Être affecté : petite phénoménologie de la « prophétie » charismatique (et de ses conséquences)

Jeanne Favret-Saada disrupted a common assumption in social sciences equating the scientific perspective with the fact of observing the investigated phenomenon from without. However, such stance struggles to describe practices that seem exotic or even unbelievable for a detached observer, when they appear credible social actors. At this point, the ethnographer’s commitment – including his/her affects – proves central to capture the verisimilitude of a social world – without endorsing its ontology. This article explores this issue by focusing on the Charismatic "prophecy" as a way, for Evangelicals, to summon God’s presence into their lives and even within the world. Coupling a phenomenology of religious experience to a pragmatist approach, we will examine the political consequences, for the national community, of this advent of the deity