La religion vécue

Between Aix-en-Provence and Geneva from Paris to Utrecht, this book renews the traditional approaches of religious history in terms of social history in the urban context, offering a social history of religion. The faithful are not thought of as solitary individuals in their relationship with God and the clergy, but as beings belonging to a plurality of bodies. Their religious identity is one of their corporate identities are many (family, work, civic, etc.). Based on the concept of incorporation, the book develops religion as a dimension of the experience of men and women who belong to several communities. How does one reconcile membership of groups that are apparently incompatible? How, too, does one decide to leave a body for the benefit of another, or through individualized pipes? By correlating the Protestant and Catholic worlds, this book discusses religion in the lives of the citizens of Western Europe.