Catholic Loyalism, Service and Careerism: Lewes Lewkenor's Quest for Favour

This article discusses one of Lewkenor's more obscure works, The Resolved Gentleman (1594 - STC 15139), in the context of Elizabethan court politics in the 1590s, with a particular emphasis on the author's own experience of dissent, exile to Catholic Spain in the 1580s and return to England in the early 1590s. A translation of Hernando de Acuña's El Caballero Determinado, itself a reworking of Olivier de la Marche's Chevalier Délibéré (1483), the Resolved Gentleman bends the conventions of medieval chivalric allegory to articulate Lewkenor's own experience of alienation and dissent in the specific context of the factionalism of the 1590s. Beneath Lewkenor's seemingly self-effacing, 'humanist' translation it is in fact possible to discern a complex set of criticisms of Elizabeth's court. The knight's 'wandering' and 'errance' thus becomes a complex, multivalent figure that reverberates with a number of autobiographical meanings: the knight's exile becomes in Lewkenor's hands a figure of his own forced exile to Catholic Spain, and the account of the knight's quest functions as an oblique allusion to his own efforts to make his way back to Elizabeth's court. More importantly, however, these 'personal' meanings acquire a wider, political valence in the context of the allegory, and the narrative as a whole thus becomes a subtle, perceptive but scathing criticism of the Elizabethan court in the 1590's and the 'contraction' of royal favour that resulted in particular in the exclusion of capable, experienced but Catholic counsellors like Lewkenor himself. Articulating the frustration of this younger generation of alienated but fundamentally loyalist Catholics, Lewkenor paints a picture of a failed quest for favour, where the questing knight is finally forced to retire from the active life and withdraw to a rustic hermitage that is not only incompatible with his own ideal of the vita activa, but also dangerously smacks of unregenerate, and potentially seditious Catholicism.

Sacred Music, Sacred Journeys : What Makes an Event Postcolonial?

Fanon, Senghor, and Ela took a radical stance in criticising the structures and mechanisms of power in hegemonic situations and relations between colonial subjects and colonial masters. They aimed to liberate African societies by decolonising the mind, culture and religion of colonial subjects. In this respect, we are concerned with the continuities and ruptures of the colonial encounter and its unequal relationships. Switzerland does not have an official colonial history and yet, Swiss companies and migrants were and are part of the world's colonies. In our contribution, we question what makes an event postcolonial : in other words, how are postcolonial relations negotiated in Switzerland? We discuss this question by analysing two annual sacred journeys in Switzerland that have been invented for and by African Christians (clerics and laity) together with the leaders of the Swiss Catholic church : one to the relics of African saints in St. Maurice, canton Valais and the other to the Black Madonna, the Virgin Mary of Einsiedeln, in the canton Schwyz. These events are empowered by the performance of African choirs - their music, dance, and costumes - but to which end and in which way?

Le théologien, 'intellectuel organique' et chercheur indépendant : quelle loyauté, quelles tensions, quelle liberté ?

L'auteur s'interroge sur la catégorie d'intellectuel organique, que le philosophe marxiste Antonio Gramsci avait appliquée à l'Église catholique. Une relecture de ce concept conduit à développer un portrait critique du théologien comme penseur ecclésial, universitaire et public (à la suite de David Tracy). Cette triple appartenance du théologien, bien comprise, n'est pas contraire à sa liberté de parole et d'action, liberté qui découle de l'Évangile et qui peut s'affirmer dans le contexte d'une modernité revisitée. La tradition protestante offre une vision dynamique et réaliste de cette liberté du théologien, comprise comme loyauté critique, sans rien nier des tensions et des contraintes qui sont les siennes. The author examines the category of organic intellectual, applied by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci to the Catholic Church. A new interpretation of this category allows to develop a critical portrait of the theologian as ecclesial, academic and public thinker (following David Tracy). The well-interpreted dependence of the theologian towards church, university and society is not contradictory to his freedom of speech and action. This freedom is a consequence of the Gospel and has a good impact in the context of a revisited modernity. The protestant tradition offers a dynamic and realistic vision of such a freedom of the theologian, understood as critical loyalty, without denying the tensions and the constraints inherent to his or her situation.

Appartenances en fête: entre l'ordinaire et le spectaculaire

Résumé Alors que les pratiques religieuses régulières diminuent et que les groupes religieux majoritaires perdent des membres formellement enregistrés, une évènementisation de l'appartenance religieuse peut être observée depuis environ deux décennies. Dans un premier exemple, l'auteure montre que le réseau transnational de la confrérie soufie des Mourides resserre les liens entre adeptes dans un contexte migratoire qui tend à fragiliser les relations sociales. La confrérie y fait face à travers une spectacularisation de la pratique religieuse, occupant l'espace public à Harlem ou, dans une moindre mesure, à Paris. Le second exemple traite du pèlerinage aux Saintes et Saints d'Afrique dans la ville valaisanne de Saint Maurice. Ce dernier fut inventé par l'Église catholique suisse afin d'attirer des migrants africains, mais aussi afin de redynamiser une pratique religieuse ordinaire en perte de vitesse. L'évènement a lieu en même temps que le pèlerinage de Namugongo en Ouganda, réunissant plus d'un demi-million de personnes. Les communautés évènementielles ainsi créées sont-elles durables ou plutôt liquides ? Abstract While regular religious practice is decreasing and the major religious groups are losing formally registered members, a 'spectacularization' of religious belonging can be observed over the last two decades. The author presents two examples to support this argument. In the first, the transnational network of the Murids, a Sufi brotherhood, has tried to reinforce the relations between its members, which become fragile during migration. The brotherhood occupies a public space in Harlem, and, to a lesser extent, in Paris, in a spectacularization of religious belonging, in order to remain attractive to migrants. The second example deals with the pilgrimage dedicated to African Saints in the Swiss town of Saint Maurice. This event was invented by the missionary service of the Swiss Catholic Church in order to attract African migrants, but also in order to make ordinary religious practice more appealing. The event takes place at the same time as the Ugandan pilgrimage of Namugongo, which assembles more than half a million people. However, are these 'event communities' sustainable or ephemeral?

Croire ensemble. Analyse institutionnelle du paysage religieux en Suisse

L'étude présentée dans cet ouvrage offre pour la première fois en Suisse une perspective sociologique empirique et générale sur les organisations religieuses locales. Vu sous cet angle, le fait religieux se manifeste d'abord, comme le précisaient déjà Weber ou Durkheim, par l'existence de communautés de tailles et de profils divers, tant dans l'espace rural qu'urbain. En Suisse, 5'734 paroisses et groupes religieux ont pu être dénombrés en 2008. Ce recensement permet de souligner la prégnance institutionnelle des Eglises historiques, mais également l'émergence d'une plus forte pluralité religieuse, particulièrement en milieu urbain. La sociologie des organisations que propose cette étude permet de jeter un éclairage nouveau sur les effets de la sécularisation (baisse des membres et de la pratique) et de la pluralisation (diversification des confessions et traditions religieuses). L'analyse des différences et des similitudes organisationnelles selon les traditions religieuses fait apparaître un positionnement social des groupes en fonction de statuts acquis au cours de l'histoire. Les théories classiques - par exemple à pro- pos des relations entre statuts sociaux des membres et groupes d'appartenance, des types d'autorités religieuses ou encore des différences entre Eglise et Secte - sont revisitées, précisées ou reformulées grâce à des données quantitatives originales et représentatives du champ religieux suisse. -- The study presented in this book for the first time in Switzerland offers a broad empirical and sociological perspective on local religious organizations. From this perspective, religion appears first, as already observed by Weber and Durkheim, through communities regardless of their various profiles. In Switzerland, 5,734 parishes and religious groups have been identified by a national census in 2008. The book underlines the institutional salience of historical churches (Reformed and Roman Catholic) but also the emerging religious plurality, particularly in urban areas. This study sheds a new light upon the effects of secularization (lower limbs and practice) and pluralisation (diversification of religious denominations and traditions) in the organizational field. The analysis of differences and similarities between religious traditions shows a social positioning of the local groups according to the statutes acquired in history. The classical theories − e.g. about the relationship between social status of members and membership groups, types of religious authorities or differences between Church and Sect − are revisited, clarified or reformulated based on an original and representative quantitative data of the Swiss religious field.