Les prières et le droit. Considérations d’une sociologue

• Main Author: Régine Azria
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: L’Harmattan 2006-06-01
• Series: Droit et Cultures
• Subjects: diversity of prayers; links State/religion; meeting points prayers/law; normativity of religions; religious law systems; secularism
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/droitcultures/779

Meeting points between prayers and the law are many, including in France where, because of the separation between the Church and the State, one would be entitled to consider such junctures as illegitimate if not impossible since prayer is linked to the religious and therefore the private sphere whereas law concerns justice and therefore the public sphere. The present essay aims at showing that, in reality, borders between the private and public spheres are less inviolable and the relationships between religion and the law much closer that at first sight. It starts by describing the religious law systems (canon law, charia, halakha) elaborated outside the national laws, recalls the diversity of religious links between the State and religion (theocracy, monarchy by divine right, State religion – with our without recognition of the tolerated religious minorities –, religion of the majority, pluralism, Concordat, secularism, separation, State atheism) and the plurality of levels and sources of normativity inside the religious systems. It then focuses on prayer itself and describes its various aspects. As a matter of fact, prayer is no more monolithic than is the law. Solitary or collective practice, spontaneous or regulated expression of faith, of religious feeling or denomination belonging, identity or community assertion, prayer is diverse in its forms and contents as well as in its usages. Social or militant action, as soon as it takes the risk of going beyond the border of the private sphere or the religious, prayer meets the law.