Abstract
In France, the charismatic Renewal and the phenomenon of “study circles” constitute two poles of a new socio-religious dynamic within Catholicism and Judaism, respectively. This article first of all juxtaposes these religious renewals to changes within French society, notably those concerning the crisis of collective and political ideals of the years 1968-75. It shows their privileged rapport, on the one hand with the counter culture and its religious component, on the other with leftist and then regionalist movements.
The re-evaluation of the concepts of “community” and “tradition” within these renewals can appear to be a rejection of the individualism characteristic of our modern societies. In fact it is nothing of the kind. Rather, it is brought about in the first instance, paradoxically, by a route that strengthens modern individualism: solicitude for the person (faced with a bureaucratized society) or particularist revendication (faced with French Jacobinism). Also, within the very bosom of the Catholic and Jewish collectivity, there has been a progression of the values of personal liberty (the diversity of groups permits each to choose) and of equality (men/women, clerics/laics). On the whole, the holistic traits — proper to Gemeinschaft — re-evaluated here seem quite subordinated to individualist traits, proper to the Gesellschaft. Thus, there is no question of rejection of individualism, but rather of its “redefinition”. This confirms the thesis of L. Dumont according to which “community” and “society” are “both presented as a principle of modern society”, but that “they are to be met with at different levels of social reality”.