AUBOURG, Valérie. **Réveil catholique:** emprunts évangéliques au sein du catholicisme. Genève: Labor et Fides, 2020. 360 p.

José Pereira Coutinho*

The charismatic movement became an essential reality of post-conciliar Catholicism. Emerged in the late 1960s in the USA, it has been asserting itself since then. It currently represents more than 10% of the Catholic field, with more than a quarter of Christians and more than 8% of the world population being charismatic, hence the author refers to the ‘charismatisation of Christianity’ (p. 24). Since the beginning, in the early 1970s, charismatic groups have been developing in France through various ways, as the author demonstrates (p. 33-35). In fact, Lyon, where much of the ethnographic study of this book took place, is not only the first Christian city in Roman Gaul, but also over the centuries, namely today, has remained an important religious centre (p. 17-19). Furthermore, it was in this city that the first baptism in the Holy Spirit took place in 1970 (p. 17).

Although Catholicism continues declining in France, the French religious field is diverse and alive. Even though there are more than half of people with no religion, other religions show strength, as is the case above all with Muslims and Evangelicals (p. 14-16). The end of the religious is, therefore, an outdated narrative, so mutations, adaptations, and innovations must be discussed, especially in a global world like ours. It is in this plural and open context that the author studied the appropriation of a global phenomenon – charismatic – within a French city. That is, how the global charismatic movement is lived within French Catholicism and adapted from evangelical currents, within the scope of two processes, glocalization (making the global local) and ‘evangelicalisation’ (the

<footnote>Resenha recebida em 06 de abril de 2022 e aprovada em 08 de abril de 2022.</footnote>

<footnote>* Doutor em sociologia pelo ISCTE-IUL. Membro integrado da Universidade Católica Portuguesa. País de origem: Portugal. E-mail: jose.coutinho@ucp.pt</footnote>
Catholic appropriation of evangelical elements). Indeed, the author, Valérie Aubourg, PhD in anthropology/ethnology (University of Réunion) and professor of anthropology at the Catholic University of Lyon, is an expert in this area. Her doctoral thesis dealt precisely with this subject, in Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean (Aubourg, 2014).

After characterising and presenting the history of charismatic Christianity, the author moves on to the three parts of the book: miracles and healings, mothers' prayers, and parish renewal. Regarding the first part, although there is a lot of work carried out on various aspects of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), there was a lack of recent analyses on the new charismatic currents and their respective interreligious and transnational networks centred on the cure. She looks at three types of activities – healing rooms, nights of miracles and healings, congress – focused on healing, liberation, the first from an individual perspective, the other two from a collective perspective. In addition to healing, there are two traits that characterise these activities: globalisation and individualisation. Not only these activities are part of a process of creating networks at a global level, thus resembling their evangelical counterparts, but also the individual is at the centre of them, in a logic of personal search for health and spirituality, so in vogue in our modernity. In a way, the individual, in a pragmatic and egotistical posture, uses activities as it pleases, not worrying about creating bonds, even though he/she participates in community in two activities. It is in this perspective, global and individual, associated with healing in a spiritual aspect, that this work should be read.

In the second part, the mothers' prayer groups are analysed, something that was barely visible both in the ecclesiastical and in the analytical fields. Although these groups are charismatic, they have a more 'respectable', more controlled posture, characterised by the absence of charisma, movement, music, and spontaneity (readings and prayers). Unlike the groups mentioned in the first part, which seem to be more representative of the charismatic movement, therefore, based on emotion and healing, these groups are more in line with traditional Catholic formalism. In this way, these groups are part of a Catholic identity line, which, despite being imbued with typical charismatic elements,
based on an individualisation of faith, denote respect and care for ecclesiastical authority. As in the previous cases of the first part, globalisation and individualisation are present here: not only because it is a group originated in England that has spread to several countries, but also because of the focus on such an individual practice as the prayer of charismatic traits that accentuate this individualisation.

Finally, unlike the first two parts, based on charismatic groups, this part is based on the evangelical influence in parishes not linked to the CCR, especially in the parish of Sainte Blandine, in Lyon, something that has also been seldom studied. The author examines 'evangelicalisation' more radically, outside avowedly charismatic groups, to see how evangelical elements are used to evangelise, to make Catholicism 'more attractive' in a global perspective, once again, in a transnational network, also used in the other two parts. To this Catholic appropriation of evangelical themes in parishes, it is added a trace of permanence of the parish framework, perhaps because the transformations come from within, from the Catholic authority, the parish priest and/or the bishop.

In short, the author develops, and well, in three distinct parts, aspects that have been rarely studied or were not studied at all in CCR, based mainly in Lyon, the third largest French city, an important financial, industrial, cultural, and religious centre. What are the main conclusions of this book? First, 'evangelicalisation' advances differently, according to the groups, but in a limited way, as ecclesiastical authority prevails. Second, the idea that individualisation is undoubtedly a characteristic of our modernity is reinforced, in which, as the author defends, subjectivation and spiritual pragmatism dominate (p. 318). This Catholic dynamism, based on the Holy Spirit, raises several questions by the author (p. 320-326), which are very relevant not only on the world stage, for the Catholic Church as a whole, but also in regional scenarios marked by the charismatics.

In addition to the frank pleasure in reading this book, due to its smooth and well-sequenced writing, the narrative shows an anthropological work of quality, varied, wide, international, and well-founded, which makes it even more
interesting. In a religious field so marked by the charismatic movement, as Brazil
(e.g., Fernandes, 2022), this book seems essential.

REFERENCES

AUBOURG, V. **Christianismes charismatiques à l'île de La Réunion**. Paris: Karthala, 2014.

FERNANDES, S. **Christianity in Brazil: an introduction from a global perspective**. London: Bloomsbury, 2022.