Work as a Sense of Intra-Prison Community Insertion: The Social and Symbolic Resources That Pentecostal Communities Provide to Converts inside Prisons (1950–1970)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the social and symbolic resources that intra-prison Pentecostalism provides to converted inmates for their intra- and then extra-prison community reintegration. To conduct this analysis, we present two sections. Firstly, we present a characterization of two prison spaces between 1950 and 1970: the Public Prison and the Santiago Penitentiary, both located in the city of Santiago de Chile. In them, Pentecostal communities developed and adjusted to the prison contexts with different proposals. Secondly, we see religious work as an organizer of meaning based on the three most important religious rituals of prison spaces: the invocation ritual, which is prayer as sacred work; music, which is sung work; and preaching, which is the work that makes the community grow. The theoretical framework we employ is that of structuralism, to adapt to the era explored in this article, complemented by the phenomenological proposal of René Girard. Methodologically, this study is a qualitative vision focused on the autobiography of a religious leader, to which two autobiographical novels of the time are added, in addition to institutional magazines (Pentecostal) and a magazine of journalistic reportage, to contextualize the information provided by the autobiography.

Keywords

• Pentecostalism
• prison work
• prison studies
• social and symbolic resources
• social reintegration