La conception de l’autorité dans les groupes néo-pentecôtistes et/ou charismatiques en France au début des années 70 et la réaction de l’Église catholique institutionnelle

In the wake of the pentecostal revival, the Charismatic Renewal was born in the United States at the end of the sixties and emerged in France at the beginning of the seventies, mostly in university chaplaincies or in prayer houses, such as Troussures. It soon acquired a strongly oecumenical dimension. The emphasis laid on the authority of charismata mentioned particularly in St Paul’s epistles (1 Corinthians, Romans, Ephesians) almost immediately generated new forms of leadership in prayer groups or in new communities. In some groups the charismatic experience known as “renewal (or baptism) in the spirit” was considered as prevailing over the power of the church ministry. First regarded as an “implicit protest”, the Charismatic Renewal has been repeatedly the target of various attempts at integrating it into the Church, as early as 1975 (with Cardinal Suenens) which can be said to have finally succeeded, with the risk of making “charisma” become a “routine” (M. Weber).Ugeux Bernard. La conception de l’autorité dans les groupes néo-pentecôtistes et/ou charismatiques en France au début des années 70 et la réaction de l’Église catholique institutionnelle. In: Anglophonia/Caliban, n°17, 2005. Protestantisme(s) et autorité / Protestantism and authority. pp. 465-472