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The study of religious interactions in shared sacred spaces will allow us both to question the forms of coexistence between different religious communities in specific socio-political contexts and to reassess the religious practices and conceptions of these communities. In other words, this panel will explore the themes of boundaries (between communities and between religions) and of belonging (congruity between community and religious belonging), and their effects on the modes of living together.
First, we'll examine what the sharing of sacred sites tells us about the fabric of plural societies. The sharing of sacred sites implies a co-presence of followers of different religious traditions. The modalities of this co-presence can be at great variance from one site to another, however, which raises a number of questions on the stakes and the processes of sharing: what is being shared around these sites and how? Are multi-religious cults primarily pragmatic (do they involve a convergence of practices in the expectation of certain tangible or intangible benefits?) or are they supplemented by feelings/beliefs challenging denominational divides?
Second, we'll study what the sharing of sacred sites tells us about the politics of belonging. In that respect, the panel will focus on the interlinkage between religious interactions and the politics of belonging, as the existence of such shared spaces questions the boundaries between groups and between religions. The notion of shared sacred sites implies the co-presence of members of at least two different communities, defined on a religious basis. But in fact such places may call into question the very notion of “religious community”, and its definition. Do the members of different religions who intermingle in a shared sacred space epresent their communities? Such a statement is questionable since religious affiliation is not always clearly defined, nor is it necessarily the compulsory foundation for community formation.
