Abstract
This chapter is about continuity and change in two dimensions. The first dimension concerns the reactions to new religious movements (NRMs) in France over the last 25 years. The second concerns my own interpretations of these reactions. I want to argue that there is both continuity and change in the way that NRMs have been received in France. But I also want to add that the changes that have occurred have forced me to reconsider the interpretations that I produced in several publications in the 1980s (Beckford, 1981, 1983a, 1983b, 1985). In particular, my argument is going to be that I, along with many other commentators on ‘cult controversies’ in France, failed to take adequate account of the impact of the ideology of laïcité on debates about NRMs. Recent events and the corresponding publications of French scholars (Baubérot, 1998, 1999, 2001; Luca & Lenoir, 1998; Hervieu-Léger, 2001) and other commentators (Introvigne, 2001; Richardson & Introvigne, herein) have persuaded me that it is impossible to understand the situation in France without taking into account the fact that the ideology of laïcité continues to shape much of French public life, especially in the State’s educational institutions. But I shall add that it is also necessary to consider the reasons why NRMs figure prominently in French dystopias.
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Beckford, J.A. (2004). ‘Laïcité,’ ‘Dystopia,’ and the Reaction to New Religious Movements in France. In: Richardson, J.T. (eds) Regulating Religion. Critical Issues in Social Justice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9094-5_2
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