"Money, money, money" religions, capital, finance (XIXth-XXIst centuries)

CERMOM is pleased to invite you to the study day of the Association française d'histoire religieuse contemporaine "Money, money, money" religions, capital, finances (XIXe-XXIe siècle).
Ecritures orientales
Ecritures orientales © Inalco‎

Abstract

The financial question is one of the starting points for understanding the processes of modernization (and resistance to modernization) affecting religions in contemporary times. Among these, one of the main ones is the financing of religions: the financing of worship, its ministers and its buildings, but also the financing of works, missions and, later, of religious humanitarianism, etc. The third part of the study day will be devoted to the question of the financing of religions. The third part of the study day will be devoted to these issues, with presentations by Pierre-Yves Kirschleger, Quentin Lefort and Jean-Pierre Moisset. While this is primarily a question of social history, it also has a strong political dimension. Think, for example, of the financing of recognized religious denominations in 19thcentury France, then after 1905 and the separation of Church and State. Elsewhere in Europe, secularization may have followed different, less radical paths.

Beyond the relationship between religions and states, it is also those that unite religions and the faithful that need to be analyzed, when the latter's offerings take on importance. The birth of the Saint Peter's denarius collection in France bears witness to the transformation of the faithful's relationship with the head of the Church in the mid-19th century, and in particular to the unprecedented weight of devotion to the Pope. The question of how religions collect and administer the offerings of their faithful - be it the denarius, the zakât or the sadaqa, in Islam, the tsedaka in Judaism, or more broadly the notion of offering outside monotheistic religions - is vast. It includes a strong gender dimension, since women, particularly in aristocratic and bourgeois circles, have long been accorded a prominent place in collections. They coexist with male patrons. The associative world, meanwhile, occupies an intermediary position between ministers of religion and the laity, which also needs to be examined. Religious charitable practices will be the subject of papers by Claire Boucon and Blandine Chelini-Pont.

Another potentially fruitful line of research is the history of representations. The link between certain religions and the rise of capitalism has thus been highlighted, whether to hail it, to denounce it or simply to see it as an explanatory factor for certain historical processes. Max Weber's association of the Protestant ethic with the rise of capitalism is well known, but numerous studies have often led to its being qualified. The link between religion and capitalism will be explored in two papers by Anthony Keller and Franck Damour.

A final field of study concerns the history of religious ideas. In particular, this involves studying religious discourses on money and finance and their impact on the behavior of the faithful. One of the major issues at stake here is the "disengagement" of economics from religious morality, in other words, its secularization. In Islam, the rise of Islamic finance reflects a desire to reinscribe economic practices within a religious normative framework, in a context marked by the rise of political Islam.

Finally, particular attention will be paid to the concrete tools by which religious institutions manage their resources: accounting systems, computerization of donations, financial investments - ethical or otherwise. The rise of so-called "committed" or "solidarity" finance invites us to rethink the economic choices of religious actors. Similarly, the figure of the banker - partner, counter-model - deserves to be analyzed in its diversity of functions and representations.

Program

9am - welcome

9:30am - Welcoming remarks (Chantal Verdeil, President of AFHRC)

General introduction: Arthur Hérisson (Centre d'histoire du XIXe siècle)

10:00am-11:15am: What conception of capitalism?

Moderation: Mercé Prats (historian, Laboratoire d'études sur les monothéismes)
- Anthony Keller (UMR Archimèe, Université de Strasbourg), "La glorification du capitalisme libéral chez le gourou Osho Rajneesh"
- Franck Damour (Université Catholique de Lille), "Le bitcoin : une monnaie eschatologique ? "

11:15-11:30am: break

11:30am-12:45pm: Charitable practices

Moderation: Natalia Núñez Bargueño Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and Faculty of Arts, Leuven)

- Cloé Boucon (Université Lyon 2), "Société fraternelle, une alliance de dévouement, de charité et de piété", practices de la charité au sein de la communauté juive de Phalsbourg (Moselle)"

- Blandine Chelini- Pont (Aix-Marseille Université), "Genèse et mécanismes des Donor-Advised-Funds aux États-Unis: what impact on the financing of religious organizations and works? "

12:45-14:15: lunch

14:15-16:15: Financing and market models

Moderation: Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel (Sciences Po, CSO, CNRS)

- Pierre-Yves Kirschleger (University of Montpellier, Paul Valéry), "L'argent de l'étranger : le financement du protestantisme français, des polémiques aux réalités (19e siècle)"

- Quentin Lefort (Université de Bordeaux-Montaigne), "Le modèle marchand de la gamme jeunesse catéchétique de Bayard (1960-1990)".

Jean-Pierre Moisset (Université de Bordeaux-Montaigne), "Le paiement des places à l'église : chaises et chaisières en France des années 1800 aux années 1960"

16h15-16h30 : Break

4:30pm-5:15pm: AFHRC General Assembly 2025

  • Financial review
  • Moral review
  • Preparation of the 2027 day: choice of theme.
Organization
  • Édouard Coquet (Sorbonne Université, Centre d'histoire du XIXe siècle)
  • Arthur Hérisson (Centre d'histoire du XIXe siècle)
  • Marie Levant (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Institut français du Proche-Orient)
  • Mercè Prats (Laboratoire d'étude sur les monothéismes)
  • Chantal Verdeil (INALCO, CERMOM)
Scientific Committee:
  • Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel (Sciences Po, CSO, CNRS)
  • Édouard Coquet (Sorbonne Université, Centre d'histoire du XIXe siècle)
  • Charlotte Courreye (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3)
  • Michel Fourcade (Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry, CRISES)
  • Arthur Hérisson (Centre d'histoire du XIXe siècle)
  • Marie Levant (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Institut français du Proche-Orient)
  • Natalia Núñez-Bargueño (KU Leuven)
  • Mercè Prats (Laboratoire d'étude sur les monothéismes)
  • Chantal Verdeil (INALCO, CERMOM)

 

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