Religions, Spiritualities All books
Mario Livio
Is God a Mathematician?
A best seller, finally available in France A question that everyone has asked, even if they don't dare ask out loud… Mathematics? An aspect of culture like any other.
Fouazia Farida Charfi
Islam and Science
A politically involved scientist, Faouzia Charfi is an important voice, in Tunisia and in France.
Daniel Sibony
Islam, Phobia, Guilt
The uneasy relations between Islam and the West, analysed by the psychoanalyst Daniel Sibony
Armand Laferrère, Moshe Sebbag
Jews and Eternity
Are civilizations mortal? And yet, the Jewish people endure. A look at a mystery that might shed light on a world very concerned with its decline.
Georges Bensoussan
The Jews of the Arab World The Forbidden Question
A book written by a historian, a recognized specialist in Jewish-Arab relations. A history book that also sheds light on current political stakes and societal issues. The discourse contradicts what is generally heard on the subject, and which provides the historical elements needed for a better understanding of the contemporary situation.
Régis Debray
Learning About Religion in Secular State Schools
Learning about different religions: the best way of overcoming prejudice
Edwige Rude-Antoine
Lives and Families Immigrants, Laws and Customs
For more than twenty years, immigration concerned only single men seeking employment. Today, whole families migrate creating new legal and cultural problems: people forced to return to their native country, polygamy, excision, arranged marriages. In her book Edwige Rude-Antoine analyzes the State's intervention in citizens' private lives and its significance. She also determines concrete principles that constitute a harmonious, multi-cultural society. Edwige Rude-Antoine has a PhD in law and specializes in immigration.
Daniel Sibony
Muslims and Jews in the Arabic World
Shedding an original and doubtless controversial light on the question of the relationship between Islam and the secular world.
André Miquel, Jamel Eddine Bencheikh
Of Arabia and Islam
Two French specialists on Islam, one Algerian, the other a native Frenchman, discuss Islam and its confrontation with the Western world. Interweaving references to the past and present, they recount a long history of cultural confrontation, marked by continuous debate and violent conflict, repulsion and fascination. Resolutely optimistic, yet painfully aware of the religious intransigence which enshrouds their subject, their conversations shed new light on the conceptions of power and unity within the Muslim world.
Lionel Naccache
On Being a Subject in Oneself The Talmudic Experience of Spirituality
What does it mean to be oneself? What does it mean to believe? An exploration of the neuroscience and philosophy of subjectivity
Armand Laferrère
Political Reading of the Bible
The Bible is not just a spiritual treasure it is also a political manual for our times.
Boris Cyrulnik
Psychotherapy from God
Combining developmental psychology, attachment-based therapy, psycho-sociology, and the neurosciences, a psychotherapy of the sacred that takes into account all forms of belief, without distinction and without judgment, to analyse their foundations, their practices, their inner workings, and also their benefits. An original enlightening study of the major role played by attachment (secure or insecure) in religious feeling.
Jacques Gutwirth
The Rebirth of Hasidism, from1945 to the present
In 1945, there were 20,000 Hasidim in the world. Today, there are between 350,000 and 400,000, about half of whom live in Israel. This population explosion cannot be explained simply by demographic reasons. In France alone, it is estimated that there are 10,000 to 15,000 Lubavitch Hasidim, a small but particularly active community. Jacques Gutwirth paints a vivid picture of the major centres of Hasidism - Antwerp, New York, Jerusalem, Bne Brak and Paris. He describes the main aspects of Hasidism today, its spiritual and intellectual contributions, its recent history and the influence it has. Hasidism cannot be reduced simply to a religious conception, a way of expressing one's religion, or a particular lifestyle. Its rapid development is linked to current politics and global economics, to which in turn it also contributes. In this rigorous, balanced study of one of Judaism's most dynamic communities, the author provides solid information to further the discussion on the rise of religious fundamentalism. Jacques Gutwirth is an anthropologist and an honorary research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). A pioneer in the field of urban anthropology, he has taught at the University of Provence, in Aix, and at the University René Descartes, in Paris, as well as in Germany and the United States. He is the founder of the laboratory of anthropology at the CNRS. His first book, Vie Juive Traditionnelle, about a Hasidic community in Antwerp, is regarded as a classic. He is also the author of Les Judéo-Chrétiens Aujourd'hui and L'Eglise Electronique: La Saga des Télévangélistes
Claude Hagège
Religions, the Word and Peace
A unique and original contribution, both erudite and mordant, from a specialist, on the question of the ties between violence and religions, which is such a crucial one in today’s world.
Jean Picq
Religious Freedom in the French Republic Restoring the Spirit of French Secularism
‘Laïcité’ has been at the heart of numerous debates in France. The author argues here for a multifaceted, open secularism.
Jean-Pierre Mohen
Rites of the Afterlife
Humans define themselves in the way they relate to death. Funerary rites are the manifestation of this essential relationship to the afterlife