He served as editor-in-chief of the journal Archives de sciences sociales des religions between 1980 and 1988.

Under the influence of Henri Desroche he moved from literature to the Sociology of religion and spent the rest of his career as research director of the CNRS.

[1][2] In 1973, his book Les Conflits du dialogue, on the ecumenical activities of the smaller Christian denominations, consecrated him as a skilled sociologist of religious minorities.

[1] Influenced by the work of Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch, he was particularly interested in cults, religious conflicts and Christianity (especially Protestantism and its nonconformist sects, Seventh-day Adventism).

[4] He served as editor-in-chief of the journal Archives de sciences sociales des religions between 1980 and 1988.