This ethnography of a charismatic group in French Polynesia aims to shed light on the patterns of authority and commitment within such informal religious spaces connected to the global economy of charismatism. Through analysis of the personal itineraries of several members of ‘Jean's group’ and through the observation of a march organized by the group in question in January 2012, I question the apparent paradox of a group infused with a charismatic culture full of prophets and apostles, but which is practically devoid of any formative authority.

This chapter shows how the histories of Polynesian island nations are very much bound up with Christianity. The growth of charismatic movements in Polynesia, against a backdrop of rapid social change and transnational circulations between the island states and strong diasporic communities in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, has resulted in a type of “nonconformist liberation.” Polynesian youth are drawn to the more individuated understanding of moral consciousness, as well as the new possibilities for bodily movements and cultural expression such as dance. Thus, local culture, the chapter suggests, might in fact have a positive moral valency for contemporary Christians.

Ce livre est issu d’un colloque tenu en mai 2011 à l’Université de Lausanne. Il part du constat d’un retour de la question religieuse dans l’espace public des sociétés européennes au cours des dernières décennies, pour en explorer la genèse et les principaux enjeux politiques. Il traite en outre, dans sa première partie, d’époques plus anciennes de l’histoire européenne, à travers deux textes particulièrement éclairants d’Olivier Christin et de Christian Grosse. O. Christin s’intéresse aux modalités du choix confessionnel dans les communautés locales de la Suisse des 16 ème et 17 ème siècles. Il montre comment

Most of Pacific Island societies today enjoy a relatively peaceful religious climate. Nevertheless, the history of Christianization in this region was not simply a step from darkness into light but rather an ambivalent process: the relationships between mission, colonization and local power struggles generated both violent conflicts, a relative pacification of social life under the authority of new Christian chiefs and an eradication of ritual violence. Even today, some tension and uncertainty remain around the role of religion in contemporary sources of conflicts and violence. This chapter focuses on: - the challenges raised by the management of religious and ethnic pluralism in the Pacific Island societies; - the capacity of religious actors to intervene as mediators in the resolution of conflicts, or to become themselves involved in struggles between communities; - the effectiveness of Pacific Island Christian churches in the reduction of ordinary violence, especially familial and gender violence.

Classical Pentecostalism is placed in line with contemporary reshaping of institutional authority as it provides a subjective individualisation of religious experience ("a personal relationship with God") while maintaining a close control of converts' lives. This article draws from fieldwork conducted within the French Polynesian Assemblies of God since 2000. The aim here is to show how the theoretical tools of Bourdieu's sociology can prove helpful in analysing this paradoxical institution that is both an "anti-structure" and a structuring authority which grants the biographical invention of conversion the status of a well-grounded illusion. It first analyses the structure in the Pentecostal field of minister's positions, then the distribution of lay "ministries" and the institutional apparatus of socialisation and training that give shape to a Pentecostal habitus. The "voice of the Holy Spirit" finally appears as the symbolical core of this specific habitus which lies on an "invisible" mediation between institutional apparatus of control and internalised dispositions.

English Pentecostalism appears to be a religion of mobility, with an affinity for contemporary urban life, but the city is more often described by Pentecostal preachers as ``inhuman'', under demoniac influence. This representation of the city as the place of spiritual warfare for liberation, which is spread by the ``third Pentecostal wave'', leads to a symbolic reinvestment of territories, while believers tend to become independent of any territorial belonging through a personal conversion and voluntary religious involvement. The street is the very place on which these two contradictory foci of the Pentecostal mission can converge: a focus on individuals experiencing mobility; and a focus on the urban territory seen as a spiritual entity influencing the destiny of its dwellers. There is a deep affinity between the evangelization of the streets, frequently led by independent ``prophets'', and the Pentecostal paradigm based on an institutional ``invisible'' mediation and on the conviction that the true church should not remain inside the walls of the church. French Si le pentecotisme apparait comme une religion de la mobilité en affinité avec la sociabilité urbaine contemporaine, la ville est plus souvent présentée par les pré- dicateurs pentecotistes comme ‘‘inhumaine’’, sous emprise démoniaque. Cette représentation de la ville comme lieu d’un combat spirituel de libération, diffusée par la ‘‘troisième vague’’ pentecotiste, aboutitè un réinvestissement symbolique des territoires, alors měme que les croyants tendentè s’en émanciper, par la conversion personnelle et des engagements religieux affinitaires. La rue est le lieu où ces deux axes contradictoires de la mission pentecotiste peuvent converger: l’un tourné vers des individus en mobilité; l’autre vers le territoire urbain perç u comme une entité spirituelle influenç ant le destin de ses habitants. L’évangélisation des rues, fréquemment conduite par des ‘‘prophètes’’ indépendants, cultive des affinités profondes avec le paradigme pentecotiste fondé sur une médiation institutionnelle ‘‘invisible’’ et l’idée que la véritable é glise ne peut demeurer entre les murs de l’église.