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By the 1860s, the tendency of matter toward increasing chaos—or entropy—had become a fundamental tenet of the new science of thermodynamics. But in Victorian Britain, the ramifications of this second law of thermodynamics for a Christian conception of a progressive universe remained subject to heated ideological debate. Historians of thermodynamics have held up French astronomer Camille Flammarion's popular science fiction as comprehensive evidence that this entropic–theological debate was widespread across disciplines, media, and cultures. I show that Flammarion's argument has been misrepresented. Not only did Flammarion not employ entropic heat-death metaphors at all—instead evoking a hot apocalypse—but he interpreted entropy through a distinctive theology, at odds with that of British scientists. A study of Flammarion's theology, concept of entropy, and novels exhibits how investigating influential popular works can dismantle assumptions about the geographic and religious scope of the entropic–theological debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often assumed that the history of 19th-century France was determined by a struggle between anti-religious progressive reformers and Catholic reactionaries, culminating inlaïcité. In this process, the role of socialism as a secular force is usually taken for granted. This article will argue that a more complex approach to socialism can contribute to a better understanding of secularization and the emergence of “modern” forms of religion. Firstly, it will be discussed that pre-1848 social reformers were highly religious, despite their depiction in historical narratives influenced by Marxism. Secondly, it will be shown that socialist ideas continued, after 1848, in new religious movements. This will be demonstrated on the basis of the intellectual development of the socialist Alphonse-Louis Constant who, under his pen-name Eliphas Lévi, is regarded as the founder of occultism. An analysis of his writings will help to illuminate the ambiguous relationship between socialism and secularization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Durant la majeure partie de sa carrière de vulgarisateur scientifique, spécialement en astronomie, Camille Flammarion s'est également occupé de spiritisme, enquêtant en particulier sur les facultés médiumniques. Ses recherches consacrées à l'une des plus célèbres médiums européennes, Eusapia Palladino, furent publiées dans son ouvrage Les Forces Naturelles Inconnues (1907), illustré de photographies d'esprits et de dessins automatiques. Les périodiques spirites parisiens étaient en effet friands de telles reproductions de phénomènes dits « surnaturels » et ont ainsi contribué à l'élaboration d'une culture visuelle typiquement_fin-de-siècle du « surnaturel » et de l'inconscient. Au demeurant, Flammarion était très introduit dans les cercles artistiques liés au Symbolisme et entretenait en outre des relations amicales avec la Loïe Fuller, Auguste Rodin ou Jules Bois. Les Symbolistes français s'intéressaient également à la figure de l'inconscient créateur et examinaient attentivement les images et représentations fournies par les publication scientifiques consacrées au spiritisme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last third of the 19th century, the ‘new’ French psychology developed within ‘the hypnotic context’ opened up by Charcot. In spite of their claims to the scientific nature of their hypnotic experiments, Charcot and his followers were unable to avoid the miracles that had accompanied mesmerism, the forerunner of hypnosis. The hysterics hypnotized in the Salpêtrière Hospital were expected to have supernormal faculties and these experiments opened the door to psychical research. In 1885 the first French psychology society was founded. The research carried out by this society may seem surprising: its members – Charles Richet in particular – were interested in strange phenomena, like magnetic lucidity, ‘mental suggestion’, thought-reading, etc. Very quickly, psychologists applied themselves to finding rational explanations for these supposedly miraculous gifts. Generally, they ascribed them to unconscious or subconscious perceptual mechanisms. Finally, after a few years, studies of psychical phenomena were excluded from the field of psychology. However, during the 4th International Congress of Psychology, which took place in Paris in 1900, the foundation of an institute devoted to the study of psychical phenomena was announced, but Pierre Janet and Georges Dumas founded within it the Société Française de Psychologie, from which psychical research was excluded. As for Charles Richet, disappointed by the psychologists, he devoted himself to the development of a new ‘science’ which he called ‘Métapsychique’. Several hypotheses have been put forward to account for this early research undertaken by the French psychologists, pertaining as much to parapsychology as to scientific psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores both cultural and religious aspects of the convulsionaries of Saint-Médard, France who were linked to Jansenists of Paris, France, focusing particularly on written accounts of the religious miracles written by Louis-Basile Carré de Montgeron. The author explores the testimonial discourses by considering the context of the eighteenth century culture and society in France. Other subjects include Montegron's authenticity, rhetoric strategies, and his attempts to influence "public opinion" of politics and religion during the period.

The article discusses Carmelite Thérèse of Lisieux, France, a Catholic saint. The roles of suffering in spirituality, religion in the secular world, and female spirituality in nineteenth century Catholicism are discussed. Also, a biography of St. Thérèse is given, along with an analysis of her view on women in the Catholic priesthood. The social aspects of women's lives in nineteenth century France are also discussed.

Discusses the craze for spirit raps or seances in France from 1853 to 1861. Role of newspapers in the promotion of spirit phenomena in discussions; Argument of religious critics on the validity of the venets; Presence of seance practitioners in the French middle-class.

This article examines the position of nineteenth-century French spiritism in relation to the Catholic Church. Spiritism offered an alternative "religion" to French Catholics dissatisfied with the church's traditionalism in a modernizing world. I begin by describing the spiritists' position on Catholic dogma and the movement's place as an urban popular religion. Spiritist critiques of heaven and hell incorporated liberal and republican values, thus making it appealing to these groups who were often hostile to the church. I move next to conflicts between the adversaries. Spiritists, unfettered by dogma or even logic in some cases, freely incorporated the supernatural into the nineteenth-century acceptance of Enlightenment values such as reason and science. The church, unable to deny the reality of supernatural phenomena claimed by the spiritists, limited itself to asserting the devil's hand in these phenomena. It thus could not fully address the challenge of spiritism. Spiritism as a popular religion complicates the assumption by many folklorists regarding the disappearance of popular beliefs in the face of the modern. The article concludes with a call to modify these theories in order to understand an evolving, often urban, popular culture which integrated "tradition" and "modernity" and continually created new forms of the marvellous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes Peter Mayle's best-selling accounts of his life in Provence, France that have appealed to a wide audience in Britain and attracted harsh criticism. Mayle's works are to be seen as lifestyle guides to the English. Early retirement, travel, home building, food and drink, all are major themes. The author is engaged in a spiritual search for authentic living and a new identity. These books are not written for consumption by the French they are myths for the English. The French have their own corresponding myths and preoccupations. Mayles' relations with local people are on his account very different. He defers to their knowledge and experience throughout, whether on gastronomy, oenology, agriculture, domestic architecture, local customs, or strategies for dealing with bureaucracy. They offer advice, he frequently takes it, invariably to his own benefit. He is not a retired bourgeois giving orders to servants, but a semi-retired member of the service class engaged in mutually profitable relations with artisans. He and his wife seek to immerse themselves in the host culture, not to export England. There is no mention of an expatriate community.

During the years which followed World War I, psychologists of the Sorbonne organized “ control experiments ” to question the reality of parapsychological phenomena. They worked with well-known mediums and the results of their investigations were published in widely-read. French and American newspaper. Despite the melodramatic and somewhat humorous character of these episodes, the researchers involved were engaged in efforts toward genuinely scientific psychology. Henri Pieron and Henri Laugier, both positivists and militant rationalist, were leaders in the institutionalized development of psychology in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence and prevalence of mental diseases are growing throughout the world and their causes are not yet clearly established in spite of the recent advances in modern psychiatry. Spiritism is the collection of principles and laws, as revealed by the superior spirits, through a natural human condition named mediunship and published in 1857 in Paris. Spiritist Centers are the place of the mediunship meetings with interchange and intellectual relationship with spirits. They are very common in many countries all over the world. Utilizing doctors and mediuns with the sensibility to crearly see the spiritis and spiritual realm related to each case of mental disease, we can talk to them and, through dialogue, prayer and energy transfer benefiting them, obtain the dissolution of the ties between them and the patients. That spiritis with revenge, hate, jealousy, rivalry and many other feelings projected to the patients are rescued and guided to a different and better spiritual reality. That ties and disharmony were caused in past lives of that patients in common human experiences and relationships. All that steps of this aproach are monitored by the mediuns. After that we study the follow-up of each patient and comparing the results we can see a clear benefit and recovery of the majority of cases. Patients with schizofrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, depression and other diagnosis were treated by this aproach. Conclusion: The Spiritism and mediumnistic practice in Spiritist Centers can reveal the spiritual mechanisms of mental disease and to enable the patient’s recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]