About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

41 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. 765 (2009-2010)
Is Laicite the Civil Religion of France

handle is hein.journals/gwilr41 and id is 773 raw text is: IS LIWCITE THE CIVIL RELIGION OF FRANCE? BLANDINE CHELINI-PONr* According to Robert Bellah, in his article, Civil Religion in America, civil religion is a combination of collective rituals that reveal a devotion to the unity of a nation and a national mythology made up of a diffusion of beliefs and representations that consti- tute the dominant mental attitudes of a society.' Civil religion has its own unique history and its own mythical or providential origins. It allows the population of a country to identify itself as such. It gives a national group the feeling of belonging, attachment, and a common sense of pride.2 From this definition, Bellah considers civil religion a real religion, which he calls a national faith.3 The famous French intellectual R6gis Debray believes that there is something more primitive and invincible beyond this faith, a state of very elaborate feelings of belonging that he calls le sacr, the sacred.4 According to Debray, the sacred allows a group of * Assistant Professor in Contemporary History, Universit6 Paul C6zanne of Aix-en- Provence, France. Ph.D. 1994, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. She works on the contemporary changes of the French laicitd concept and national mythologies and their connection with constitutional foundations. See, e.g., JEREMY GUNN & BIANDINE CHELINI- PoNT, DIEU EN FRANCE ET AUx ETATS-UNIS: QUAND LES MYTHES FONT IA Loi (2005). She is also responsible for the Law and Religion Program of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of University Paul C6zanne and edits an annual review, Annuaire Droit et Religion. The author thanks her translators as well as Professors Jean Bauberot and Jean-Jacques Roche who read and commented on this paper. 1. See Robert N. Bellah, Civil Religion in America, DaeDALUS, Winter 1967, at 1, 1, reprinted in AMERICAN CIVIL RELIGION 21 (Russell E. Richey & Donald G. Jones eds., 1974). 2. In one article, French historian and sociologist Jean Baub6rot stated that civil religion covers a set of beliefs, symbols and institutionalized rites within a society that con- ceals its ultimate grounds from the social debate. Jean Bauberot, La laicitd en crise, une conquite toujours en devenir, INFORMATIONS SOCIALEs, Aug. 2006, at 48, 53-54. His colleague, Jean-Paul Willaime, says as follows: Because societies are historical constructs, inevitably revisable and precarious, they need to refer their existence to a fantasy that allows them to lay a foundation and remember their history by various symbols and rituals. Through these sym- bols and rituals, they magnify their unity and enhance their existence as a distinct sociopolitical unit. Jean-Paul Willaime, Pour une sociologie transnationale de la laiciti, ARCHIVES DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONs, June 2009, at 201, 208 (translated by author from the French). 3. Bellah, supra note 1, at 1. 4. Elisabeth Levy, Rdgis Debray: le sacre repousse tout seul, LE POINT (Fr.), Feb. 26, 2009, at 77-78, available at http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-chroniques/2009-02-26/regis- debray-le-sacre-repousse-tout-seul/989/0/320919. 765

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most