Thesis advisor: Stephen Pfohl / This thesis further explores the relationship between capitalism and Christianity by examining current changes to the style in which Evangelical Protestantism is practiced within the context of America's transition to consumer society. Using a theoretical framework of the marketplace theory of religious change and critical cultural studies, I argue that by displacing religion as the dominant mediator of ultimate meaning, the pressure consumer society places on religious content and practices to adapt may be part of a process of colonization through which the alignment between capitalism and Christianity is continued and its potential to be a critical cultural resource is reduced. To this end, I employ a mixed methodology of participant observation, unstructured interviews and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the cultural content of Lakewood Church in Houston, TX, America's largest Protestant church. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

The present dissertation argues that more fully than any other fictional work in the latter third of the nineteenth century, Harold Frederic's _The Damnation of Theron Ware_ illuminates the cultural controversies within fin de siecle America. Given the inconsistent nature of its subsequent critical examination, Theron Ware lends itself to a type of new as well as traditional forms of historicist inquiry. While recent efforts by Lisa MacFarlane and Donna Campbell have broadened earlier perspectives to include the gender and theological controversies of the post bellum era, Theron Ware remains unexplored by still another vehicle that Frederic provides (127-143; 80-81). Within a complex and repeated series of episodes, Frederic uses standards of personal etiquette enunciated through a century-long series of published manuals to ponder both the inevitability and the likely consequences that will result from these "compendium of intellectual currents" (Campbell 80).

People of Color (POC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer (LGBTQ) people have experienced disembodiment due to the Christian dualism in the white Evangelical Protestant (WEP) church and its liturgies. The project first analyzes how this Christian dualism interacts with white supremacy and homophobia within the Sunday liturgy. Then, the project describes how disembodied liturgies significantly harm POC and LGBTQ people. As a response, a theology of embodiment can bring healing to POC and LGBTQ people by implementing embodied liturgies at Table San Diego, a multiracial, LGBTQ-affirming congregation attempting to integrate the Christian faith with the physical body, the lived experience, and social contexts. Addressing the racial, gendered, sexual, and classed experiences of the congregation across various social, political, economic, and religious climates requires a reimagination of the Sunday liturgy as an embodied experience. Liturgical research is drawn from the Black Spirituals, the Gay Liberation Movement, and Asian-American liturgies.

La conférence de Berlin de 1884 a posé les jalons des relations religions-États en Afrique centrale en instituant la « mission civilisatrice ». Dans cette région, les relations religions-États ont toujours été ambigües. Suivant les périodes, il y a eu collaboration, soutien mutuel, coexistence, ignorance réciproque, oppositions et même persécutions. Les relations entre les missions religieuses et l’administration coloniale, puis entre l’Église catholique et les jeunes États indépendants, furent une parfaite illustration.La « vague » de démocratisation de la décennie 1990 a permis l’adoption de nouvelles lois fondamentales calquées toutes sur le texte constitutionnel français de 1958 que les constituants d’Afrique centrale ont pris pour modèle. Les nouvelles constitutions ont ainsi introduit un nouveau principe, celui de la laïcité de l’État, dans le même esprit du constituant français de 1946 et 1958. Le processus démocratique a également permis un pluralisme aussi bien politique que religieux. Sur le plan religieux, la consécration de la liberté religieuse a favorisé l’implantation des églises évangéliques qui connaissent, depuis, une diffusion rapide.La question des relations entre les Églises évangéliques et les États dans cette région d’Afrique prend aujourd’hui une importance croissante, du fait du succès grandissant de ce nouveau mouvement religieux et de sa proximité avec les pouvoirs politiques. Il y a là une situation nouvelle, récente, en mutation rapide et qui remet en question bien des situations politiques, institutionnelles, juridiques et sociales. Sur le plan juridique, l’échec du modèle de laïcité-séparation confronté à la forte religiosité qui caractérise les sociétés africaines, appelle à une nécessité de faire une large part à la coutume africaine dans la conception des textes juridiques, ce qui permettrait la construction d’une nouvelle laïcité « africaine ». / The Berlin Conference of 1884 laid the foundations for relationship between religions and states in Central Africa by instituting the "civilizing mission". In this region, those relationships have always been ambiguous. According to the periods, there was collaboration, mutual support, coexistence, mutual ignorance, oppositions and even persecutions. The relationship between religious missions and the colonial administration and between the Catholic Church and the young independent nations, were a perfect illustration. The “wave” of democratization of the 90’s allowed the adoption of new fundamentals laws similar with the French constitution of 1958 took as a model. The new central African constitutions introduced a new principle, the secularism of state, in the same spirit of the French constitutions of 1946 and 1958. The democratic process also allowed pluralism both political and religious. About religious field, the consecration of religious freedom has promoted the implantation of evangelical movement which has then, knew a rapid growth. The issue of relationships between Evangelical Churches and States in this region of Africa is becoming increasingly important, because of the growing success of this new religious movement and its proximity with political powers. This is a new, recent, rapidly changing situation that challenges many political, institutional, legal and social situations. At the legal level, the failure of the secular model adopted call for a need to make a large part of African custom in the conception of legal texts, which would then allow the construction of a new "African" secularism.

Over the past 20 years, Western societies have undergone profound transformations, among other things, due to immigration. These transformations are characterized by an increasing diversity and the impact of a multitude of traditions and religious beliefs. The proliferation of religious traditions and their expression often poses a real challenge, bringing the question of the place of religion in the public space and, consequently, making proselytism and its regulation at the heart of concerns. In certain European societies, considered modern and secularized, such as France, governments are inclined to ensure a certain social cohesion and assert secularism. This is also the case in Quebec, as in June 2019, the law of secularism was adopted. This law, among other things, attests to the neutrality and separation of the state and religion. However, sometimes, some individuals go beyond these principles, viewing secularism as a means to eliminate any traces of religious beliefs in the public space. For some, it could even be a tool to limit the proselytism of religious groups. Based on a few interviews, this research examines the experience of proselytism as lived by evangelical Protestant believers in Montreal. Does the Quebec context generate notable resistances to this religious practice protected by the law? / Depuis ces 20 dernières années, les sociétés occidentales connaissent des transformations profondes entre autres, à cause de l’immigration. Les croyances, religions et origines se diversifient. Cette multiplication de traditions religieuses et leur expression représentent souvent un véritable défi pour le vivre ensemble, plaçant la question de la religion dans l’espace public et notamment le prosélytisme et son encadrement au cœur des préoccupations. Certaines sociétés européennes dont la France, afin de garantir une certaine cohésion sociale, affirment la laïcité de l’État. C’est aussi le cas du Québec, alors qu’en juin 2019 a été adoptée la loi sur la laïcité de l’État. Cette dernière, entre autres, établit la neutralité, de même que la séparation entre État et la religion. Des personnes vont parfois au-delà de ces principes, en voyant en la laïcité un moyen de se débarrasser des traces d’expression de croyances religieuses dans l’espace public. Pour certains, ce serait même un outil permettant de limiter le prosélytisme de groupes religieux. S’appuyant sur quelques entretiens, le présent mémoire se penche sur l’expérience du prosélytisme tel qu’il est vécu par des croyants protestants évangéliques de Montréal. Le contexte québécois produit-il des résistances notables face à cette pratique religieuse protégée par les chartes ?

This thesis considers how religious diversification has shaped the roles of clergy and seminaries. The focus of this qualitative, interview-based study is seminaries and clergy affiliated with various denominations of Judaism and Protestant Christianity in greater London and New York City. Religiously diversifying societies in the US and England have brought forth new challenges for clergy and seminaries, prompting new questions about how or why a faith community should or should not engage with diversity in the public square. This study investigates how seminaries and individual members of the clergy, as sources of religious authority, are responding to religious diversification in different ways - the former sluggish to recognise the impact of religious diversification in curriculum and pedagogical structures and the latter seeing it as a resource for social action initiatives, local networks, and political activism. This has created a gap between training and practice whereby clergy have assumed greater religious authority in religious life. Beyond contributing to the field of sociology of religion, this thesis concludes by allowing the experience of clergy in interreligious engagement to inform appropriate pedagogies that could be employed by seminaries.

In dieser Dissertation wird die historische Genese einer Entwicklung untersucht, die zum Entstehen eines „evangelikalen Ethos“ in Teilen der US-Streitkräfte und weiteren Bereichen des National Security State geführt hat. Den Ausgangspunkt dieser Arbeit bilden Daten zur religiösen Zusammensetzung der amerikanischen Streitkräfte aus dem Jahr 2009. Sie verweisen auf einen überproportional hohen Anteil evangelikaler Protestanten in den amerikanischen Streitkräften. Der Untersuchungszeitraum reicht vom Aufbau des National Security State im Zweiten Weltkrieg bis zum Ende des Vietnamkrieges. Die Annäherung evangelikaler Protestanten an den nationalen Sicherheitsstaat fand bereits im Zweiten Weltkrieg statt. Vor allem im Kontext des Kalten Krieges setzte zudem die Erkenntnis einer ideologischen und kulturellen Nähe zwischen beiden Sphären ein, während die neoevangelikale Erweckungsbewegung zu neuer Blüte gelangte und eine religiöse Mobilisierung der Vereinigten Staaten im frühen Kalten Krieg stattfand. Die Arbeit beruht u.a. auf teil unveröffentlichten Archivbeständen des Billy Graham Center und des Wheaton College. Methodisch ist die Untersuchung der von Philip Sarasin geprägten Wissensgeschichte verpflichtet. Damit kann eine Vielfalt von Wissensbeständen analytisch gegriffen und ihre Bedeutung für politisches und militärisches Handeln entsprechend gefasst werden. Die Arbeit endet mit einem Ausblick auf die Gegenwart: Das missionarische Sendungsbewusstsein evangelikaler Gläubiger führt zu Konflikten innerhalb der Streitkräfte. Auch im Rahmen der Auslandseinsätze der amerikanischen Streitkräfte ereignen sich bedenkliche Vorfälle, in denen etwa das Verbot der Missionierung durch Militärangehörige missachtet wird. / This dissertation examines the historical genesis of a development that lead to an „Evangelical ethos“ within the U.S. Arnmed Forces and other institutions of the National Security State. The starting point for this dissertation are empirical data from 2009 about the religious composition of the U.S. military. This data refers to a disproportional quota of Evangelical Protestants in the military. The period investigated reaches from the creation of the National Security State during World War 2 until the end of the war in Vietnam. The convergence of Evangelical Protestants and the National Security State began with World War 2. Furthermore, in the context of the Cold War a sense of shared ideological and cultural values developed, while the Neoevangelical revival movement blossomed and a religious mobilization of the United States during the early Cold War took place. This work is based on partly unpublished material from the Billy Graham Center and Wheaton College archives, among others. Methodically, it is committed to Philipp Sarasins approach of a history of knowledge. In this way, a variety of stocks of knowledge can be grasped analytically and their significance for political and military action can be grasped accordingly. This dissertation ends with an outlook on the present times: the evangelical zeal of the believers in uniform leads to conflicts within the military. Furthermore, during assigments abroad highly problematic incidents take place, e.g. the disregard of the prohibition of proselytizing by members of the military.