COUNTRY
FrancePOPULATION
65,630,692 (July 2012 est.), note: the above figure is for metropolitan France and five overseas regions; the metropolitan France population is 62,814,233GDP PER CAPITA
$35,600 (2011 est.)RELIGIONS
Roman Catholic 83%-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 5%-10%, unaffiliated 4% overseas departments: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, paganAT THE CENTER
RELATED RESOURCES
ORGANIZATIONS (6)
Evangelical Lutheran Church of France
French Council for the Muslim Faith
Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine
French Council for the Muslim Faith
Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine
PEOPLE (6)
QUOTES (8)
Nicolas Sarkozy on France's Christian Heritage
March 3, 2011
Benedict XVI on Christian Contributions to France
September 12, 2008
Nicolas Sarkozy on Encouraging People to Hope in a Speech at the Lateran Church of Saint John in Rome
December 20, 2007
March 3, 2011
Benedict XVI on Christian Contributions to France
September 12, 2008
Nicolas Sarkozy on Encouraging People to Hope in a Speech at the Lateran Church of Saint John in Rome
December 20, 2007
PUBLICATIONS (3)
France
Letters (13)
French religious policy is based on the concept of laïcité, a strict separation of church and state under which public life is considered completely secular. France was historically regarded as the “eldest daughter” of the Roman Catholic Church. The French Revolution (1789) saw a radical shift in the status of the Church with the launch of a brutal de-Christianization campaign. After the back and forth of Catholic royal and secular republican governments over the 19th century, laïcité was established under the Third Republic and codified with the 1905 Law on the Separation of Church and State. The constitution of the Fifth Republic (1958) guarantees freedom of religion. Today, most French citizens still identify as Catholics, although church attendance is very low. Through immigration, mainly from North Africa, Muslims now comprise about 10% of the French population. French Muslims have faced problems balancing their religious obligations with laïcité; a 2004 law on conspicuous religious symbols prohibits students and teachers from wearing Muslim headscarves in public schools.
May 11, 2011
Britain and the United States, being English-speaking countries, have rather parallel cultures. But often I encounter a cultural difference that I did not know existed between my home and host countries, and I am always surprised to find that there is a cultural and often historical reason behind these differences. They may not be striking; it’s frequently something as subtle as the use of the French name for vegetables where we use German or Italian-derived names, a fact which owes itself to...
May 3, 2011
It is often difficult to discuss France’s politics in terms of their relation to religion considering the fact that “laïcité,” or France’s strict relegation of religion to the private sphere, is tenaciously upheld as a national value, right up there with liberty, equality, and fraternity. France’s “laïcité” is very different from the United States’ separation of Church and State because it is much more skeptical of any and all intrusion of particular religions into national political culture....
April 14, 2011
Just as the American government faces the standoff on budget reform, bringing Tea Party power to the fore, the headline ravaging Paris is the French’s own conservative ascendance. To the astonishment of France, Marine Le Pen, new leader of the far-right National Front party and daughter of famed Jean-Marie Le Pen, won a greater percentage than any other candidate in a poll by the Le Parisien newspaper. According to the survey—though its accuracy is being heavily questioned—Marine Le Pen would...
March 30, 2011
Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine had it right when he said that he would always fondly remember the beautiful French capital. Being the absolute center of social and political life in France, Paris best represents the country’s diversity with the variety in its population occupying its twenty “arrondissements,” or neighborhoods. People of various backgrounds, styles, careers, and dreams keep Paris close to their hearts in some way or another, and have made the city into an incredible mosaic much...
March 16, 2011
My mother has always loved the Hazzan’s prayer on Yom Kippur. We were lucky enough at my synagogue to have a cantor with a voice that actually made prayer seem ethereal and otherworldly. For me, it has always been the alternating moments of silence and chanting that makes prayer profound. There is nothing comparable to the sound of voices bouncing off a well-designed sacred space and really clouding my mind with music. At my Episcopal high school, I loved going to chapel daily simply for the...
January 17, 2011
Thoughts, reflections, and observations on the end of one semester, the beginning of another, and a move across a continent:
I have just completed a journey across Europe from the McGhee Center in Alanya, Turkey to the National University of Ireland, Galway. That's two time zones, an entire continent, and more miles than I can count. In so doing, I've exchanged my Mediterranean view for one of the Atlantic, sandy beaches for rocky cliffsides, minarets for steeples, and five calls to prayer...
I have just completed a journey across Europe from the McGhee Center in Alanya, Turkey to the National University of Ireland, Galway. That's two time zones, an entire continent, and more miles than I can count. In so doing, I've exchanged my Mediterranean view for one of the Atlantic, sandy beaches for rocky cliffsides, minarets for steeples, and five calls to prayer...
December 19, 2010
Multiculturalism, including religious diversity, has been a hot topic in Europe of late, particularly since Angela Merkel declared that it has failed in Germany. In neighboring France, where the French are notably protective of their culture and wary of foreigners and immigrants, there are growing concentrations of Arab, Maghrebian and African emigrés. The burqa ban in France is the epitome of this change, though whether it could be called fear, intolerance, respect, human rights standards,...
November 11, 2010
The first night that I arrived in Strasbourg was a Saturday. Though this may not seem too significant, in France it's the day before Sunday and Sundays tend to stand out amongst the days of the week. All of the shops close on Sundays, even the grocery stores. While this was a bit frustrating when my host first informed me of this, I have since learned to appreciate this French tradition that comes out of its Christian past. When my host talked about this, she went on to explain that shops...
October 20, 2010
I chose South Africa as a study abroad location because I craved a different cultural experience. I thought it would be the happy medium between the culture shock of life in Africa and the comfort of first world development. I was aware that I would not be living in the bush I attend a university just outside of a major city yet I did not expect to be so completely surrounded by Christianity, something I very much associate with the Western world.
I was surprised by how many South Africans...
I was surprised by how many South Africans...
October 13, 2010
Each city has its paradoxes. In DC, there are homeless people huddled on the same streets that are lined with the multimillion-dollar homes of the country's elite, and the harsh contrast between rich and poor is an inescapable feature of the nation's capital. In Dakar, those contrasts are even more glaring. Perhaps it is because I am a visitor, and we view other societies through a sharper lens than we view our own, but Senegal's paradoxes have come to define my perception of this colorful,...
October 7, 2010
I arrived in the Dominican Republic in July without much background knowledge about the country and its religious traditions. I assumed that like most other countries that formerly belonged to the Spanish Empire, the Dominican Republic is more or less traditionally Roman Catholic. Almost immediately, however, I became aware of elements of a rich religious syncretism between European-based, Catholic religious practices and religious customs derived from the countrys African heritage.
It is...
It is...
October 5, 2010
One way to understand more about a culture is to look to its education system. How are kids being taught? What is the cultural value placed on school? What kinds of ideas and subjects do we talk about in class? In many ways, the French mentality is born out of its education system.
The students at Sciences Po gain admission through a national contest. If their scores are high enough, theyre in. This dynamic creates a view of the Sciences Po universities throughout the country as elitist and...
The students at Sciences Po gain admission through a national contest. If their scores are high enough, theyre in. This dynamic creates a view of the Sciences Po universities throughout the country as elitist and...
October 1, 2010
For a city covered in churches, I've been surprised by the apparent lack of religion in Paris. I've stargazed on the steps of Sacre Coeur, biked past Notre Dame while exploring, and walked passed Saint Sulpice (which you may recognize from The Da Vinci Code) daily on my way to school. From my brief probes into a religious discussion with the French students my age, I've discovered to be to an unwelcome and poorly-received topic of discussion.
That strikes me as odd in a country that just...
That strikes me as odd in a country that just...