Abstract

BERAUD, Céline; ROSTAING, Corinne  and  DE GALEMBERT, Claire. Worship in confinement: The experience of a form of extraterritoriality. Soc. relig. [online]. 2017, vol.27, n.48, pp.237-260. ISSN 1853-7081.

This paper is based on a fieldwork led between January 2011 and October 2012 in eight prisons in France. Its aim is to describe how worship may offer an experience of extraterritoriality to inmates. It can of course lead them to a transcendental experience. More basically, it can be a link between past and present for some of them who have received a religious socialization. Worship also mixes in and out by the presence of guests, as well as the few material goods that can enter on this occasion into custody. It shows how religion may allow inmates to transcend for a time the boundaries of confinement.

Keywords : Worship; Prisons; Extraterritoriality; France.