(coord. Karène Sanchez Summerer et Mathiey Rey)

La prédication induit une manière spécifique d’habiter le monde et de le représenter. Explicitement ou implicitement, les prédicateurs, selon l’institution à laquelle ils appartiennent, dessinent une cartographie religieuse qui distingue des espaces différenciés (lieux centraux de la foi, centres religieux et/ou politiques ; anciennes terres de mission, périphéries où l’action de la prédication a depuis longtemps établi des communautés prospères ; espaces centraux mais laïcisés, avec des implications en termes de “ré-fondations” ; espaces à conquérir). Quels étaient les itinéraires de la prédication entre le Moyen-Orient, le Maghreb et l’Europe ? Dans quelle mesure et comment les clercs se sont-ils organisés en réseaux ? Comment ces réseaux sont-ils conditionnés par les financements ? Comment les prédicateurs promeuvent-ils un espace transnational déterritorialisé tout en étant ancrés dans un espace spécifique ?

L’objectif de l’axe 2 est de tracer et comparer la cartographie de la prédication et des prédicateurs ; cela permettra de déprovincialiser la géographie culturelle de la prédication. Basé sur des archives provinciales, des bibliothèques privées, des mouvements de femmes prédicatrices et des collections privées jusqu’à présent négligées, cet axe vise à préserver et à faire un inventaire, en collaboration avec Archivistes sans frontières (un pré-catalogue de deux collections a déjà été établi aux archives d’Al-Azhar et des institutions chrétiennes à Jérusalem et à Rome). L’équipe de l’axe analysera également les profils des prédicateurs (hommes et femmes), leur réseau intra- et inter-communautaire pour aborder la granularité multifacette des trajectoires et carrières des prédicateurs. Les prédicateurs de diverses confessions se sont rapidement emparés de la révolution des transports comme une matrice de nouveaux horizons d’attente pour leur prédication, comme un multiplicateur de rencontres missionnaires, et comme un article de démonstration intégré dans leurs méthodes de prédication. Cependant, au-delà de l’accessibilité des espaces, l’itinérance lente des prédicateurs, surtout dans les zones rurales, a persisté dans le but exprès de sortir des sentiers battus.

L’axe 2 analysera les différentes modalités de l’itinérance, parfois une méthode constituant une forme de territorialisation réflexive articulée au pouvoir pastoral des états successifs, parfois en le défiant, et entreprenant leur propre programme de territorialisation. Cela sera évalué via les études de cas des Jésuites en Syrie, au Liban et en Anatolie, de la Church Missionary Society dans ses missions en Palestine, en Syrie et au Liban, et en Irak ; la stratégie spatiale salafiste dans l’Égypte rurale. Ces études de cas décrypteront la signification stratégique de ces itinéraires, les trajectoires d’ouverture sur les terrains d’opération. D’autres prédicateurs se sont concentrés sur une échelle transnationale. Dans les deux cas, les espaces marginaux influencent la façon dont nous abordons les notions de centres.

Former des prédicateurs à un rayonnement international a été au cœur de certaines formations dispensées tant aux hommes qu’aux femmes, selon différentes modalités, basées sur des programmes et des outils spécifiques pour promouvoir la recherche. Cet axe examinera des institutions spécifiques, jusqu’à présent négligées, dont l’objectif était spécifiquement de rayonner à l’international via divers programmes de formation à la prédication, outils, destinations. Le centre de Da‘wa en langues étrangères d’Al-Azhar, établi au début des années 1960, a échoué dans un premier temps. Depuis le début des années 1980, le centre forme et envoie des diplômés à l’étranger en tant que prédicateurs potentiels, principalement vers les États-Unis, le Canada, le Royaume-Uni, l’Irlande, la France, l’Allemagne – et plus récemment vers l’Afrique et la Chine. Rayonner à l’international implique également des approches multi-échelles via de nouveaux outils de communication. L’axe 2 évaluera les aspects transnationaux de ces nouveaux outils de prédication.

***ENGLISH***

Preaching induces a specific way of inhabiting the world and of representing it. Explicitly or implicitly, preachers, depending on the institution to which they belong, draw a religious cartography which distinguishes differentiated spaces (central places of faith, religious and/or political centres; ancient mission lands, peripheries where the action of preaching has longestablished prosperous communities; central but secularised spaces, with implications in terms of ‘re-foundations’; spaces to be conquered). What were the preaching itineraries between the Middle East, the Maghreb and Europe? To what extent and how did clerics organise themselves into networks? How are these networks conditioned by the funding? How do preachers promote a transnational de-territorialised space while being rooted in a specific space?

The aim of S2 is to trace and compare the mapping of preaching and preachers; this will deprovincialize the cultural geography of preaching. Based on provincial archives, private libraries, movements of women preachers and private collections so far overlooked, this subproject will preserve and make an inventory, together with Archivists without borders (a pre-catalogue of two collections has already been established at Al Azhar and Christian institutions’ archives in Jerusalem and Rome). The S2 team will also analyse the profiles of preachers (men and women), their intra- and inter-communal network to tackle the multifaceted granularity of these preachers’ trajectories and carriers. Preachers of various denominations were quick to seize upon the transport revolution as a matrix of new horizons of expectation for their preaching, as a multiplier of missionary encounters, and as a demonstration article integrated into their methods of preaching. However, beyond the accessibility of spaces, the slow itinerancy of preachers, above all in rural areas, persisted with the express purpose of leaving the beaten track.

This subproject will analyse the various modalities of the itinerancy, at times a method constituting a form of reflexive territorialisation articulated to the pastoral power of successive states, sometimes challenging it, and undertaking their own territorialisation programme. This will be assessed via the case studies of the Jesuits in Syria, Lebanon and Anatolia, the Church Missionary Society in its missions in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and Iraq; the Salafi spatial strategy in rural Egypt. This case-studies will decrypt the strategic significance of these itineraries, the trajectories of opening up on operating grounds. Other preachers have focused on a transnational scale. In both cases, marginal spaces affect the way we approach the notions of centres.

Training preachers to reach out internationally has been at the core of some of the training provided to men and women alike, according to different modalities, based on specific curricula and tools for promoting research. This subproject will look at specific institutions, overlooked so far, whose target was specifically to reach out internationally via various preaching training programmes, tools, destinations. The Al Azhar Da’wa centre for foreign languages, established at the beginning of the 1960s, failed at first. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the centre trains and sends graduates abroad as potential preachers, mainly to the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany – and more recently to Africa and China Reaching out transnationally also implies multi-scale approaches via new tools of communication. This subproject will assess the transnational aspects of these new tools of preaching.

2.2. Revisiting the territorial strategies of preaching – K. Sanchez Summerer & M. Rey

Preachers of various denominations were quick to seize upon the transport revolution as a matrix of new horizons of expectation for their preaching, as a multiplier of missionary encounters, and as a demonstration article integrated into their methods of preaching. (a) However, beyond the accessibility of spaces, the slow itinerancy of preachers, above all in rural areas, persisted with the express purpose of leaving the beaten track. This subproject will analyse the various modalities of the itinerancy, at times a method constituting a form of reflexive territorialisation articulated to the pastoral power of successive states, sometimes challenging it, and undertaking their own territorialisation programme. This will be assessed via the case studies of the Jesuits in Syria, Lebanon and Anatolia, the Church Missionary Society in its missions in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and Iraq; the Salafi spatial strategy in rural Egypt (Pettinaroli, Lacroix). This team will decrypt the strategic significance of these itineraries, the trajectories of opening up on operating grounds. (b) Other preachers have focused on a transnational scale. In both cases, marginal spaces affect the way we approach the notions of centres. This subproject will look at how marginal spaces were and are defined and addressed on a transnational scale by preachers, as well as their impact on a local scale (Mahieddin, Sanchez, Anteby).

2.3. Mapping preachers’ institutions trajectories: reaching out transnationally

Training preachers to reach out internationally has been at the core of some of the training provided to men and women alike, according to different modalities, based on specific curricula and tools for promoting research. (a) This subproject will look at specific institutions, overlooked so far, whose target was specifically to reach out internationally via various preaching training programmes, tools, destinations. The Al Azhar Da’wa centre for foreign languages, established at the beginning of the 1960s, failed at first. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the centre trains and sends graduates abroad as potential preachers, mainly to the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany – and more recently to Africa and China (Mahieddin, Ryad). Women’s preaching movements have also produced international gender trajectories (Anteby). (b) Reaching out transnationally also implies multi-scale approaches via new tools of communication. This subproject will assess the transnational aspects of these new tools of preaching. Inserted in a ‘religious supermarket’, the current Salafist movements promote a constant mapping adaptation (Lacroix) while in other contexts Roman Catholic institutions had to redefine their transnational imprint after WWII (Pettinaroli). Recently, the phenomenon of women preaching through the new social media is also developing and taking on a transnational dimension within liberal Judaism (Anteby).