L’exil, une reinterpretation de la reforme radicale au XXe siecle

Abstract

The social configuration of exile means the minority presence of a social group that builds a different lifestyle and different beliefs from the majority while coexisting with that majority in the same place. This configuration, valued in a surprising way, in the Jewish prophetism of the exile period, has long faced strong oppositions. The Christendom society wanted, from this point of view, a homogeneous society. The Reformation has produced divisions, but has not destroyed, as a first step, the local uniformity of convictions and life choices. The radical Reformation, which has valued, from 1523, individual choice against a religion imposed or controlled by the state had all the attributes needed to conceive itself as living in a position of exile. This has not been the case. The pressure for social homogeneity was too strong at the time. It was not before the twentieth century, when rereading the legacy of the radical Reformation in the context of an increasingly fragmented society, that the subject was finally raised.