Prayer as an actant: Freedom and sociality in the subject formation of a Catholic nun in Kerala, South India

Abstract

Going beyond current sociological and anthropological understandings, the article harnesses Latour’s idea of actant to grasp prayer as a comparatively independent entity, analytically cleavable from the nun’s act of praying. Based on an ethnographic study of two indigenous congregations of Catholic nuns in Kerala, India, the article argues that conceptualising prayer as actant takes it out of pure interior spirituality and re-imagines it as a form of the sociality of a nun, which includes her relationships with herself, with God, and with those inside and outside the convent, particularly those who solicit her prayers. Perceiving prayer as an actant brings the non-human, divine but real and active presence of God into sociological conversation, enabling us to examine its crucial place in the discipline and formation of the nun as a subject within her everyday life in the congregation. Moreover, analysing its diverse modes locates prayer within the networks and relationships of the congregational community, thereby engaging Foucault’s subjectivation with Latour’s actant.