Review of Protestant Churches and the Formation of Political Consciousness in Southern Mozambique (1930–1974).

Book review of Protestant Churches and the Formation of Political Consciousness in Southern Mozambique (1930–1974). By TERESA CRUZ E SILVA. Introduction by DAVID HEDGES. Basel: P. Schlettwein Publishing, 2001. Pp. xvii+210. CHF 48; €32 (ISBN 3-908193-09-5).

Labour and the free churches 1918-1939: radicalism, righteousness and religion

It is a commonplace that the labour movement was somehow nurtured within the witness for liberty of the Free Churches. Exploring this at a range of levels - including organisation, rhetoric, policies, electoral politics and people - this book demonstrates the extent to which this remained a reality into the inter-war years. The distinctive religious setting in which it emerged indeed helps to explain the differences between Labour and more Marxist counterparts on the Continent. It is shown here that this setting continued to influence Labour approaches towards welfare, nationalisation and industrial relations between the wars. In the process Labour also adopted some of the righteousness of tone of the Free Churches. This setting was, however, changing. Dropping their traditional suspicion of the State, Nonconformists instead increasingly invested it with religious values, turning it through its growing welfare functions into the provider of practical Christianity. This nationalisation of religion continues to shape British attitudes to the welfare state as well as imposing narrowly utilitarian and material tests of relevance upon the churches and other social institutions. The elevation of the State was not, however, intended as an end in itself. What mattered were the social and individual outcomes. Socialism, for those Free Churchmen and women who helped to shape Labour in the early twentieth century, was about improving society as much as systems.

Morality and politics: the free churches and the Labour Party between the wars

The inter-war period saw the decline of the Liberal party, the traditional political ally of the free churches, and the rise of the Labour party. This article traces the responses of the free churches to these developments. The relationship of the free churches with the Labour party in this period is examined at three different levels; that of the free church leadership, that of the chapels and the ordinary people in the pews and that of the nonconformists who became active in the Labour party. Whilst attitudes towards the Labour party changed within free church institutions during the inter-war years they did not become important supporters of the party, or greatly influence it. The number and proportion of individual nonconformists who were active and influential in the party in this period was however considerable. In the process not only did Labour M.P.s become the main carriers of the nonconformist conscience on issues such as drink and gambling. They also made a distinctive and important contribution to the development and ideals of the Labour party.

Niagara churches collection, 1937, 1968-1994

This collection contains 7 church programs and brochures, ranging in date from 1937 to 1994. There are programs for church services at Knox Presbyterian Church, St. Catharines (May 9, 1937); St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral, St. Catharines (July 28, 1968) ; Memorial United Church, Ridgeway (October 15, 1972); Salem Chapel, British Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Catharines (November 30, 1986); and Ridley College Memorial Chapel, St. Catharines (December 3 & 4, 1994). There is also a brochure of activities offered at St. Paul Street United Church, St. Catharines (1986), and a development fund appeal brochure for the Cathedral of St. Catherine, St. Catharines (1985).

« Et ils prophétiseront » : la prophétie de Jl 3,1-5 reprise en Ac 2, 17-21 : clé d'interprétation du phénomène pentecostal

Cette présente recherche vise à défendre le point de vue selon lequel le don de l’Esprit dans le récit de la Pentecôte (Ac 2, 1-13) s’interprète principalement comme l’investissement d’une puissance habilitant au témoignage. À cette fin, nous posons l’hypothèse que le contenu d’Ac 2, 17-21 est un axe fondamental de la théologie pneumatique de l’œuvre lucanienne, lequel interprète la manifestation pentecostale dans une perspective prophétique. La démonstration se fait par le biais d’une analyse rédactionnelle d’Ac 2, 17-21, une citation de Jl 3,1-5 insérée dans un discours explicatif de Pierre du phénomène pentecostal. Nous examinons d’abord le lieu d’inscription de ce passage dans l’œuvre lucanienne afin d’évaluer la valeur stratégique de son emplacement (chapitre 1). Nous étudions ensuite l’interprétation que fait Luc de cette prophétie pour en venir à la conclusion qu’il envisage l’intervention de l’Esprit essentiellement dans une perspective d’habilitation à la prophétie (chapitre 2). Nous vérifions cette première conclusion dans l’Évangile de Luc (chapitre 3); puis ensuite dans les Actes des Apôtres (chapitre 4). Nous en arrivons ainsi à établir un parallélisme entre les étapes initiatiques du ministère de Jésus dans le troisième évangile et celui des disciples dans les Actes, pour y découvrir que, dans les deux cas, l’effusion de l’Esprit habilite à l’activité prophétique. Le ministère des disciples s’inscrit de la sorte dans le prolongement de celui du Maître. Nous soutenons, en fait, que tout le discours pneumatique de l’Évangile de Luc converge vers l’effusion initiale de l’Esprit sur les disciples dans le récit pentecostal, d’une part, et que cette effusion jette un éclairage sur l’ensemble de l’œuvre missionnaire des Actes, d’autre part. Bref, le passage explicatif du phénomène pentecostal, en l’occurrence Ac 2, 17-21, met en lumière un axe central des perspectives de Luc sur l’Esprit : Il s’agit de l’Esprit de prophétie. Dans cette optique, l’effusion de l’Esprit à la Pentecôte s’interpréterait essentiellement comme l’investissement du croyant d’une puissance en vue du témoignage.

Étude sur le châtiment corporel des enfants chez les protestants conservateurs francophones du Québec : conflit entre loi séculière et loi divine?

Résumé La recherche présentée ici porte sur la manière dont les protestants conservateurs francophones du Québec évaluent la compatibilité entre leurs croyances religieuses et les lois qui limitent le recours au châtiment corporel à l’égard des enfants. Plus précisément, elle s’intéresse à la façon dont ils résolvent les conflits éventuels entre leurs croyances puisées dans la Bible et ces lois. En ce sens, la Bible prescrit dans plusieurs de ses versets, notamment dans le proverbe 22 :15, d’utiliser le châtiment corporel comme moyen pour chasser une inclination au mal qui serait innée chez les enfants et d’effectuer ce châtiment à l’aide d’une verge. De ce fait, de nombreux protestants conservateurs emploient des objets (cuillers en bois, bâtons, baguettes) pour administrer ce châtiment à leurs enfants. Or, ces pratiques entrent en contradiction avec l’article 43 du Code criminel du Canada qui limite et encadre le recours au châtiment corporel et avec la Loi sur la protection de la jeunesse du Québec qui protège les enfants contre des traitements pouvant s’apparenter à de la maltraitance et qui risquent de compromettre leur développement. La méthodologie utilisée est une méthodologie qualitative mixte basée d’abord sur une série d’observations non participantes in situ à des services religieux et des ateliers d’enseignement doctrinal dans quatre congrégations protestantes conservatrices (deux Églises évangéliques, une Église pentecôtiste et une Église baptiste) suivie d’une série d’entretiens auprès de trente-neuf protestants conservateurs québécois francophones appartenant à ces congrégations. Ce matériel a été complété par une analyse documentaire des écrits produits par ces groupes et des écrits d’autres organisations conservatrices consultés par ces groupes. L’analyse des données a permis de dégager chez les protestants conservateurs à l’étude trois différentes attitudes face à l’incompatibilité entre leurs préceptes religieux et les lois séculières : une attitude de conciliation qui se traduit par un effort d’accommodement de ces préceptes à la loi ; une attitude d’omission face à la loi séculière où l’individu opte pour une désobéissance passive de la loi ; et une attitude contestataire face aux autorités où la désobéissance aux lois est envisagée comme une forme de militance. Nous examinons les éléments qui influencent ces différents positionnements face aux lois. En plus de répondre aux objectifs visés, la présente recherche constitue une étude approfondie du discours des protestants conservateurs québécois francophones sur le châtiment corporel des enfants et de leurs pratiques.

Las limitantes de construcción de ciudadanía integral en miembros de iglesias evangélicas con antecedentes de participación política en Colombia. Caso de estudio: La iglesia Misión Carismática Internacional

La monografía explora las limitantes de construcción de ciudadanía integral en miembros de iglesias evangélicas con antecedentes de participación política en Colombia, a partir de un caso de estudio, con el fin de aportar a la comprensión del fenómeno político generado por estas comunidades.

Field meeting: Romney Marsh - its churches and geology, 22 May 2004

The building fabrics of seven churches situated either on Romney Marsh or the marshland fringe were examined briefly. These revealed important differences in the relative abundance of the two principal building stones. Ragstones from the Hythe Formation occurred more frequently in the northeast, while sandstones from the Ashdown 'Beds' were more common in the west. In the Romney Marsh area, both stones were quarried mainly from their adjoining coastlines, with, up to the thirteenth century, opportunist collection of beach boulders generally preceding the exploitation or hewn stone. Other building stones, possible distribution routes and impacts of the quarrying upon coastline development were also discussed.

GÊNERO E RELAÇÕES DE PODER NO PENTECOSTALISMO: ESTUDO COMPARATIVO ENTRE A IGREJA DE CRISTO NO BRASIL E A COMUNIDADE EVANGÉLICA SARA NOSSA TERRA

Based on the empirical comparative study between two churches from Pentecostal guidance - both located in Parnamirim/RN - and supported on a dialogic interaction between my interlocutors and theoretical references, I proposed me to reflect about how this protestant segment represents and articulates questions such as gender and power relationships, and the daily impact of that in their followers life. In other words, this dissertation aims to understand the reason of the asymmetry attributed to male and female, especially in what concerns the distribution of ecclesiastic works and the authority given to male, as well as the implication of this reality in the reconfiguration of morality and religious praxis in daily life of individuals and involved groups. From this perspective, this work was divided in three chapters, in which I investigate the tension/relationship between faith and secularism, for from this question on concessions and/or prohibitions related to the limits and involvement of the followers with the world and with the very Pentecostal ethos arise. I also analyze here aspects concerning to both ecclesiastic hierarchy and power, with the objective of elucidating how it occurs, what kind of criteria and implications they consider as well as about the nature of the religious labor division between men and women and, finally, I try to understand how the conversion/adhesion of members is reflected in the redefinitions of gender and its relationship between the ecclesiastical and domestic spaces. The diligence and energy spent in this work is in the hope that its fruits can corroborate in the expansion of anthropological knowledge which, in this particular case, involves the Brazilian Pentecostal phenomenon

Religião e mulher: liderança feminina no pentecostalismo evangélico.

The study aims to discuss women in the priesthood pentecostalism evangelical. The role of women as agents of leadership in the religious sphere allows the discussion about the possibility of the universe as a religious area of significant changes with regard to a reduction in gender differences in the present. The participation of women as agents of leadership of churches Pentecostals is interpreted as a new option for women beyond the domestic space, however, want to clarify the existence and occurrence of on-imposed limitations and inserted in the hierarchy of female power of religious denominations, noting are fruits of a structure hierarquizante not thought of women, but from the male universe.

A dinâmica territorial da Assembléia de Deus do seridó do Rio Grande do Norte

In the norte-rio-grandense backwoods is possible to join to the power forms both political and economical ones, religious groups keeping under your control areas, people and flow of them, as well as settling new places of acts. That control refers to a field of power delimited by space, in other words, it refers to a territory marked and planned to reproductive intentions on the space. In relation to the religious pluralism, the Assembly of God church, in your territorial dynamics, has been standing out by the strategies of delimitation and space increase which by a constant territorial division process (1943-2010) managed to widen material and symbolic scale of its power for all cities of the Rio Grande do Norte backwoods. The Assembly of God church as the greatest Pentecostal denomination of Brazil was formed in the Rio Grande do Norte Seridó, following a ecclesiastical and governmental model divided into three ecclesiastical fields hosted in those following cities: Caicó, Currais Novos and Parelhas. Those headquarters interlink a limited number of churches through normative codes, which they express a functional dimension (bureaucratic) and in another symbolic one (charismatic) in an only field of territorial control. In this manner, the maintenance of the territorial power in the Assembly of God church is done by a charismatic-bureaucratic administration, expressed in the interdependent of material and abstract mechanisms. The believers permanent contact toward those mechanisms of institutional control revealed territorial identities which causes a feeling of property of the believer as much to the Pentecostal belief system as to community of the Assembly of God church. Considering new possibilities of articulation of the Rio Grande do Norte backwoods towards others territories more multiple, culturally, noticed cultural adjustments and revaluation at themselves. In relation to the territory of the Assembly of God church this one has exposed itself defensive faced with that cultural hybridization tendency, resisting a closer dialogue to new symbolic elements, mainly those came from the multifaceted neo-pentecostal movement. Unlike more open and flexible churches towards others significant systems, The Assembly of God church tries to reinforce the boundaries of its territory considering by the orthodoxy of its routine and customs

Pedagogia pentecostal: quando a igreja age em espaços que o poder público ignora

Pós-graduação em Educação - FCT