English information on
Hors du ghetto:

English translation of the title:

Out of the Ghetto: An Evangelical Perspective on Culture and the Arts

A Brief Note (book not presently available in English)

Hors du ghetto explores issues such as the cultural implications of the doctrines of Creation and the Fall. Chapter one give historical overview of attitudes towards culture amongst Christians and Evangelicals in particular. A section of the second chapter deals with the destructive influence of the Word Faith movement amongst Evangelicals. Part of chapter 6 deals with the marginalisation of the Judeo-Christian worldview (and individuals working from this position) in the post-modern West. In chapter seven, the section entitled "Exile" discusses the alienation that many creative individuals feel in Christian churches and points to hope for reconciliation. One point of particular interest is the last chapter, which explores the cultural impact of Darwinism in the West and examines evidence from the field of Social Anthropology which opens the door to considering this theory a modern/post-modern "meta-narrative" or origins myth.

Reader's comments

Don Martin (professor at Continental Theological Seminary, Belgium):
"I enjoyed reading this book — Gosselin has done a lot of thinking on a subject to which most of our francophone evangelical brothers and sisters (not to mention Pentecostals!) give no time. (...) The work is worthy of being widely distributed. Many of your conclusions are applicable not only to the world of art, but to much of applied Christianity."

Table of contents

Foreword

Chapter I Prejudices and Misconceptions
Going Off-Course
The Weight of the Past and Unconscious Expectations
The Reformation: New Horizons
Would you Grant Me This…?

Chapter II Identities
Cultural Identification
The Value of the Individual
Evangelicals Inc.
Judging a Book by it's Cover?
Creativity in Church
Positive Thinking and Faith.

Chapter III Creation
The Image of God in Man
Art Forms
A Breeze Out of Eden
Other Functions, Other Purposes
To Laugh or…
Drama
French-speaking Evangelicals and the Arts

Chapter IV Message on Hold
Not in my Church!
Gimme that Old-Time Religion!
The Evangelical Ghetto

Chapter V The Fall
The Question of all Questions
Pentecostal Stumbling Blocks
The Super-Spiritual Hero
Communicating
Blind Spots
Discernement
God and the Arts

Chapter VI Artist and Christian
The Artist and God
The Power of the Imagination
Creativity
The Artist and his Audience
Identify and Exclude (Marginalization)
Artist and Prophet?

Chapter VII: The Artist and the Church
Exile
The Power of the Word
Art Forms and Limitations
Nudity

Chapter VIII Origins Myths and the Theory of Evolution
Origin and Definition of the Theory of Evolution
What is Science?
Comparisons
Evolution of an Evolutionist
Cultural Influences

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index
Footnotes