent a novel cultural formation, and a fresh challenge to Christian mission. As Graham Cray, now Bishop of Maidstone has said, "If Christianity cannot be inculturated successfully within the postmodern context, there will be no Western church."56 This task, of inculturating Christianity in a new context, is of the very essence of mission.
52 ‘The shift from a factory-based to a computer-based economy is more traumatic even than our great-grandparents shift from a farm-based to a factory-based economy. The Industrial Revolution extended over generations and allowed time for human and institutional adjustment. The Computer Revolution is far swifter, more concentrated, and more dramatic in its impact.” Arthur Slessinger Jr., "Has Democracy a Future?’ in 'Foreign Affairs', September /October 1997, quoted in Terence Ryan "The Changing Economy, Information Communication Technology and New Forms of Business Management: What They Could Mean for Education Systems. Paper for the 21st Century Learning Initiative, April 1998. "http://www.21learn.org" , accessed November 1999
53 ‘For the past two hundred years Western Christianity has been interpreted through the modern categories of science, philosophy and communication theory. Today this view, called modernity, is dying because of current revelations in those same fields of studies.’ Webber, Robert E, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1999, Preface)
54 See Kung, Hans, On Being a Christian, London: Collins, 1977 and Christianity, The Religious Situation of Our Time, London: SCM Press, 1995. Kung’s six paradigms of Christian history are: Early Christian apocalyptic; Early church Hellenistic; Mediaeval Roman Catholic; Reformation Protestant; Enlightenment Modern; Contemporary Ecumenical (postmodern?) See also Bosch, 1991, pp181-189
55 ‘At all levels society is undergoing massive economic, technological, social and political changes that challenge traditional values, beliefs and institutional arrangements.’ 1997 Government White Paper on Education, "Excellence in Schools" Quoted by John Abbott in "Education 2000" News, September 1997. The 21st Century Learning Initiative "http://www. 21learn.org" , accessed November 1999
56 Graham Cray Quoted in Hillborn, D, Picking Up the Pieces: Can Evangelicals Adapt to Contemporary Culture?, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997, p5 “All of these changes and more mean that tinkering at the edges of the church
will not be sufficient to meet the challenges of this millennium. We need to start
at the beginning again, and rethink the whole way we ‘do’ church.”57
3.4 The Nature of Mission itself
Defining exactly what Christian mission is has never been an easy task. David Bosch touches on no less than twelve accepted meanings of the word58, and makes the plea that mission should remain, to some extent undefined59. But at its heart, two key factors can be identified. Firstly, that all Christian mission is rooted in the mission of
God, the ‘Missio Dei’. “Missio Dei enunciates the good news that God is a God-for- people”60 Whatever activities we bring together under the banner of ‘mission’, they must somehow reflect the notion of bringing God to people and people to God.
Secondly, mission implies a sense of movement: it carries a ‘from – to’ or a ‘self- other’ dynamic 61. Lesslie Newbigin captures this sense of movement in dismissing the traditional notion of the ‘mission station’,
“Since “mission” means going and “station” means standing still, one might think
that “mission station” was the perfect contradiction in terms. It has been,
nevertheless, the central element in the program of missions during most of the
modern period.”62
57 Ridell, Mike What’s Going on in the World? In Riddell, Pierson and Kirkpatrick The Prodigal Project, London: SPCK, 2000, p33
58 Bosch, 1991, p1
59 ‘We may, therefore, never arrogate it to ourselves to delineate mission too sharply and too self-confidently. Ultimately, mission remains undefinable … The most we can hope for is to formulate some approximations of what mission is all about.’ Bosch, 1991, p9
60 Bosch, 1991, p10
61 In recent years there have been efforts to move beyond the one-way aspect of a ‘from-to’ ethos, without losing the sense of movement. Alternative concepts include ‘partnership’, ‘interchange’ and ‘self-other’ mission. Dakin, Tim Church Mission Societies: Scaffolding or Structure of the Spirit?, London: CMS, 2001, p18
62 Newbigin, 1995, p122 The from–to or self-other of the mission of God implies a movement away from the centres of Christian strength and towards the centres of greatest need; it is an outward movement towards those places, peoples, cultures and situations in which the fulfilment of the Missio Dei is yet to be made manifest. It is in this sense that the overwhelming evidence for the de-christianisation of Europe now marks out the continent as a primary mission field. It is situation, rather than geography, that defines mission. For Andrew Walls, there can be no doubt that the former ‘sending nations’ of Christian Europe are now, themselves, in need of missionaries:
“But now the idea of a territorial Christianity, of geographically contiguous
Christian states, lies irretrievably broken. It was itself the product of the special
historical circumstances of the conversion of the western barbarians. Now the
lands of their successors show marked recession from Christian commitment
and Western Europe has become a prime area, perhaps the prime area, for
identification as a mission field. It would be easy to adapt some of the
nineteenth-century descriptions of the need of the heathen – the ignorance of
religion, the immorality, the proneness to warfare, the inhumanities and injustice
widely accepted in society – as a stirring call to Christians of the southern
continents to undertake the salvation of the west.”63
There is thus significant evidence to support the legitimacy of describing Western
Europe as a mission field in its own right. The inclusion of France in such a description is implied, but there are additional factors that confirm even more forcefully – from a UK perspective - France’s significance in mission. These include:
• Cultural influence. France has played a central role in the development of
63 Walls, 1996, p258 European ideas for many centuries64 . If it is the philosophical and cultural
changes in Europe in the 20th century that now mark the continent out as in
need of mission, then it is significant that so many of those changes have
their root in French intellectual endeavour.
• Proximity. As the UK’s ‘nearest neighbour’, France has a history that for
centuries has been linked – in times of peace as of war – with that of Great
Britain.
• Need. As we shall see through this research, the collapse of the
‘Christendom experiment’ came sooner to France – and has been felt more
deeply – than in much of the rest of Europe 65. The need for new approaches
to mission is acute, and can be seen in the French context with exceptional
starkness and clarity. France is an excellent country in which to learn what it
means to undertake ‘post-Christendom’ mission 66.
• Opportunity. An emerging pan-European consciousness together with
growing opportunities for exchange and interaction is creating openings for
UK missionary involvement in France that other ‘outsiders’ do not enjoy.
The recognition of Western Europe as a region in need of mission, the inclusion of
France in such a recognition and the acceptance that history, geography and culture mark France as a priority area for UK mission initiatives, all point towards the positive and fruitful role that an agency such as CMS might develop in France. But this is not
64 A case perhaps overstated by Charles de Gaulle in describing France as ‘the light of the world’ - “La France est la lumière du monde, son génie est d’allumer l’Univers.” Adamson Taylor, 1991, p11
65 ‘Nothing reflects more vividly the post-war shift in values than the transformation of Catholicism in France. This has been as striking as anywhere in Europe. In a word, the authority of the Church as an institution is crumbling, yet a new-style liberated spirit of religion is very much alive, and takes the most diverse forms.’ Ardagh, John, France in the 1980’s: The Definitive Book, London: Penguin, 1982, P452
66 ‘Seventeen years of experience as an evangelist, disciple maker and church planter in France has convinced me that ministry in post-Christendom lands presents the missionary community with challenges and opportunities that call into question the most widely accepted of our missiological paradigms and many of our methodologies.’ Bjork, 1997, p54 in itself enough to shape mission activity. Beyond the go / no-go decision, there are significant questions of style and approach. What forms and methods of mission are appropriate to UK-sponsored mission in France? What do missionaries ‘sent’ to
France need to know? It is to these concerns that we now turn, reflecting on three key areas of concern identified through the consultation and research process. Part 2
Three key explorations
The consultation process was convened with a relatively open brief, and therefore touched on a wide range of issues: from the theoretical and philosophical to the pragmatic and operational. In order to arrive at conclusions relevant to the ‘big questions’ of mission in France, it was necessary to reflect on the consultation outcomes in the wider context of research and reading. On the basis of this reflection,
I have come to the view that there are three key areas to which missionaries and potential missionaries to France must give attention. The three areas – each a cluster of ideas around aspects of 21st Century mission – are:
1. Crossing cultures: the status of missionaries as ‘foreigners’ in the French
context. Consultation participants drew attention both to the particular
demands and limitations of being a foreign missionary in France and to the
significance of differences between Anglophone and Francophone cultures67.
Wider reading in French cultural studies and in contemporary missiology
confirms that there are vital – and often hidden - ‘cross-cultural’ issues
involved in Anglo-Saxon mission efforts in France.
2. Understanding denominations: the complex and difficult decision over
whether to work with the majority [Catholic] church or the Protestant minority
churches. This became a dominant theme of the consultation discussions,
and a source of polarisation for participants68 . In particular, two ministry
models emerged as distinct and apparently incompatible alternatives: on the
one hand planting independent protestant congregations, and on the other
working in support of the Catholic Church. Reflections on recent
67 See Appendix 2, sections 5.1, 5.2 and 5.4
68 See Appendix 2, section 7, Group 1, a to f and 7, Group 3, d and e denominational history in France, and the observations of a number of
seasoned missionaries, indicate that this is a very ‘live’ issue with the
potential to significantly impact French Christian mission in the years ahead.
3. Looking to the new: the emergence of a new and different culture amongst
the under 35’s in France. Consultation participants pointed to the significant
levels of change in French culture in recent years, to the evident decline of
the established church and to the difficulties that all churches are
experiencing in engaging with the under-35’s generations69 . Wider reading in
the sociology of religion and observation of contemporary French culture
confirms that there have been major changes in the religious consciousness
of the young people of France, creating a novel missiological context and
demanding new thinking on the nature and shape of the Church.
It was in these three areas that the outcomes of the consultation process were developed through additional reading and research, to provide deeper insight into the missiological context of 21st Century France.
69 See Appendix 2, section 5.3, and section 7, Group 3, b and c and 7, Group 4, b to e Chapter Four: Strangers in a Strange Land
“How can foreigners say they like France but not the French? It’s the French
who made the France they like – and the it is French who keep it that way.”
Gertrude Stein70
“How can you govern – in peacetime – a people with 365 different cheeses?”
Charles de Gaulle71
Culture is a complex and many-sided concept. Analysing the culture of an individual or family – let alone that of a nation – takes time, insight and in-depth knowledge. We each carry our own unique blend of historic and circumstantial influences, and we each interpret these through our own conceptual framework. It is possible, though, to make broad observations about the culture of a given nation or people group and – at the very least – to become aware of areas worthy of deeper exploration. There are factors in the history of every nation and in its current cultural context that have an observable impact on the attitudes and responses of its people. In terms of Christian mission, ignorance of such factors is likely to lead to a distorted view of the people in question, to inappropriate methodologies in mission and to misinterpretation of the responses encountered. One of the clear outcomes of the CMS consultation process was a heartfelt plea – notably from seasoned and long-standing missionaries in
France – for a greater awareness of the forces shaping French culture, and of the significant differences between the Francophone and Anglo-Saxon worlds. Two pit- falls were noted in the relationship between incoming UK missionaries and their
‘host’ French culture:
70 Quoted in Adamson Taylor, 1991, p10
71 Quoted in Adamson Taylor, 1991, p13 • Firstly, that incoming foreigners are often ignorant of the deeper currents of
French thinking, and of the key historical events that have shaped them.
Where they do have knowledge of such events, it has all too often been
arrived at and analysed through an Anglo-Saxon perspective, with insufficient
attention to the unique ways in which the French mind-set both reflects and
interprets is own history.
• Secondly, that the apparent similarities between the UK and France can hide
the need for deeper cultural analysis. Because the two nations share much
common history and culture – both are European and Caucasian in their
origins; both have developed ‘advanced’ consumer societies; both have legal
and moral codes broadly reflecting their Judeo-Christian roots – it is all too
easy to avoid the harder work of understanding the differences.
Avoiding these pitfalls, and overcoming the handicap of ‘foreign status’ in France, will involve the examination of a number factors central to the shaping of the French worldview. Five of these factors have emerged from the consultation process and my wider reading as being of the highest priority.
4.1 Centralisation and the Regions
Whether examined in terms of its former monarchy, its revolutionary council, its republican empire or its contemporary democracy, the political history of France is shot-through with the theme of centralisation, giving to the state ‘a role as the arbiter of thought that is difficult to escape’72. As early as the middle ages, a concerted effort can be detected to create a strong, single culture73. Subsequently,
72 ‘Toute l’histoire centralisatrice d’abord de la monarchie, puis de la République donne a l’état un rôle d’arbitre de la pensée auquel il est difficile d’échapper’. Brown, 2001, p103
73 ‘An image of France as a nation and as a country did develop from the late middle ages onwards, fostered by a cultural and political elite and gradually diffused more widely throughout society…. The ethnic and cultural diversity of medieval France was [thus] subsumed in an image which highlighted its historical and geographical unity’. Felipe Fernandez –Armesto, Ed., ‘The era of the Revolution and Napoleon saw a great internal reorganisation of
France, and many of the institutions then set up have survived until the present
day.74
Essential to this centralist tendency are the French language (explored further below), the role of Paris as capital 75 and the creation of a civic system under which all citizens – no matter what their location or background – are equal in both rights and duties. France has old and strong roots as a nation76, and an evident contemporary desire to hold to that strength.
Remarkably, the centralising of French thinking has been carried out in tandem with a strong sense of its own regions77 . Rather than threatening regional identity, the central Republic has become its protector: so that France today is a collection of regions united in nationhood. Fernandez-Armesto cites the formative influence of a children’s textbook of the early 20th Century as an example of the growth of this idea:
“At that time many schoolchildren were acquiring an idea of France from G
Bruno’s Le Tour de France par deux Enfants… The book’s message is that
while each of the regions of France is different, each contributes significantly to
the whole that is France. First published in 1877, Bruno’s book was
74 Orna-Ornstein, Frank, France: Forgotten Mission Field, Welwyn, Hertfordshire: European Missionary Fellowship, 1971, p34
75 ‘Paris remains the centre for the French, as it effectively has been for more than 1000 years’. Fernandez –Armesto, 1994, p101
76 ‘The Franks were one of the groups of Germanic peoples who invaded and conquered the prosperous central provinces of Roman Gaul during the 5th and 6th centuries, establishing what was to become the most powerful of the barbarian kingdoms of Europe after the dissolution of the Roman Empire, and the strongest Christian kingdom of early-medieval western Europe.’ Fernandez –Armesto, 1994, p94
77 ‘One of the fascinating inconsistencies of France is her regional diversity. The French love of food and wine reflects their attachment to this diversity.” Adamson Taylor, 1991, p13 monumentally successful, selling 7.4 million copies by 1914, shaping the idea of
France and its regions in the minds of generations of school children’.78
Thus many French citizens today carry two strong senses of fierce loyalty – on the one hand to the food, customs, stories and ethos of their region of origin, but on the other to the political and cultural ideal of a unified Republic. Ignorance of such loyalties, and in particular of the passion with which ‘La République’ is valued, can lead to many misunderstandings.
.2 Revolution and Citizenship
“To understand France it is necessary to realise the radical break in continuity in
the life of the nation, its structures and mentality, caused by the French
Revolution” 79
So writes Roger Greenacre in his survey of the French Catholic Church. The revolution of 1789 is an event of huge significance in the history of France: and with significant repercussions in contemporary culture. It is difficult to think of any single event in British history that has had a comparable impact. Built on the thinking of an
‘intellectual aristocracy’ – in particular the writers Diderot, Voltaire and Rousseau80 – the Revolution proposed ideas unprecedented in the Christian Europe of their day.
Even though Napoleon’s new Empire replaced the radical political formulations of the Revolution within 15 years, the ideas at its heart continued. ‘Napoleon had had nothing to do with the convulsive beginnings of the Revolution, but when he assumed power in France he appeared to many to be “the Revolution incarnate”…
78 Fernandez –Armesto, 1994, p101
79 Greenacre, Roger, The Catholic Church in France: An Introduction, London: The Council for Christian Unity of the General Synod of the Church of England, 1996 and 1998, p4
80 ‘La Révolution fut préparée par la bourgeoisie et l’aristocratie intellectuelle, et en particulier par trois écrivains: Diderot, Voltaire, Rousseau, qui prêchaient dans leurs oeuvres la réforme sociale’. R P L Ledesert, Margaret Ledesert and Muriel Holland Smith, La France, London: Harrap, Third Edition (Revised) 1960, p113 the embodiment of its spirit and the saviour of its principles.” 81 The ground-breaking
Civil Code or Code Napoleon - covering matters from family life through commercial activity to criminal law - is the basis of the French legal system to this day, and is widely regarded as having ‘given permanence to the essential contributions of the
Revolution – national unity and civic equality.’82 To the foreign observer, ‘Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity’ are little more than slogans from a bygone age: to many contemporary French people they remain the embodiment of a social and political ideal, the living basis of France’s modern democracy, and a language still in current usage.83 ‘Citizenship’ is an active concept in French thinking, as is the respect for
‘public life’ as the guarantee of personal liberty. David Brown describes France as:
“A culture wary of all that is not public, since the right of the authorities to watch
over all that happens on French territory is seen as the guarantee of Republican
equality”84
Thus the carrying of Identity Cards, which many in Britain would see as an infringement of civil liberties, is seen by the French as the guarantee of those same freedoms: and the registering of Church groups as ‘Associations Cultuelles85 ’ is seen in the same light. A complex and much-used system of cultural and religious associations – enshrined in the laws of 1905 and 1911 – provides a framework in which citizens are able to exercise their right to assembly and shared activity, and
81 Davidson, 1972, p150
82 Davidson, 1972, p150
83 See for example Mesnil, Gerard, in his foreword to Garibal, Gilbert Guide du bénévolat et du voluntariat, Paris: Marabout 1998, ‘the spirit in which this book is written: to see the voluntary sector as an illustration of our republican motto: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ [‘je pense répondre a l’esprit qui l’a motivé pour rédiger ce livre, en vous proposant de situer le bénévolat comme une illustration de notre devise républicaine: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.’]
84 ‘une culture qui se méfie de tout ce qui n’est pas public car le droit de regard des autorités sur tout ce qui se passe sur le territoire français est perçu comme un garant d’égalité républicaine.’ Brown, 2001, p103
85 ‘Religious Associations’ their desire to express solidarity86. The flip side of France’s extensive public sector is the belief – also enshrined in the Revolutionary concept of liberty – that each citizen is entitled to complete freedom in private. The two realms – of public rights and duties as against private beliefs and choices – are kept apart and distinct, leading to the often quoted assertion that “In France, a mans privacy is sacred – even in the street.”87
.3 Language and Education
If there are two realms in which, above all others, the battle for the retention of French culture has been fought, they are the realms of language and education. Both have been subjects of significant government intervention over many centuries: and both remain controversial to this day. The ‘Académie Française’, the Paris-based guardian of all things intellectual, has for almost 500 years fought to protect, develop, teach and standardise the French language88. For all their love and celebration of regional diversity, the French have been resistant to the use of regional dialects, and ‘one language’ has been a tool in the creation of ‘one nation89. With the onslaught of
English as a global commercial and entertainment language in the 20th century, the battle to save the French tongue has become synonymous with the battle to retain
French culture. Billboard and magazine advertising, popular radio stations and the
Internet have all been subjected to complex and controversial rules limiting the use of
86 There are approximately 800 000 associations of every kind in France, gathering a total of 20 000 000 adherents over 14 years old. 10 000 000 volunteers give a total of 130 million hours of work each year, and 15 000 to 20 000 associations specialise in humanitarian activities, with 10 to 20 newly registered each day. Garibal, 1998, p44-45
87 Luigi Barzini, The Europeans. Quoted in Adamson Taylor, 1991, p127
88 ‘During the 17h century a classical French was actively promoted, not least by the Académie Française, established by Richelieu in 1634 specifically to standardise the usage of French by producing a grammar, a dictionary and a rhetoric of French’. Fernandez –Armesto, 1994, p98
89 ‘The revolution of 1789 resulted in a project to eliminate regional languages and dialects and establish French as the language of liberty and of the nation.’ Fernandez –Armesto, 1994, p98 foreign languages90 . It is hardly surprising, against this background, that language remains a key issue in mission: and that missionaries who have resisted the call to learn fluent French have found their impact on the culture sorely limited.
Equally pervasive is the influence of a highly developed centralised education system. The first nation in the world to benefit from a nationally funded system of public schools91 , France retains a commitment to public education second to none.
Building on Napoleon’s exceptional vision of equality of education92, French schools seek to offer a uniform curriculum to children from all regions and all walks of life.
‘The idea behind these schools was that every French child, whatever his
background, would be able to receive an unbiased education and that Roman
Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and infidel children would sit together on the school
benches and be prepared for citizenship in an undivided republic’.93
With a detailed curriculum set centrally year-by-year, and national laws enshrining the learning goals for each ‘cycle’ of schooling, France retains to this day one of the world’s most uniform school systems. That is not to say that all pupils have the same school experience – there remain huge inequalities and varying standards.
But it is to say that the core curriculum, containing the key information and ideas every child must at least try to learn, is consistent. The fact that this includes private schools, with all but the tiniest minority agreeing, in return for funds, to teach the public curriculum, means that French citizens share a significant body of common knowledge and assumptions. Where foreigners are unaware of those
90 A law that all web pages generated in France should be in French lead in 1999 to the prosecution of an American college outside Paris – even though its courses were delivered exclusively in English to English-speaking students. French Radio news, July 1999
91 ‘La France est le premier pays du monde dans lequel fut institué un système centralisé d’enseignement public’. Ledesert, Ledesert, Smith, 1960, p105
92 ‘Equality must be the first element in education’ quoted in Cronin, Vincent Napoleon, London: Collins, 1971, p204
93 Orna-Ornstein, 1971, p126 assumptions, and have never explored the aims or content of Education in France, they are highly likely to misunderstand, and be misunderstood by, many of the
French people they meet. No matter what your nationality or origin, receiving – or at the very least examining - a French education remains the single most effective means of understanding the French worldview.
.4 ‘Laïcité’ and anti-clericalism
Two ideas which played a significant role in the Revolution, and remain influential on
French culture today, are the idea of a public life devoid of religious influences, and a linked resistance to the power and influence of the established church. The first of these, called ‘Laïcité’ is one of the foundation stones of French government, education and civic life. Often wrongly translated as ‘secularism’ and thereby confused with ‘secularisation’, laïcité [literally ‘layness’] refers directly to questions of civic life. It is the belief that all civic decisions should be made without reference to religious beliefs or powers. Sociologist Jean-Paul Williame makes the distinction between sécularisation [social change in which the practical influence of religion is diminished] and laïcisation [conflict over who controls the organs of the state]94. Both these processes are present in France, but it is the latter that carries a uniquely
French dimension - embodied over many years in laws not only outlawing religious influence on schools, limiting the activities of monastic orders and separating Church and State [1905], but also addressing religious elements and symbolism in cemeteries, courts, hospitals, and public assemblies95. The legal impossibility, for
94 Williame, Jean-Paul, Sociologie des Religions, Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1995 and 1998, p96
95 ‘A partir de 1880 et jusqu’au début du XX siècle, la sécularisation progresse, non seulement par la laïcisation de l’enseignement public, par les lois contre les congrégations et par la séparation des églises et de l’état (1905), mais aussi par une série de mesures qui touchent les divers aspects de la vie publique, telles que la déconfessionnalisation des cimetières, la suppression des emblèmes religieux dans les hôpitaux et les tribunaux, l’obligation du service militaire pour les séminaristes, l’interdiction par les municipalités des processions sur la voie publique’. De Montclos, Xavier, Histoire Religieuse de la France, Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 3rd édition, 1997, p94 example, of a Christian group or congregation hiring the hall of a state school for weekend church activities is a contemporary illustration of the power and reach of laws of ‘laïcité’, as is the refusal in many regions to allow student Christian Union groups to meet on school premises.
Coupled with these laws, and perhaps contributing to their development, is a looser and less defined anti-clericalism that pervades some sections of French culture.
Drawing inspiration from some of the towering figures in France’s history, philosophy and literature, anti-clericalism tends to be directed towards the majority Roman
Catholic Church and its leaders and institutions96 . Voltaire, in particular, is noted for his virulent disdain for religion, which he describes as an ‘infamy’ to be ‘stamped out’97. Anti-clericalism is not always expressed in quite such violent terms these days, but it remains a strong thread in the thinking of many French intellectuals and frequently surfaces in public discourse, contributing to the ‘de-Christianisation’ of contemporary France.98
.5 Religion and Paganism
We will give close attention to an assessment of the religious situation in France in
96 ‘France has a long tradition of writers whose clarity of expression and excellent prose style are matched by their hostility to what they believe to be Christianity, and in particular to the Roman Catholic Church. The free-thinking tradition goes back to Rabelais (d 1553) and Montaigne (d 1592) and can be traced through the seventeenth century down to the philosophical writers of the following century such as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Diderot, and indeed the stream has continued, in one form or another, ever since’. Orna-Ornstein, 1971,p124
97 ‘His attack covers a wide ground. The abuses of the financial system, the defects in the administration of justice, the futility of the restrictions upon trade – upon these and a hundred similar subjects he poured out an incessant torrent of gay, penetrating, frivolous and remorseless words. But there was one theme to which he was perpetually returning, which forms the subject for his bitterest jests, and which, in fact dominates the whole of his work. ‘Ecrasez l’infâme!’ was his constant exclamation; and the ‘infamous thing’ which he wished to see stamped underfoot was nothing less than religion’. Strachy, Lytton, Landmarks in French Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969, p90-91
98 ‘Un anticléricalisme dont les formes contemporains entrent dans l’explication de la déchristianisation au XIX et au XX siècle.’ [an anti-clericalism whose contemporary expressions go some way to explaining the de-Christianisation of the 19th and 20th centuries.’] De Montclos, 1997, p4 Chapter Five, below, and to some extent in Chapter Six, but it is important to note here the significant role Christianity has played in the shaping of the French consciousness. France is one of the world’s oldest Christian nations outside of the
Biblical record itself. Roger Greenacre notes that:
‘If France has at times boasted of her privileged position with regard to the
Church in somewhat exaggerated language, calling herself ‘la fille aînée de
l’église” (the eldest daughter of the church) and her king Rex Christianissimus
(the most Christian King), it is nonetheless true that the history of the Church in
France goes back at least to the second century. The martyrdom of Pothinus,
Bishop of Lyon, with Blandina and others in the year 177 is well attested, and
the successor to St. Pothinus was none other than St. Irenaeous.’99
Historians speculate that the entry of Christianity into France may have come even earlier, before the end of the first century100. Whatever the initial date, commentators are agreed that the shaping of France over twenty centuries has been richly and deeply influenced by the Christian Gospel. As we have noted above, this influence has been counter-balanced by both anti-clericalism and the Revolutionary goal of a secular state: but it is a mistake to assume, in view of these conflicts, that France does not have Christian roots. Whatever it means to be French in the 21st Century, one element implied in the term is the heritage, however distant, of Europe’s first
Christian nation.
Alongside this heritage, though, there is a rich vein of raw Paganism. Commentators from a wide range of perspectives are in agreement that Paganism runs deep in
French history, and remains an important influence to this day. De Montclos insists
99 Greenacre, 1996 and 1998, p1
100 ‘In the slow, often agonising re-formation of Roman Gaul into the Kingdom of France the Christian church played a very important role … Christianity had been introduced into the land as early as the first century AD by travelling merchants who spread the “good news” of Christ’s gospel as they peddled their wares.’ Davidson, 1972, p21 that ‘the contemporary observer exploring the religious past of France will discern, across centuries, the recurrence of simple rituals and symbols closely tied to nature and running back to prehistoric times. Such rituals, such as prayer alongside sacred rocks and rivers, continue to show their influence in such phenomena as the Lourdes pilgrimages and the ‘Pardons’ regularly celebrated in Brittany’101 . This is evidence,
De Montclos argues, of an underlying pagan consciousness, which represents the original religious sentiment of the tribes who became the French, and continues to influence them to this day. Protestant commentator Jaques Ellul agrees that this is the case, and insists that Paganism is once more on the increase:
‘The French – even the free thinkers, even the sceptics – are religious. But not
necessarily Christian. …. Not only are there new religions, but there is also a
return to the old ones. In the French countryside everybody lives according to
magic and sorcery. I am well acquainted with this phenomenon. I can point out
to you precisely where witchcraft is practised in centres of peasant sorcery near
Bordeaux.’ 102
Perhaps the most significant aspect of this assertion is the implication that the
French, despite over 200 years of radical secular thinking, remain a profoundly religious people. Certainly their ancestors were:
‘The Gauls were seen by their contemporaries as a highly religious people.
Their beliefs were made up of archaic elements drawn from pre-history and
101 ‘Lorsque l’observateur contemporain explore le passé religieux de la France en remontant le long des siècles, il lui semble reconnaître à chaque étape, dans la multitude des gestes et des signes sacrês, certaines formes simples, liées aux réalités de la nature, qui l’invitent à s’enforcer, à travers les périodes chrétienne, gallo-romaine et celtique, jusque dans les profondeurs de la Préhistoire. Il est ainsi par exemple de la prière auprès des sources et des rochers. Toujours actuelle (que l’on songe au pèlerinage de la grotte de Massabielle, à Lourdes, et aux vertus de la source miraculeuse), florissante aux XVII et XVIII siècles, notamment avec les pardons bretons et leurs fontaines de Notre-Dame, omniprésente au Moyenne Age (fontaine sacrée de Malestroit, pierre guérisseuse du Puy, etc.), elles se retrouve dans le culte très ancien des forces mystérieuses de la nature que les missionnaires chrétiens des IV, V et VI siècles rencontrèrent dans les campagnes gauloises.’ De Montclos, 1997, p5
102 Cited in Bjork, 1997, p34 from Indo-European roots, and of a diverse range of genuinely Celtic elements.
From cradle to grave, the life of the Gaul unfolded under the watchful eye of
gods who could be invoked through prayers, libations and offerings.’103
The French are:
. A people with deep Christian roots and deeper still the sense, cradle to grave, of
the divine;
. A people influenced by the world’s foremost thinkers in secular and anti-clerical
philosophies, and yet retaining a relatively high degree of religious practise of all
forms;
. A people formed by an educational experience of extraordinary power, and
fighting to retain their own language and culture in an increasingly Anglicised
world;
. A people shaped by arguably the most significant social Revolution in Europe’s
history, and genuinely committed to its goals of a free, equal and fraternal society;
. A people benefiting from one of history’s longest-running and boldest attempts to
create, against forces of regionalism and fragmentation, a national identity.
Whatever else these factors tell us about the French, they should tell us that theirs is a deep and complex culture. Neither over-simplified attempts to understand French culture – nor Anglo-Saxon prejudices and assumptions about it – will be sufficient to fuel genuine missional engagement in the France of the 21st Century. The skills, tools and methodologies needed by potential missionaries must surely include, as the highest priority, the willingness to study, explore, understand and appreciate the many complexities of this remarkable human culture. Not least among the concerns of such study would be the religious sensibilities of the French: especially in relation to
103 ‘Les Gaulois étaient tenus par leurs contemporains pour une population très religieuse. Leurs croyances étaient composées d’éléments archaïques, venus de la Préhistoire et du fonds indo-européen, et d’éléments proprement celtiques très diversifiés. Du berceau à la tombe, la vie du Gaulois s’écoule sous le regard tutélaire des divinités qu’il invoque par des prières, des offrandes et des libations.’ De Montclos, 1997, p6 the denominational conflicts of their Christian history. It is to this important area we now turn. Chapter Five: Rifts Ancient and Modern
“To say that the history of Catholic-Protestant relations in France has not been a
happy one would be a monumental understatement. There is still alive the
memory of the Religious Wars of the sixteenth century, when it seemed for a
time that there was the real possibility that France would become a Protestant
country.” Roger Greenacre104
“To chronicle the sordid, violent, and complex series of events by which this
Henry became the first Bourbon king of France would be to tell of plots and
murders, massacres and pitched battles, rapes and slaughter, in all of which
little Christian charity or mercy was shown by Catholic or Protestant.”
Marshall B Davidson105
The present-day denominational scene in France is a complex and many-sided story, with a history of betrayal and bloodshed never far below the surface. And yet it is a story that incoming missionaries must come to understand, because it influences the decision-making – directly or indirectly, positively or negatively – of a large majority of
French people. Research suggests a number of key factors of which any missionary seeking to operate in 21st Century France must be fully aware:
5.1 The Catholic Church remains the dominant expression of historic Christianity in the French context, with Protestants as a small minority and Evangelicals as a smaller fragment still.
In 1954, 94% of the population were baptised into the Catholic Church – today the figure is around 82%. Figures for weekly attendance at Mass fell from 25% in 1965 to
104 Greenacre, 1996 and 1998, p29
105 Davidson, Marshall B, A Concise History of France, London: Cassell, 1972, p70 10% in 1985106. The Protestant churches, by contrast, account for less than 2% of the French population107, broken into a vast array of denominations and streams108 .
The low figures for Protestant adherence are ameliorated by two factors. The first is that Protestantism, because of its history in France, has a sympathetic audience well beyond its own borders, with some 4.5% to 6% expressing, in surveys, a positive attitude towards the Protestant churches.109 The second is that certain regions show variation from the national average. In Alsace Lorraine, for instance, 8.8% of the population are members of the Lutheran and Reformed churches.110 And it also true that
“A good number of French, even though they call themselves Catholics, are
either detached from the church or organise very loosely their relations with
Catholicism; with its rights and dogmas, and with its prescriptions in terms of
personal and sexual morality.”111
But for all these variations, it remains true that Catholicism dominates the French religious context. There may be many semi-detached Catholics in France – baptised
106 ‘En 1954, il y avait encore 94% de Français baptisés dans la religion catholique (estimation de chanoine Boulard) : il y en aurait aujourd’hui 82%. La fidélité à la pratique dominicale régulière (messe du dimanche) est tombée de 25% à 10% entre 1965 et 1985.’ De Montclos, 1997, p121
107 De Montclos cites a figure of 1.6% while the Reuilly Common Statement cites 1.8%. See De Montclos, Xavier, 1997, p118 : ‘Leurs églises, qui comptent 850 000 membres (1,6% de la population)’ and Called to Witness and Service : The Reuilly Common Statement with Essays on Church, Eucharist and Ministry, London: Church House, 1999, p45: ‘1,100,000 (1.8 per cent) of the total population of France are Protestants, between 383,000 and 433,000 of these being Reformed and 240,000 Lutheran’.
108 ‘For a country in which Protestants are few in number, the degree of fragmentation is considerable.’ Orna-Ornstein, 1971, p121
109 (4,5% a 6% de personnes favorables au protestantisme), De Montclos, 1997, p118
110 Reuilly Common Statement, 1999, p46
111 ‘A présent, il est certain qu’un bon nombre de Français, tout en se disant catholiques, ou bien sont détachés de l’église ou aménagent librement leur rapport au catholicisme, à ses rites, à ses dogmes, comme aussi à ses prescriptions en matière de morale conjugale et sexuelle.’ De Montclos, 1997, p122 but non-practising – but it remains true that it is to the Catholic Church that they are semi-attached.
5.2 Despite a colossal decline in the practise of the Catholic faith, there remain many links – seen and unseen – between the people of France and their former
Church.
In his major 1983 study The French, Theodore Zeldin points out that
“The French are not quite as irreligious as they are made out to be. In addition
to the regular churchgoers, another 25% claim to go to church occasionally.
Over 70% go through a religious marriage; over 80% are baptised; only 54%
say they never go to confession. The people who definitely say they have no
religion are very much in a minority (15%).”112
Beyond this, there are also the two million or more children enrolled in Catholic schools, representing over 16% of French education.113 This high incidence of an acknowledged but non-practised faith is one of the central mysteries of contemporary
French culture. In Les Français et le Catholicisme, sociologists Jean-Marie Donegani and Guy Lescanne argue that,
‘The French Catholic population poses a serious problem for sociologists: How
does one explain the separation that exists between the 79% of those who call
themselves Catholics and the 10% who go to Mass each weekend? Who
makes up this 69% of the population? How does this group of people see
themselves in relationship to the faith and the church?’114
112 Zeldin, Theodore The French, London: Fontana, 1984, p493,
113 ‘L’enseignement Catholique accueille au total 2 022 000 élèves…. Ce chiffre représente 16.3% de la population scolaire Française’. Le Bret, Marie Michèle and Boulic, Hervé, Choisir Une Ecole Catholique, Paris: Editions Centurion, 1990, p128
114 La Croix, March 4th., 1987, translated by David Bjork, cited in Bjork, 1997, p141 David Bjork goes some way to answering this last question in claiming that, for many of these people, Catholicism remains the only legitimate embodiment of
Christianity:
“Although the average Frenchman does not practise his Catholic faith, it is an
integral part of his identity. Recent studies have demonstrated that although
most of the French neglect the Catholic Church almost entirely except at the
crucial moments of christening, marriage and burial, a high percentage of
French people still pay lip service to Christianity through social convention.
More importantly, the majority of these people still consider the Catholic church
to be the Christian church.”115
5.3 Catholic / Protestant relationships are cordial at the formal level, but at a popular level remain influenced by centuries of mistrust and conflict.
Significant efforts have been made to create dialogue, at the institutional level, between the various Christian denominations present in France. But it remains true, at the popular level, that serious misunderstandings and differences persist between
Protestant and Catholic communities. The tendency of French society to be organised in terms of distinct social circles [‘milieux’] exacerbates these differences: many Catholics have little if any contact with the minority Protestant community116.
The Protestants, for their part, remain unnervingly conscious of the injustices committed against them in the past, and the sense of being a persecuted minority is palpable even today117. France came very close to being a Protestant country in the
115 Bjork, 1997, p36, emphasis in the original
116 French Protestants and French Catholics form two different sub societal groups of French culture. Bjork, 1997, p36
117 ‘Not until 1787 did the Edict of ‘Toleration’ afford civil status to the Reformed: that is the right to exist as ‘non-Catholics’ in the realm. It was not until the French Revolution that the freedom of conscience of all citizens was recognised (1789), followed by freedom of worship (1791).’ The Reuilly Common Statement, 1999, p92 16th century118, and it was only betrayal, exile and bloodshed that prevented it from being so.
5.4 The clear majority of incoming Anglo-Saxon missionaries who have an
Evangelical background have assumed that they must work outside the Catholic framework.
If the French themselves are heavily influenced by this atmosphere of mistrust, so too are incoming Anglo-Saxon missionaries. Tracing their evangelicalism via
Protestantism back to the reformation, the majority of missionaries assume that their work will involve the nurture and extension of the Protestant community. Texts such as Frank Orna-Ornstein’s 1971 France: Forgotten Mission Field – one of the few books available in English for the orientation of potential missionaries to France
– simply assume that contemporary Evangelical mission will be a continuation and extension of the reformation itself:
‘In the middle of the sixteenth century it appeared that, in a short space of time,
France would be entirely conquered for the gospel, and would become a great
Protestant country. This, as we know, did not come to pass. It is difficult to
realise that the France of today is the former land of the Huguenots. Yet their
God still reigns, unchanged and unchangeable. Let us pray that it may please
him to raise such a witness in the land that, once again, it will ring with the
Reformers’ message.’119
Others have reflected more personally on the attitudes they brought with them to their chosen field of operation:
118 ‘This [Reformed] doctrinal and ecclesial framework led to an extraordinary flowering of Reformed churches over a few years until, towards 1560, the number of members could be estimated at two million (out of a total population of 18 million).’ Carbonnier-Burkard, Marianne, The Reformed Church of France: An Historical Introduction: - The Reuilly Common Statement, 1999, p91
119 Orna-Ornstein, 1971, p143 [concluding words] ‘I am ashamed to have to admit that when I arrived in France I felt that “God
arrived with me.” The idea that He could already be at work in that country and
that I needed to “find out what He was already doing and then join Him” was
foreign to my thinking.’ 120
Church planting thus becomes the dominant method adopted by Anglo-Saxon
Evangelical missionaries: looking the creation of new self-supporting, self-governing and self-extending churches in a Protestant setting and framework. This makes perfect sense, Bjork points out, “As long as I could assume either that the church did not exist in France, or that if it did exist, it was so weakened and compromised by its history that it should be replaced.”121 Bjork further cites the work of Alan Koop, who in
1986 completed a major review of American-lead missionary work in France from
1945 to 1975. It is worth quoting Koop at length, as he both illuminates the French context and also illustrates the grave danger of transferring the ecclesiological assumptions of one national context into another.
“The Americans were so anxious to get a church started, and so proud of their
achievement once a tiny church was organised, that they failed to realise that
their small success made greater success less likely. The evangelical
missionaries came from a culture that accepted and even took pride in small
independent churches. Many Midwestern towns supported a different church
on each street corner. The French saw things differently. For them, there was
only one church; or perhaps two in regions where Protestants were visible.
Everything else was a sect. They lumped together all little religious groups, no
matter how divergent their beliefs: Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Friends of
Man, Mennonites, Brethren, Baptists, Salvation Army, Pentecostals, Christian
Scientists, etc. In American history small dissenting sects had grown into major
120 Bjork, 1997, p45
121 Bjork, 1997, p6 denominations. While not all sects became large churches, most large
churches started as sects. In France, the relationship between sect and church
was antithetical, not evolutionary.”122
5.5 There is evidence that the decline of all the established churches of France – in common with the rest of Europe – is leading to an increased openness, passion and faith amongst those who remain.
Theodore Zeldin’s assessment of religious life in France recognised the signs of decline, but noted, too, positive sings of new life:
‘The weakness of Christianity in France has made the majority of Church
members rethink their attitudes. That probably means that Christian piety is
more profound today in France than it has ever been, in the sense that much
that passed for religiosity in the past was simply conformism.’123
There is evidence that Zeldin is not being over-optimistic. Roger Greenacre cites an increase in the number of adult baptisms – a figure measuring the rate of conversions into the Catholic Church:
‘Of all the signs of hope for the future of the Catholic Church in France none can
be more significant than the striking increase in the number of adult baptisms
and the rapid growth and development of the catechumenate… In 1976 there
were 890 catechumens, in 1980 4,006, in 1991 5,643 and in 1993 8,430. It is
reckoned that in 1995 there are about 9,000 and that the number is increasing
at the rate of about 25% per annum. About three-quarters of the candidates are
between 20 and 40 years old, two-thirds of them are women and three-quarters
122 Koop, Alan V, American Evangelical Missionaries in France, 1945 – 1975, New York: University Press of America, 1986, pp86-87, quoted in Bjork, 1997, p47
123 Zeldin, 1984, p491 claim to have had no previous religious affiliation of any kind but to be
discovering faith in God and in Christ for the first time.’ 124
In addition, the growth of the Catholic Charismatic movement is widely cited as a sign of hope within Catholicism – in fact as one of the most significant features of Frances religious landscape in recent years125 . Because the adherents of this movement have not sought to break away from the Catholic Church, but on the contrary have become newly committed to its health and survival 126, the ‘renouveau charismatique’ has become a source of renewal and reform within Catholicism. The charismatics are by no means the only French Catholics newly open to dialogue and co-operation with evangelical groups: but theirs has been a high-profile journey and is the most visible expression of this new openness. Perhaps the most potent sign of this is also the most recent, with the widespread adoption by the Catholic charismatic groups of the London-based ‘Alpha Course’. Described as “an introduction to the Christian faith which has seen extraordinary success at stimulating faith among those who are not churchgoers and also given a new dynamism to many existing Christians.”127, the
Alpha course was translated into French in the mid 1990’s, but the course’s London directors held back on wide distribution in the hope that the Catholic churches would open up to them.
‘At the end of 1998, there were a few Alpha courses running in France – but all,
except one, in Protestant churches. We knew that it was essential to get the
124 Greenacre, 1996 and 1998, p43
125 ‘La naissance, à partir de 1972, des grandes communautés de Renouveau charismatiques, d’abords groupes de prière, puis groupes de vie, est le fait religieux le plus neuf de ces dernières années en France.’ De Montclos, 1997, p123
126 ‘Le mouvement dans son ensemble n’a jamais souhaité quitter l’Eglise et a toujours recherché l’approbation de ses plus hautes instances ; et, élément décisif dans une conception catholique, il n’a d’ailleurs jamais vraiment mis en cause l’objectivité des sacrements.’ Champion, Françoise et Cohen, Martin Recompositions, décompositions : le renouveau charismatique et la nébuleuse mystique-ésotérique depuis les années soixante-dix in Le Débat, Paris : Editions Gallimard, numéro 75, mai – août 1993, p83
127 Alpha News, London: Holy Trinity Brompton, March – July 2000, p1 course running in Catholic churches or it would never help revive the church in
France as we see it reviving the church in England.’128
In due course contact with a number of charismatic communities gave the needed openings, and an Alpha office was opened in France in 1999. Mark de Leyritz reports on the very fast subsequent take-up of the course:
‘Overall, an astonishing number of around 3000 French people, including
around 500 Catholic priests, have been trained to run an Alpha course in the
last ten months.’ 129
Within Catholicism, the course is now being taken up well beyond the limited influence of the Charismatic groups, and it is also now growing fast amongst
Protestant and evangelical groups. The Rt Rev’d Ambrose Griffiths, Roman Catholic
Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle observes that ‘This is the first time ever that the very same course is being used by every Christian church in pretty well every country in the world.’130 It is too early to assess the impact of Alpha on France: but it seems likely that it will contribute not only to evangelism amongst the country’s secular / nominal majority, but also to unity and understanding across the Christian denominations.
It is significant, against this background, that theological developments across the world are leading to new forms of evangelicalism within the Catholic Church, and to a movement of rapprochement between Catholic and Protestant-Evangelical scholars.
Nigel Wright argues, for example, that
128 de Leyritz, Marc We’re seeing God at work in France in Alpha News, London: Holy Trinity Brompton, March – July 2000, pp4-5
129 de Leyritz, July 2000, p33
130 Alpha News, London: Holy Trinity Brompton, March – July 2000, p15 ‘The primary debate in the Church of today is not between evangelicals and
non-evangelicals but between those who hold fast to the Trinitarian core of
Christian faith and those who wish to depart from it’
Wright goes on to urge evangelicals to
‘Work in affirming coalition with all those who confess the apostolic faith. These
are the boundaries that most matter and evangelicals should be careful not to
so draw them that they weaken the very cause in which they firmly believe.’ 131
Robert Webber, writing in the American context, makes much the same plea.132 In
Western nations facing the visible failure of churches of every denominational shade, it seems that adversity is producing a measure of unity. The common crisis of the post-Christendom churches may yet prove a more potent force than the many controversies that have divided them.
On the field, though, there are moments when these controversies seem irresolvable.
An incoming missionary is too often faced with an a priori choice – he or she must decide before setting foot on French soil which ‘camp’ represents the true church. On the basis of evidence gathered for this report, I would suggest that such a choice sells short the Kingdom of God, and that it is possible to reconcile the two opposing views.
The answer, I believe, lies in a deeper and more thorough investigation of the audience that Christian mission sets out to reach.
In his study of church-planting initiatives in the UK, Daniel Strange133 sought to probe the use of the terms ‘un-churched’ or ‘non-churched’ to describe the people mission in a post-Christian context sets out to reach. Using helpful definitions offered by George
131 Wright, Nigel The Radical Evangelical: Seeking a Place to Stand, London: SPCK, 1996, p27
132 see Webber, Robert, Ancient-Future Faith: Re-thinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World, Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1999
133 Strange, Daniel Filling the Gaps: Church Planting / New Ways of Being Church in Post- Christian Britain, London: CMS, 2000, pp8-10 Lings134 and Steven Timmis135, Strange makes a distinction between the un-churched and the de-churched. The latter he describes as “those who have some, or have had some, or still have some cultural contact with the church”136, while of the un-churched he says, quoting Lings:
“There is no history of regular church attendance for three or four previous generations. There is no one living in the extended family for whom this is part of normal life. No one prays for them by name. For them, church is what some others do.”137
This distinction becomes extremely helpful when applied into the French context in which – despite the widely held perception of an irreligious culture – church attendance figures outstrip those for the UK138. A significant number of the ‘hidden majority’ – the 60% to 70% who claim affiliation to the Catholic Church, and are baptised, but do not attend on any kind of regular basis – must surely be classed not as ‘un-churched’ but as ‘de-churched’. As we have noted, whilst attendance at mass may be derisory, there are other cultural forms by which these people have some measure of contact with the Christian church. And very few need to go back more than one or at most two generations to discover committed and regular patterns of churchgoing. Large sections of the French population more closely fit the descriptor
‘de-churched’ than ‘un-churched’. However, the analysis cannot stop there. Three other factors must be taken account of if we are to better ‘know our audience’:
134 Lings, George Living Proof – A New Way of Being Church? Encounters on the Edge, No.1, 1999, p12, cited in Strange, 2000, p8
135 Timmis, Steven, Reaching the Unchurched, Seminar given to the Evangelical Ministry Assembly, June 2000, cited in Strange, 2000, p9
136 Strange, 2000, p8
137 ibid.
138 ‘To assume that France is a fundamentally irreligious country, just because it has had a stormy history of anticlericalism, is erroneous. The British, who pay lip service to the view that they live in a Christian country, go to church less than the French do (only 11% are regular worshippers, compared to 16% of the French).’ Zeldin, 1984, p491 • The attitudes people have toward the church they have ‘de-churched’ from;
• The small but significant minority of those whose experience is of Protestant
rather than Catholic Christianity;
• The existence, beyond all these groups, of a growing ‘un-churched’
population, including young people who are generationally further removed
from the church, and those of all ages raised in other faiths.
Attitude is Everything
There is strong evidence that the first of these factors has a significant impact on
Christian mission. Broadly, the ‘de-churched’ Catholic milieu can be said to fall into two main categories.
• Firstly, there are those who, for all their lack of personal commitment,
nonetheless view the Catholic Church in a positive light. For a whole host of
reasons, they still think of Catholicism as ‘their church’ – the primary or only
expression of Christianity valid in a French context.
• Secondly, there are those who’s ‘de-churching’ has been a more deliberate
and personal journey. Perhaps influenced by the strong stream of anti-
clericalism that runs through much of French history, and often put off by
negative personal experiences of formalised and formularised religion, they
have distanced themselves by choice from the church and, by implication,
from Christianity.
The differences between these two groups will lead, in turn, to different ways of responding to Christian missionary efforts. The first group remain broadly open to being ‘won back’ to the faith of their fathers and by the same token will resist all other approaches. The second group, by contrast, will steer clear of any attempt to woo them back to Catholicism and may well be attracted to alternative expressions of faith and worship. Such evidence as is available suggests that these two responses are in fact taking place. David Bjork, among others, has identified the extent to which the French resistance to an Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Evangelical gospel is often rooted in a semi-dormant attachment to Catholicism. Bjork presents a powerful argument that non-practising
Catholics who retain some attachment to the Church are the largest potential mission field in France, and will only be won back to faith through being won back to
Catholicism. At the same time, the Protestant and Evangelical groups cite the high incidence of popular disillusionment following a negative experience of Catholicism.
David Brown quotes a very typical example:
“I just had the impression that I had come into a big meeting where people were
singing without any real joy, standing, kneeling then standing again; and all this
timed very precisely with the ‘Amen’s’ and other key words of the priest. To put
it bluntly, I realised that I didn’t really believe in God.”139
So prevalent are such testimonies that it is not unrealistic to surmise that the majority of converts to Evangelical churches carry with them a measure of disdain for
Catholicism: though no research has been carried out, to my knowledge, to establish this.
For a smaller number – though proportionately larger in the Alsace / Lorraine region - the starting point is not the Catholic but the Protestant church. The argument would be the same, with some carrying a positive, if distant, memory of church while others carrying only negative views. Taking these factors together, it is possible to establish a range of categories to describe the de-churched and un-churched population of
France, the first four being:
• Category 1: De-churched Catholics with a sympathetic / positive frame of
mind towards Catholicism.
139 ‘J’avais seulement l’impression de venir participer à une grande réunion, ou les gens chantent sans vraiment être joyeux, se lèvent puis s’agenouillent puis se relèvent encore, tout ceci minuté de façon très précise selon les amen et autres mots clés du curè. En bref, je me suis rendu compte que je ne croyais pas vraiment en Dieu.’ Guillaume Pavlovic – evangelical testimony, quoted in Brown, 2001, p95 • Category 2: De-churched Catholics with a disillusioned / negative frame of
mind towards Catholicism.
• Category 3: De-churched Protestants with a sympathetic / positive frame of
mind towards Protestantism.
• Category 4: De-churched Protestants with a disillusioned / negative frame of
mind towards Protestantism.
These are very broad categories, covering millions of people, and for different people the factors listed here will have differing degrees of importance. Thus for one individual the attraction of other faiths or the New Age movement may be an overwhelming factor, rendering the distinctions above more or less irrelevant, while for another the cultural contact with either church may be an entirely nominal and empty thing. But for those who are potentially open to a renewed expression of
Christianity – those who will be first in the queue when commitment is made possible
– these distinctions may prove crucial.
To these initial four categories must be added:
• Category 5: The culturally ‘un-churched’ – those now so far removed, either
socially or generationally, from Christian commitment that ‘Church’ has no
place in their world.
• Category 6: Those of other faiths, either by upbringing or by choice.
The very simple implication of this 6-fold categorisation is that each category will require a different missiological approach: but that the ‘whole picture’ will only be served by all 6 approaches taking place. Thus the struggle of evangelicals within the
Catholic church to bring their friends to a renewed faith, and the battle of evangelicals in newly-planted Protestant churches to grow independent congregations, become not two opposing and antithetical understandings of mission, but two differing and complimentary methodologies: just as an attempt to reach Muslims in category 6 would not be seen as an alternative to mission in category 1 or 2, but as an additional and much needed strategy. Is it possible, based on this analysis, that Catholic and
Protestant missionaries – French and foreign – will find themselves united around the common task of re-evangelising their nation, and happily support one another in the reaching of different sub-cultures with different ecclesiological solutions? Chapter Six Génération Salle d’Attente
“How will you reach this post-modern generation - a generation that cannot
conceive of objective truth, cannot follow your linear arguments, cannot tolerate
anything (including evangelism) that smacks of religious intolerance?”
Kevin Ford 140
“We can speak of a post-Christian generation in the sense not only that less
than half have been through the Catechism and think of themselves as
Christian, but also that all the indicators of adherence are moving downwards to
such an extent that without a reversal, departure from Christianity has become
inevitable ”
Yves Lambert141
When time magazine ran a special issue on Europe in 1998, one of the terms they used to describe France’s new young adult population was ‘génération sale d’attente’
– the waiting room generation142. The implication was that here was a generation that had grown up with the promises of prosperous, modern culture, but was not finding a home within it: a generation ‘waiting’ for their lives to begin in earnest. This is just one illustration of a phenomenon noted by observers of Western culture from a wide range of disciplines: there is something ‘different’ about the emerging adult
140Ford, Kevin, Jesus for a New Generation: Reaching Out to Today's Young Adults, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1996 p130
141 ‘On peut parler de génération post-chrétienne dans la mesure ou, non seulement moins de la moitie ont été catéchisée et se considère comme des chrétiens, mais encore, les critères d’intégration sont orientés a la baisse de telle sort que, moins d’un renversement, la sortie du christianisme va se précipiter.’ Lambert, Yves Les jeunes et le christianisme : le grand défi, in Le Débat, Paris : Editions Gallimard, numéro 75, mai – août 1993, p70
142 Elizabeth Gleick, The New Youth - the age of freedom meets the age of anxiety in a volatile and vibrant mix, in Visions of Europe, Time Magazine, Winter 1998-99 on-line version accessed May 1999 at http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/reports/visions/youth1.html generation, a sense of departure from long-accepted norms and expectations.
Variously labelled generation X, post-modern, post-industrial and post-Christian, the emerging adult generations of the West represent a significant challenge to Christian mission. A fast-growing body of research has been published analysing this challenge and speculating on the appropriate Christian response. The vast majority of this thinking has been done in the Anglo-Saxon context, in Canada143 and the
USA144, the UK145, Australia146 and New Zealand147, but the currents of this same social transformation are also emerging on Continental Europe. “Most people realise that the church is going to have to reinvent itself to reach this generation”, says Pete
Greig of the 24-7 prayer network, “But fewer people realise that amazing changes are
143 See http://www.freshresource.com and http://www.beyond.com for links to experimental groups and research projects in the Canadian context.
144 ‘About 1500 churches churches targeting Gen Xers have sprung up across the United States in the past decade. Loosely known as “post-modern” groups, they meet on skateboard ramps, in coffee houses and at punk thrash concerts. Music ranges from traditional hymns to heavy metal.” Means Sarah, Post-modern church targets Generation X in Seattle, The Washington Times, August 12th 1998. Article accessed at http://www.youngleader.org See also Beaudoin, Tom, Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998; Ford, Kevin, Jesus for a New Generation: Reaching Out to Today's Young Adults, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1996; Long, Jimmy, generating hope: A Strategy for Reaching The Postmodern Generation, Downers Grove, Ill: Inter-Varsity Press, 1997; Webber, Robert, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999
145 see for instance Brierley, Peter, Steps to the Future: Issues Facing the Church in the New Millennium, London: Christian Research and Scripture Union, 2000; Cundy, Ian (Ed) Tomorrow is Another Country, London: Board of Education of the General Synod of the Church of England, 1996; Drane, John, Evangelism for a New Age: Creating Churches for the Next Century, London, Marshall Pickering, 1994; Drane, John, Cultural Change and Biblical Faith, Carlisle, Paternoster, 2000; Finney, John, Finding Faith Today: How does it Happen?, Swindon: Bible Society, 1992; Greig, Pete, Awakening Cry, London: Silverfish Publishing, 1998; Moynagh, Michael, Changing World, Changing Church: New Forms of Church ; Out-of-the-Pew Thinking; Initiatives that Work, London: Monarch, 2001; Tomlinson, Dave, The Post Evangelical, London: Triangle 1995; Ward, Pete, Ed., Mass Culture: eucharist and mission in a post-modern world, London: SPCK, 1999
146 Riddell, Kirkpatrick, Pierson, 2000
147 see Taylor, Steve The Rata: A New (Zealand) Generation Leading the Church into a New (Zealand) Millennium, paper prepared for the Young Leaders Consultation, Seattle, 1999, see also Riddell, Michael, Threshold of the Future: Reforming the Church in the Post-Christian West, SPCK, London, 1998 already underway. Exciting new congregations are being planted in youth cultures all around Europe.”148
The e:merge conference held in Frankfurt in July 2001 provided a remarkable window into some of the networks in which new forms of church are emerging. With 1000
Christians in attendance from 20 nations, the gathering demonstrated a passion for
‘church in youth culture’ that appears to transcend national and linguistic barriers. A
CMS delegation attended the conference and was able to conduct story-based interviews with young leaders from many European nations. Two common threads were identified through this process. Firstly, that many passionate young leaders feel completely disconnected from traditional church structures, and fail to see how these structures, as they stand, can ‘win’ a new generation. Secondly, though, that their shared concern is not to accept this ‘disconnection’ but to fight it: to foster new
Christian youth movements that are genuinely and deeply connected to the traditional roots of the church. Many speak of an unfulfilled desire to be released and commissioned by the older generation to reach the emerging generations for God.
Young people from a variety of backgrounds admitted to sharing a common bond that breaks down cultural and language barriers. This was demonstrated by the way in which they came to share their personal stories of frustration but also of hope. The
CMS team were able to build new relationships during this time, helping the organisation to understand and begin to engage within this new mission context.
The application of such thinking into the French context is at the very earliest stages, with only a handful of identifiable sources. But the findings of the CMS consultation process and the indications of wider reading – notably in the sociology of religion – confirm that such thinking is urgently needed. The new and ‘different’ generation now emerging in France will in many ways be similar to its peers in other nations: but in other ways it will be uniquely French, shaped by a journey particular to French
148 Greig, Pete, interview at e:merge conference, Frankfurt, July 2001 cultural conditions. It will be crucial to the future of Christian mission in France that missionaries are fully aware of this generation, of the ways it which it reflects the wider Western journey and of the ways in which it is specifically expressed in a
French context. A number of factors will be essential to this awareness.
6.1 Broad Cultural Change
Commentators on French culture are aware of sweeping changes in society over a number of decades149 . Most have no problem in locating the beginning of these changes very precisely: with the ‘events’ of May 1968, when rioting students brought the city of Paris to a standstill. Mavis Gallant, present in the city at the time, describes these events:
‘What developed next was a gigantic happening. To Andre Malraux, then
minister for Culture, it signified “a crisis of civilisation”. Now it seems to have
been an extraordinary kind of make-believe: a collective dream in which an
entire city played at being on the brink of civil war’.150
David Brown points to these same events as ‘the last stand’ of ‘belief in a big explanation for which you must give yourself body and soul’151. There is strong evidence that the founding texts of post-modernism, in so much as they emerged from the French context, were deeply shaped by the disillusionment that gripped the
149 ‘La France connaît depuis le milieu des années 60, comme l’ensemble des pays les plus industrialisés, une mutation profonde qui se traduit notamment par l’ébranlement des institutions, la perte de crédibilité des systèmes de pensée, l’individualisation des conduites morales.’ [‘France has known since the 1960’s, along with other industrialised nations, a profound change which expresses itself most notably in the failure of institutions, the loss of credibility of thought-systems, the individualisation of moral conduct.’] De Montclos, 1997, p113
150 Gallant, Mavis, Paris Notebooks, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1989, p2
151 ‘Peu de gens croient à une grande explication, pour laquelle il faut se donner corps et âme. Mai 68 était l’un des derniers soubresauts de cette foi.’ Brown, 2001, p19 radical Left in France following the collapse of the 1968 protests.152
Whatever is happening to a new generation in France – whether in terms of their religious views or of their wider social attitudes – it is happening in the context of over thirty years of deep social change labelled, not unreasonably ‘The second French
Revolution’153
6.2 The Implosion of Catholicism
The decline of the Catholic church in France was arguably underway long before the
1960’s154, but there can be no doubt that recent social changes have accelerated that decline, and have placed the emerging post-modern generation at its heart. Surveys of church attendance and adherence155, and of the attitudes of young people156 all point towards a younger generation that might now legitimately be described as post-
152 See especially Lyotard Jean-Francois, The Post-modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, trans. Bennington G. and Massumi B., Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1984: "Simplifying in the extreme, I define post-modern as incredulity toward metanarratives." -, quoted in Middleton J.R. and Walsh B.J, truth is stranger than it used to be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age, London: SPCK, 1995, p70 Stuart Sims states that "Lyotard's plea that we should reject the 'grand narratives' (that is universal theories) of Western culture because they had now lost their credibility seems to sum up the ethos of postmodernism, with its disdain for authority in all its many guises." Sim, Stuart 'Postmodernism and Philosophy' Sim, Stuart, Ed. The Icon Critical Dictionary of Postmodern Thought, Cambridge: Icon, 1998, p3
153 Mendras, Henri La Seconde Révolution française, 1965-1984, Paris : Editions Gallimard, 1988], cited in Lambert, 1993, p70
154 2-7 154 See for example Godin, H and Daniel, Y France, pays de mission?, Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1943, cited in Bosch, 1991, p3
155 ‘Qu’il s’agisse de l’appartenance religieuse, des baptêmes, de la catéchisation, des professions de foi, des mariages religieux ou des pratiques cultuelles, de fait, les principaux critères de rattachent institutionnel au catholicisme sont tous en baisse. [Whether looking at religious adherence, baptisms, Catechism, professions of faith, church weddings or attendance patterns, in fact, the principle indicators of institutional commitment to Catholicism are all decreasing.]’ Lambert, 1993, p64
156 ‘Selon la question des enquêtes européenne sur les valeurs …. : « Considérez-vous que vous appartenez à une religion ? », le taux de jeunes catholiques chute a 37% en 1990 et le taux global d’appartenance religieuse n’est plus que de 42% : c’est une inversion sans précédent qui autorise a parler de jeunesse post-chrétienne au sens propre. [ According to the question posed by the European Values Survey, “Do you consider yourself as belonging to a religion ?”, The level of young Catholics had fallen to 37% by 1990, and the overall level of religious membership was no more than 42%: this represents an unprecedented reversal which allows us to speak realistically of post-Christian young people.’] Lambert, 1993, p64 Christian. In addition the number of Priests in training – an acknowledged indicator of the health of Catholicism in a given nation – is at an all-time low157, and the average age of priests in service now tops 65158.
6.3 Loss of impact on culture
Running parallel with the decline in institutional religious adherence amongst the young, there are measurable changes in the impact of Christianity – and notably of
Catholicism – on the wider French cultural scene. The declaration by a leading bishop that ‘Catholic culture has all but ceased to exist in France’159 may well have been an exaggeration: but it is clear that Christianity is a less powerful social influence on the current generation than for many years. Catholic educators Marie-
Michele Le Bret and Hervé Boulic comment that:
‘The question of a religious heritage has been on the agenda for several years:
everyone is taking about it, in recognising that our children no longer have
one… Even militants of a hard and fast secularism are beginning to regret this
religious illiteracy, that blocks access for our young people to significant parts of
our literature, our history and our artistic heritage.’ 160
Even amongst young people who declare themselves to be Christians, there are significant changes in the perception of the relevance of church teaching to everyday life. In a 1990 Values Survey, only 14% of young people thought that “The Church
157 ‘Il y eut 1 649 ordinations en 1947, il y en a guère plus d’une centaine par an de nos jours: l’age moyenne du clergé français s’élève rapidement. [There were 1,649 ordinations in 1947, there are barely more than 100 per year now : and the average age of French clergy is rising fast]’ De Montclos, 1997, p121
158 ‘La moyenne d’age [du clergé] a dépassé les soixante-cinq ans.’ Lambert, 1993, p65
159 ‘La culture catholique n’existe pratiquement plus en France’ Monsignor Poupard, Figaro, 8 octobre 1992. Cited in Lambert, 1993, p71
160 ‘La question de la culture Religieuse est à l’ordre du jour depuis deux ou trois ans: tout le monde en parle, pour constater que nos enfants n’en ont plus…. Même des militants de la laïcité pure et dure en viennent à regretter cet analphabétisme qui interdit aux jeunes l’accès d’une bonne part de notre littérature, de notre histoire et de notre patrimoine artistique’. Le Bret and Boulic, 1990, p153 offers a response to the problems faced in family life”, 24% for “the moral needs and problems of the individual” in general, and 14% for “social problems”. These figures were only double for young people who attended Church at least once per month.161
Similarly, major changes are noted amongst believers in perceptions of God and truth. Amongst believers, writes Yves Lambert,
‘The God of Heaven and Hell has been replaced by a creator-God (‘ecologic’),
guide and friend, a God who helps me to live, who supports me in my difficulties
and who makes sense of my life: but without ever violating my personal
independence’ 162
The combined effect of these changes is that the lives of young people – both within and outside the church – are less and less shaped by reference to traditional or orthodox Christian views. Christianity still has a presence in many lives, but in everyday decisions, moral choices and social attitudes, it has no voice.
.4 Other denominations and faiths
Because Catholicism has been for so long the dominant faith in France, it is in
Catholicism that religious decline is most clearly seen. But other faiths and denominations do exist in the country163. However, in so far as these are institutionally conceived, there is evidence that they are suffering the same decline as the more visible Catholic community. The ‘intergenerational fissure’, Yves Lambert notes, ‘equally affects Protestantism, and even Islam: young committed Muslims are
161 ‘Selon l’enquête Valeurs de 1990, seulement 14% des jeunes interroges pensent que « l’Eglise apporte une réponse aux problèmes que se posent dans la vie de famille », 24% pour les « problèmes et besoins moraux des individus » en général et 14% également pour les « problèmes sociaux », ces taux n’étant que du double environ chez les jeunes pratiquant réguliers (au moins une fois par mois).’ Lambert, 1993, p65
162 ‘Chez les croyants, le Dieu du ciel et de l’enfer s’est efface au profit d’un Dieu créateur (voir « écolo »), guide et ami, un Dieu qui aide a agir, qui soutient dans les difficultés et qui donne sens a la vie, tour en respectant l’indépendance personnelle.’ Lambert, 1993, p69
163 ‘Précisons que la France compte environs 2% de jeunes protestants, 3-4% de musulmans (en progression), 1% de juifs et 1% de membres d’autres religions. [France has around 2% young protestants, 3-4% Muslims (and growing), 1% Jews and 1% members of other religions.]’ Lambert, 1993, p64 very much in the minority, especially amongst girls.’164
The de-Christianisation of French young people is not a problem of Catholicism per se, and points to more than the simple failure of Catholic methodology. It is, rather, symptomatic of much wider changes, affecting institutions and traditional beliefs of every kind. It begs the question whether any formally constituted faith – expressed in dogma, enshrined in the institution of the church and making non-negotiable behavioural demands – will capture the imaginations of the emerging generation.
6.4 Spiritual openness
Ironically, it is not spiritually as such that is being rejected by the young of France.
Personal spirituality is at an all-time high: as visibly in France as any contemporary
Western culture165. “This distancing or detachment from the church”, writes Xavier
De Montclos,
‘Does not necessarily translate into a clinging to modernity, a secularisation of
individual existence understood as a loss of religious sensibility. One could
even conclude the opposite in view of the 2000 or more sects that are now
present in France, most of them originating in the United States, and of the fact
that the occult in all its forms is finding favour with every level of society.’166
Sociologist Françoise Champion has given this emerging spirituality the much-quoted label “nébuleuse mystique-ésotérique”, a term
164 ‘Ce qu’on en sait indique que l’effritement intergénérationnelle affecte également le protestantisme et même l’islam, les jeunes islamistes étant jusqu’ici très minoritaires, surtout parmi les filles.’ Lambert, 1993, p71
165 ‘La sociologue religieuse ne se préoccupe plus du « déclin religieux » mais des différentes formes que revêt la résurgence du spirituel. [The sociology of religion does not concern itself so much with ‘religious decline’ as with the different forms in which the spiritual resurgence is clothed.’] Brown, 2001, p20
166 ‘Cette prise de distance ou ce détachement à l’égard de l’Eglise ne se traduisent pas nécessairement par une adhésion à la modernité, par une sécularisation de l’existence individuelle entendue comme une perte du sens religieux. On peut même penser le contraire si l’on considère que plus de 2000 sectes, dont la plupart viennent des Etats-Unis, sont désormais représentée en France, et que l’occultisme sous toutes ses formes connaît un regain de succès dans toutes les couches de la société.’ De Montclos, 1997 p122 ‘Covering a varied mixture of groups, or rather networks, often loosely-defined,
able to attach themselves explicitly or otherwise to establish religious traditions
– religions of the East (Hinduism, Buddhism), or of more exotic origins
(particularly shamanism) – and often making use of a range of esoteric
practises, particularly astrology and the Tarot.’167
Champion links these developments to the parallel growth of the charismatic movement within the Catholic Church to make the claim that together the two movements represent ‘a new form of religion, distinct from the form previously dominant.’168 Whilst some of the early expressions of this new spirituality were grouped together under the term ‘New Age’, this initial movement has given way to a broader, more loosely defined ethos; shaping the attitudes of many people who would not consider themselves part of a ‘New Age Movement’169. Key elements of this shift include:
• Religious pluralism
167 ‘Le terme générique de « nébuleuse mystique-ésotérique » recouvre un ensemble hétérogène de groupes, ou plutôt de réseaux, souvent lâches, pouvant se rattacher plus ou moins explicitement a des traditions religieuses constituées – religions orientales (hindouisme, bouddhisme) ou plus « exotiques » (notamment au chamanisme) – et pouvant aussi réactiver diverse pratiques ésotériques, tout particulièrement le tarot et l’astrologie.’ Champion, Françoise and Cohen, Martine, Recompositions, décompositions : Le renouveau charismatique et la nébuleuse mystique-ésotérique depuis les années soixante-dix, in Le Débat, Paris : Gallimard, #75, May – August 1993, p82
168 ‘Renouveau charismatique et nébuleuse mystique–ésotérique, en présentant en commun un certain nombre de charactéristiques, dessinaient de fait une figure religieuse nouvelle en rupture avec la figure précédemment prévalent.’ Champion and Cohen, 1993, p83
169 ‘Un second New Age s’est installé, plus discret. Il concerne en France quelque dizaines de milliers de personnes, tout en ne disant pas son nom (on l’appelle aussi ‘nouvelle culture’ ou ‘nouvelles spiritualités). Sans chef, ni organisation, le New Age est un sort de réseau de réseaux…’ [ A second New Age has established itself more discreetly. It concerns in France some tens of thousands of people without ever giving itself a name (it is also called the ‘new culture’ and ‘new spiritualities’. Without leader or organisation, this New Age is a kind of network of networks…’ Porquet, Jean-Luc Le New Age: Religion ‘Fast Food’ in Phosphore Magazine Paris: Bayard Jeune, #166, December 1994, p44 Just 16% of French adults identified, in 1994, with the view ‘that there is
only one true religion’.170
• Eastern influences
Buddhism has a particularly strong influence in France, with 600 000 to 800
000 followers and an estimated two million ‘interested’171, but it is also more
widely true that the religions of the East are in the ascendant. For many,
these are the only viable alternative to the Western faiths [especially
Catholicism] with which they have become so bitterly disillusioned.
• Eclecticism
French cuisine has provided the metaphor ‘A la carte’ – equivalent to the
English term pick and mix – to describe the eclectic, self-selecting nature of
the emerging spiritualities172 . Many combine elements of Christianity with
other faiths, and pursuits long established in the West – such as astrology –
with ancient Eastern beliefs – such as that in re-incarnation173.
• Spiritual search
At the heart of the new spirituality is the notion of personal spiritual search:
in which the emphasis is more on the journey than on the arrival, and in
170 ‘La situation pluraliste et le relativisme – seulement 16% des Français de 18 ans et plus estimaient, en 1994, qu’«il n’y a qu’une seule religion qui soit vrai’. Williame, 1995 and 1998, p77
171 ‘Pour sa part, le Bouddhisme tibétain intéresse aujourd’hui plus de deux millions de Français et 6 a 800 000 (dont les immigres tibétains) en suivent avec ferveur les enseignements.’ Garibal, 1998, p334
172 ‘On assiste au développement d’une « religion à la Carte ” où la cohérence est plus le fait du consommateur que du producteur et ou la supermarché religieux devient l’institution centrale de la régulation du croire.’ [We are seeing the development of an ‘a la carte’ religion, in which coherence is arrived at by the consumer rather than the producer, and in which the religious supermarket has become the central institution in the development of belief.]’ Williame, 1995 and 1998, p83
173 ‘Néanmoins, la combinaison d’astrologie, de la réincarnation et de la télépathie crée une configuration spécifique, plutôt alternative au christianisme… [Nevertheless, the combination of astrology, reincarnation and telepathy forms a specific religious configuration as an alternative to Christianity…]’ Lambert, 1993, p69 which each individual engages in a perpetual quest for authentic
experience. Gilbert Garibal notes, among the factors affecting the growth
of volunteer movements in France:
‘The drawing-in of the individual to a mode of spiritual search, not to be
confused with a formal religious process. This questing causes any number
of searchers to knock at the door of the various philosophically based
societies, and to explore the major Eastern belief systems. Once on the
move, they are drawn to explore ‘the inner man’ and to reach out to
others.’ 174
Research in Anglo-Saxon contexts confirms this shift as present across
Western culture, and suggests that it will demand changes to the way
mission – and particular conversion – is understood. John Finney’s
extensive study, across several UK denominations, of adults making an
‘declaration of faith’, concludes that:
“The gradual process is the way in which the majority of people discover
God and the average time taken is about four years: models of evangelism
which can help people along the pathway are needed.”175
This view is strongly supported by those working amongst young adults in
the USA176 and in Australia and New Zealand177.
174 ‘L’auto intégration de l’individu dans le sens d’une recherche spirituelle, qu’il ne faut pas forcément confondre avec une démarche d’ordre religieux. Ce questionnement incite nombre de postulants à frapper à la porte des diverses sociétés de pensées et à s’intéresser, entre autre, aux grandes philosophies orientales. Partant, il les conduit à la fois vers leur « homme intérieur » et sur le chemin de l’autre.’ Garibal, 1998, p12
175 Finney, John, Finding Faith Today: How Does it Happen? Swindon: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1992, p25
176 ‘This is the Biblical model for evangelising in a postmodern, Baby-buster world. … Trust must be earned over a period of time through an investment of involvement and relationship.’ Richard Peace quoted in Ford, 1996, pp 196-7
177 ‘We talk much more about ‘journey’ than ‘conversion’.’ Riddell, Kirkpatrick, Pierson, 2000, p123 • Faith-science dialogue
Where the modern era saw something of a chasm between science and
faith, the new spirituality brings the two together, with ‘as many religious re-
interpretations of scientific discoveries as scientific re-interpretations of
religious concepts.’178 The ‘nébuleuse mystique-ésotérique’ has
established itself at the border between science and faith, drawing-out and
exploring the deep sense of mystery in both.
These five factors combine to create a spiritual ethos that has an influence far wider than its core adherents, bringing a generic sense of mystery and search to wide sections of the population. The young, in particular, are deeply influenced by such thinking; even where they would not use the specific language alluded to above.
Globalisation has brought the faiths of the world into the lives of a post-modern,
Western generation, and has inspired them to look beyond their local faith tradition in their quest for personal authenticity. A major survey of 16 to 20 year olds commissioned by Phosphore Magazine and published in December 1994 179 confirmed that there are strong links between this general mood-shift in French culture and the specific beliefs of young people, both within and outside the church.
Beliefs about the creation of the world, life after death, the existence of God and the power of the supernatural were all found to be showing signs of change. Traditional
Christian beliefs surfacing in anything from 9% to 17% of responses, while more nebulous ideas about God as a ‘higher power within each one of us’ attracted
178 ‘on y observe tant de réinterprétations religieuses de découvertes scientifiques que de réinterprétations scientifiques de conceptions religieuses.’ Williame, 1995 and 1998, p62
179 Phosphore Magazine Paris : Bayard Jeune, #166, December 1994, p27-44 majority scores180 . The magazines editorial summarised the results as “It is quite possible that God exists – but please don’t ask us to be definite.”181
6.5 Changing styles of communication
Wider social research indicates that these changes in spiritual ethos are supported by wholesale changes in ways of thinking and communicating. The very realm of truth itself has changed, so that it is no longer possible to say ‘here is the truth’. The realm of truth ‘is no longer a realm of objective truth, passed down from on high, by whatever machinery or system. From now on, the individual is central, producing his or her own system of belief, conducting his or her own experiments and expressing his or her own aspirations.’182 There is a rejection of traditional forms of authority183 and of ‘ex-cathedra’ teaching 184, in favour of interaction and dialogue. David Brown quotes Anne-Marie, a worker with Agape / Campus Crusade in France:
‘We have noticed a strong rejection among students of all that is institutional. In
other words: Church - NO, Institution - NO; God – YES.’185
Brown gets close to capturing this change in just a few words when he suggests that the ethos of the pre-baby boom generation is ‘Duty’, that of the baby-boom
180 See Dieu, pourquoi pas? In Phosphore, 1994, pp30-31
181 ‘Il est bien possible que Dieu existe, mais ne nous demandez pas d’être catégorique.’ Phosphore, 1994, p31
182 ‘Plus personne ne peut dire : voici la Vérité. Parce que le régime do la Vérité a change. Ce n’est plus un régime de vérité objective, fournie d’en haut, par quelque appareil que ce soit. Désormais, c’est l’individu qui est au centre, qui produit lui-même son propre système de significations, conduit ses expériences, exprime ses aspirations’. Danièle Hervieu –Léger, de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, cited in Brown, 2001, p20
183 ‘Il y a un rejet de tout ce qui est hiérarchique, structurel et bureaucratique en faveur de réseaux et d’activités au niveau local. [There is a rejection of all that is hierarchical, structural and bureaucratic in favour of networks and of activities at the local level.]’ Brown, 2001 p21
184 ‘Le cadre d’enseignement a aussi change: ils refusent l’enseignement ex cathedra au profit d’un enseignement interactif. [The realm of teaching has also changed : people reject teaching ‘ex cathedra’ in favour of interactive education.]’ Anne-Marie, Agape / Campus Crusade, cited in Brown, 2001. p68
185 ‘Nous avons constaté un fort rejet parmi les étudiants de tout ce qui est institutionnel. En d’autres termes : l’église – NON ; l’institution – NON ; Dieu – OUI’ cited in Brown, 2001, p68 ‘Action’ and that of the new generation ‘Being’.186 These findings resonate with wider research across Western culture. David Bosch, for example, concludes that:
"Metaphor, symbol, ritual, sign and myth, long maligned by those interested only
in 'exact' expressions of rationality, are today being rehabilitated; they not only
touch the mind and its conceptions, and evoke action with a purpose, but
compel the heart."187
Changes in the preferred communication styles of a generation across Western culture will have a strong impact on the success, or otherwise, of Christian mission: and those working amongst young adults in France are finding this to be the case already.
If these conditions do represent, as so many commentators claim, a ‘mutation’188 of religious beliefs in a new and novel cultural ethos, then the task of more fully understanding them is urgent. The very future of the Christian church in France depends to a large extent on its capacity to enter into dialogue with young people shaped by this thinking. A re-iteration of the long-held traditional beliefs they are already in great number rejecting is unlikely to win their hearts: the Christianity that will do so will be a Christianity that has heard their questions, has appreciated their spiritual quest and cultural aspirations, and is prepared to negotiate commitment with them. The need is urgent to develop new expressions of faith that remain true to the roots of Christianity – and indeed to France’s long relationship with that faith – but at
186 S’il fallait trouver un mot pour résumer la caractéristique principale de ces trois générations, voici ce que je proposerais : 1.L’avant baby-boom : le devoir, 2.Le baby-boom : l’action, 3.La génération X : l’être Brown, 2001, p34
187 Bosch, 1991, p353
188 ‘Par-delà leur diversité, ces croyances « parallèles » présentent plusieurs traits communs tout a fait significatifs de la mutation de la mentalité religieuse. [Beyond their diversity, these ‘parallel’ beliefs have enough characteristics in common to be indicative of a mutation of religious mentality.’ Lambert, 1993, p69 the same time are accessible to a ‘Waiting-Room Generation’, whose circumstances and aspirations have changed. Two warnings from the Anglo-Saxon world are apposite to this changing context in France. Graham Cray, a renowned commentator on our post-modern context and now Anglican Bishop of Maidstone, suggests that:
"The central question to be faced is how should we respond to the emerging
culture in a way which is true to the gospel. ... It is through risk and experiment
together with the making of mistakes that the future shape of the Church in
mission will be established."189
And Wheaton scholar Robert Webber builds much the same case from a North-
American perspective:
“Our calling is not to reinvent the Christian faith but, in keeping with the past, to
carry forward what the church has affirmed from its beginning. We change,
therefore, as one of my friends says, “not to be different, but to remain the
same.”190
The sheer urgency of this challenge is such that it cries out to become a high priority for any missionary venturing into France. A key task to which UK missionaries could usefully devote time, energy, funding and attention is the task of helping the French church to meet this challenge – and to create models of Christian discipleship appropriate to the post-modern, 21st Century context.
Small Signs of Hope
One surprising factor of the emerging religious scene in France – which may well prove fruitful in the light of the changes outlined above – relates to the one area of
Catholicism that is bucking the trend of decline and in some measure thriving in the post-modern context. Surprising because it appertains to one of the most ancient
189 Cray, Graham, Ed., The Post Evangelical Debate, London: SPCK, 1997, p2
190 Webber, Robert E., Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999, p17 expressions of Christianity known in France - the Monasteries and the spirituality associated with them.
France was a major centre in the emergence of the monastic movement in the early centuries of Christendom, and monasticism has always featured in the nations spiritual history. Roger Greenacre notes that,
“To the mediaeval Church France made two major positive contributions. The
first was a dominant role in the development of monasticism, a history marked
by the reforms of St. Benedict of Aniane (d.821), the foundation of Cluny (909)
and nearly two centuries later that of the Cistercian order (1098), whose survival
and popularisation were assured by St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153).”191
Many of the key religious writers of France – whose works have been exported around the world and are newly popular today – write from this perspective. Two widely recognised examples are the 18th century spiritual director Jean-Pierre de
Caussade192 and the 19th century convert and monk Charles de Foucauld.193 A contemporary example would be Brother Roger of Taizé, whose 20th century re- creation of the monastic ideal in a small Burgundy village has deeply influenced hundreds of thousands of young people the world over. Journalist José Balado asks of Taizé,
Can you tell me of any other place in the world today that continually attracts so
many young adults, from so many different countries, with such a variety of
191 Greenacre, 1996 and 1998, p1
192 See De Caussade, Jean-Pierre, The Sacrament of the Present Moment: translated by Kitty Muggeridge from the original text of the treatise on Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence, London: Fount Paperbacks, 1981, and De Caussade, Jean-Pierre, Spiritual Letters of, translated by Kitty Muggeridge, London: Fount Paperbacks, 1986
193 See Bazin, René, Charles de Foucauld: Hermit and African Explorer, translated by Peter Keelan, London: Burns Oates and Washbourne, 1923 and 1931 and de Foucauld, Charles, Come Let Us Sing a Song Unknown: Prayers of Charles de Foucauld, Denville, New Jersey: Dimension Books, undated backgrounds and occupations, for such a serious purpose, offering such
rudimentary conditions?194
Equally significant is the fact that France’s surviving monasteries are finding a new lease of life as centres of spiritual retreat195: attracting practising and nominal
Catholics, but also those of other faiths or of no faith at all. “Cassocks, veils, silence and contemplation versus night clubs and sun-bathing”, proclaimed Quo magazine in
1997, “Monastic short-breaks are winning the day, and attracting an increasingly varied range of people.”196 Of the 300 or so monasteries in France that receive guests, the majority are full, with some turning enquiries away and others booked up months in advance 197. Little research has been done on the age-profile of those drawn to monastic retreat, but there is anecdotal evidence that many professional young adults are involved. Xavier De Montclos notes that:
‘The monasteries are once again playing the role that has been theirs in the
past every time the clergy and lay people have needed to get back to the
sources of the Christian life. … What they offer to their guests is not ammunition
for the fight against modernity but a discovery and deepening of the spiritual
194 Balado, J L G, The Story of Taizé, London: Mowbray, 1980, p123, see also Carey, George, Spiritual Journey: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Pilgrimage to Taizé with Young People, London: Mowbray, 1994
195 ‘Nous ne sommes pas au bout des paradoxes. Si l’institution ne fait plus recette, les monastères, quels qu’ils soient, se remplissent. [There are more paradoxes to come. Even if the institutions have lost their appeal, the Monasteries, such as they are, are filling up.]’ Brown, 2001, p22
196 ‘Soutanes, cornettes, silence et recueillement contre boite de nuit et bronzette. Les séjours en monastères ont la cote, et attirent des personnes aux profils de plus en plus variés.’ Bienvenue au cloître ! in Quo, Paris, June 1997, p32
197 ibid dimension of life and the example of a lifestyle simplified and rendered coherent
by Christian hope.’ 198
Much was made in the French press recently of the fact that the new Prioress of the
Mont St Michel, Sister Judith of the Fraternities of Jerusalem, is just 34 and was formerly a press attaché to a Paris fashion house199. It is quite possible that monastic
Christianity, and a spirituality of retreat and contemplation, is connecting with the emerging ‘mystical-esoteric’ worldview in ways that more corporate and congregational expressions of faith do not. Robert Webber suggests that
“Postmodern spirituality will be characterised by an affirmation of all the
spiritualities throughout history. Because of the shift toward subjectivity,
however, there will be increasing attention to the inner spiritual disciplines.”200
If this is the case, the French churches already have, in their own history and traditions, a significant answer to the spiritual searching of a post-Christian young people. If connections can be made between the ‘A la carte’ quest of the post- modern generation and the rich traditions of monasticism, one of France’s oldest
Christian traditions may yet prove to be a doorway into faith for some of France’s newest and youngest citizens.
198 ‘Les monastères jouent à nouveau le role qui fut le leur dans le passé chaque fois que les clercs et les laïcs éprouvèrent le besoin de retourner aux sources de la vie chrétienne… Ce qu’ils offrent à leurs hôtes, ce ne sont pas des armes pour le combat antimoderne mais une découverte ou un approfondissement de la dimension spirituelle de l’existence et l’exemple d’une vie simplifiée et unifiée par l’espérance chrétienne.’ De Montclos, 1997, pp 123, 124
199‘Catholique pratiquante, élève a l’Ecole du Louvre, puis attachée de presse dans une grande maison de prêt-à-porter, elle a découvert les Fraternités a l’église Saint Gervais, lieu de la première fondation de l’ordre, a Paris.’ L’étoile a conduit sœur Judith, in Pèlerin magazine, Paris : Bayard, #6193, 11 August 2001, pp10-12
200 Webber, Robert, Ancient-Future Faith: Re-thinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World, Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1999, p122 Part 3 – Conclusions
These three key themes, then – the status of missionaries as foreigners in the French context, the complexities of French denominational divides, and the emergence of a post-modern, post-Christian generation across France - represent three priority areas to which missionaries and potential missionaries to France should give close attention. A number of recommendations emerge from these areas, some for immediate practical action, others for further study and exploration. A number of such recommendations were made to CMS as a direct result of the Oast Houses consultation, as outlined in Appendix 2. But there is also a sense in which this research has highlighted broader issues, relating to our understanding and assumptions about the nature and purpose of Christian mission. It was always intended that our research in France would go beyond being a simple fact-finding excursion to a potential mission field, to become a case study in contemporary missiology. As such, three distinct strands have emerged from the research process.
Taken together, they form a recommended approach to mission that I believe:
• Is different from the approach being taken in a number of Anglo-Saxon
mission projects currently underway in France.
• Where adopted, could make a significant difference to the growth, success
and fruitfulness of future mission initiatives in France.
• Is applicable to a number of other countries and situations, particularly to the
post-Christendom lands of Western and Eastern Europe in which the
traditional churches remain in place, but are struggling to grow.
It is my hope that these three recommendations will provide stimulus, encouragement and challenge to any individual or agency considering a move to develop Christian mission in France in the coming years. This three-point approach is made up of:
• Mission as cultural engagement – learning to listen, listening to learn
• Mission as cultural servanthood – going empty-handed • Mission as cultural innovation – walking unfamiliar paths Chapter Seven: Learn to listen – Listen to Learn
The first response to the questions raised in Chapter Four: ‘Strangers in a Strange
Land’ must be the recognition that for mission efforts generated from the UK, France represents a genuine cross-cultural challenge. For all the apparent similarities between the French and the British context, this is a foreign field; shaped by history, circumstances and cultural assumptions that those who have not been educated in
France are unlikely to immediately grasp.
All the lessons learned in the contextualisation of the Christian Gospel amongst
‘unreached people’ the world over must equally be applied to our nearest neighbour, no matter how ‘like us’ French people seem to be. David Brown makes this same plea in explaining the purpose behind his book Une Eglise Pour Aujourd’hui:
‘The question posed by this book can be expressed in these terms: do we know
how to apply the principles of contextualisation to the France of today, shaped
by postmodernity? Have we made the same efforts to contextualise the Gospel
in France as missionaries have made for Africa or India or Papua New Guinea?
201
Without a genuine cultural engagement, in which we listen to those with whom we hope to share some sense of the truth and life of God and in which listening precedes and outweighs speaking, and learning comes before teaching: it is unlikely that our mission will be in any meaningful sense received. The account given in Acts 17 of the apostle Paul speaking on Mars Hill in Athens202 offers a brief biblical insight into ‘mission as cultural engagement’. Paul’s first course of action, in
201 ‘La question qui est posée par ce livre peut être exprimée ainsi : savons-nous appliquer les principes de la contextualisation à la France d’aujourd’hui, marquée par la postmodernité ? Avons-nous fait autant d’efforts pour contextualiser l’évangile en France que les missionnaires l’ont fait pour l’Afrique ou l’Inde ou la Papouasie-nouvelle-guinée ?’ Brown, 2001, p48
202 Acts 17:16-34 this context, is to explore the city: looking, learning and listening203 so as to better understand a people who are foreign to him. As a result, when he does come to speak204, he does so out of knowledge of their context, and with a deep understanding of their lives and aspirations. This is just one incident, briefly described, but it establishes the principle that ‘mission as listening’ precedes
‘mission as speaking’, and that cultural engagement is the heart of cross-cultural missionary endeavour. We need to ask of those considering mission in France:
• How many are prepared to devote significant time to the study of French
history and culture: not in the superficial sense of learning dates and
names, but in the deeper sense of ‘hearing’ the underlying aspirations and
motivations?
• How many are prepared to add to their fields of study the discipline of
‘listening’ to contemporary cultural expressions; the films, books,
magazines, songs and TV shows through which the population of today’s
France both project and reflect their values?
• How prepared are we to hold back on the implementation of activities,
structures and solutions until we have come to a deeper and more genuine
appreciation of the heart of the culture?
Based on the research carried out for this report, my suggestion is that ‘French
Cultural Studies’ is an essential and non-negotiable element in any incoming missionary effort. Language is a very important part of this, but language alone is not enough. French culture is both multifaceted and sophisticated, and carries elements that do not exist in any other culture: it demands deep and disciplined study.
My own reflections on my journey through this research process are apposite here. I
203 Acts 17:16-18
204 Acts 17:22-31 am part French and effectively bilingual; I have lived in France at various stages of my life, and received part of my education in French schools; I travel regularly in
France and have worked directly with F