Templeton Religion Trust
What if evangelicals can help understand secularism in France?
What if misunderstandings of laïcité went away?
What if evangelicals became trained to engage in the culture around them?
What happens when freedom of religion evolves into norms and laws that make a society free from religion? When expressions of faith are mostly viewed as intrusive, irrational, unproductive, and even threatening?
Can religion survive, much less thrive, when such skepticism dominates? Can people of faith remain relevant in any way? If so, how?
Answering questions like these has become a crucial challenge for the small but fast-growing ranks of evangelical Christians in France. Although they make up only about 1% of the total population, over the past 25 years their numbers have increased dramatically and are still growing rapidly. There are now at least 2,700 active evangelical worship places in the country. At the same time, participation in most of France’s traditional religions has declined, the number of Muslim immigrants is growing, and French culture is increasingly polarized.
Lydia Jaeger, Ph.D., is a permanent lecturer and academic advisor at the Institut Biblique de No gent-sur-Marne (IBN), which has trained evangelical leaders for over 100 years, contributing to the growth of French evangelicalism. As a respected scholar and author of multiple books and many articles on the relationship between Christianity and the natural sciences, Dr Jaeger has
dedicated her career to navigating the convergence of science, faith, and philosophy.
Through her scholarship and advocacy, she’s focused on nurturing a more thoughtful exploration of religion among French-speaking people. Often, this means taking on prevalent misunderstandings of laïcité, the more-than-a-century-old governing principle in France that calls for a separation of religion and state.
“While the laïcité rules in France require religious neutrality in public institutions including schools, this is commonly misinterpreted as forbidding religious discussion in the public arena,” she points out. “Thus, all religion is considered a private matter, not to be shared or discussed publicly and with nothing particularly positive to contribute to society. Furthermore, science has been held up by a largely atheistic media as the source of objective truth as opposed to ‘irrational faith.’”
The result is “a post-truth society” in which meaningful discussions and displays of religion, spirituality, and belief are rare. Theological and religious issues are rarely explored thoughtfully, and publicly shared insights are few and far between.
The counter-defense, she maintains, is networks of people who are honestly exploring and ex pressing their experiences of faith. Toward that goal and with support from the Templeton Foundation, in 2008 she launched the Réseau des Scientifiques Evangéliques (Evangelical Scientists’ Network) in collaboration with the Groupes Bibliques Universitaires (French branch of IFES). It grew into multiple networks of evangelical Christians in human sciences, healthcare, business, education, art, ecology, and university academics.
A project completed in 2023 with funding from Templeton Religion Trust produced a mentoring program for young scientists that encourages them to integrate science and faith into their worldview and research. Because there’s no religious education in French public schools and no theology courses in public universities, these issues are otherwise rarely explored in a genuinely interdisciplinary way, Jaeger says.
Now, with continued funding from Templeton Religion Trust, she and her team have launched a new project that’s even broader and more grassroots in scope. The aim is to create a vibrant hub for research, training, and resources on issues at the intersection of contemporary culture and Christianity. It’s envisioned as a new platform to encourage churches to engage in contemporary issues in new ways that bring their faith to the forefront of their actions and interactions.
Named the Centre d’enseignement et de recherche interdisciplinaire francophone (CERIF ), and co-directed by Lydia Jaeger, Yohann Tourne, and Rachel Vaughan, it’s formally described as “a French-speaking center for interdisciplinary research and training in sciences, culture, and theology.” Its intended audience is evangelicals in France as well as other French-speaking parts of the world.
The Centre will provide a variety of training resources for all ages, including children. In addi tion, there will be onsite symposia for adults as well as courses for high schoolers. A key out reach tool will be the CERIF website, an extensive repertoire of resources including key people and speakers on different themes plus information on training opportunities and courses the Centre will offer.
In addition, CERIF plans to develop a new Post-Graduate Certificate in Theology, Sciences, and Contemporary Thought. Its interdisciplinary curriculum will teach participants to think through questions relating to faith and contemporary thought. There will also be courses that equip them to communicate clearly with a variety of audiences. They’ll benefit from each other’s expertise and experience, creating a dynamic learning community and laying the foundations for future collaborations and new interdisciplinary research.
All of this is important work, especially in a country struggling to adapt to the challenges of laïcité in a new era. The lack of genuine understanding of religions in France has led to tensions that evangelicals are well positioned to help solve, Jaeger maintains.
“Evangelicals are among the most active in their communities and the most respectful of laïcité in its original sense: true freedom of religion for all,” she says. “It’s essential to equip the in creasing number of evangelical leaders to engage with contemporary culture, philosophy, and the sciences so they can give a reasoned, nuanced, and respectful response to current cultural issues. The result can be greater engagement with the culture around them and a positive impact on their local communities.”
