Religion and Populism Midterm

Brubaker (2017)

civilizational Northern+Western European populism against Islam (cultural christianity, secularism, philosemitism, liberal values) + Trump/Eastern european

Marzouki et al. (2017)

Religion as cultural identity marker (restoration + battle) + Christendom vs Christianity

Amesbury (2023)

Paradox of popular sovereignty: populist religion as definition of the people in constitutive authority (performative); natural convergence of religion and politics; authenticity trap

Gorski (2023)

WCN explains Trumpism (blood tropes, apocalyptic/victimization narratives, messianic discourse)

Onishi (2023)

WCN = global + antidemocratic (authoritarian leaders and christian nation against pluralism)

Braunstein et al (2017)

Progressive religious activism as field of action (action, values, identities, theology) outside traditional left/right axis

de Barros (2026)

Progressive evangelical pastors in Brazil against Bolsonaro (scripture, social justice, democratic values), range from moderate liberals to anti-capitalist leftists

Key movements in brazilian progressive evangelicalism

Frente de Evangelicos pelo Estado de Direito + Esperançar

Holistic understanding of religion

Totality of society is determined by religion (Islam/orientalism: Doutte + Gibb) / Islam is nothing, just a language (non-culturalist/essentialist)

Individualistic understanding of religion

Individual relation to practices, symbols and representations within specific conetxts (current scholar line)

Modernization/Secularization paradigm

Late 80s hegemony, progress as disappearance of religion (Lemer, Berger, Fukuyama)

Berger (1999) + Norris & Inglehart (2011) + Taylor (2018)

(Post Iranian Revolution) Revisit secularization paradigm: return of the sacred, traditional religion, neofundamentalism

Stark & Finke (2000)

Religion as business: competing dynamics to sell narratives

Roy (2004)

Globalization (and secularization) leads to individualized beliefs/religiosity, disconnection of practices and sociality : source of fundamentalism (as answer, truth, certainty)

Kratochvil (2025)

Secularization as both laicization (State/Church) and (re)sacralization of the profane (liberal norms and values); return of the sacred, the natural, the past (reenchanting politics)

Mahmood (2015) + Asad (1986)

Secular state as imperial narrative and dynamics, project of power and domination to define values

Burge (2024)

Rise of the NONES (non-affiliated to institutional religion), with own community, rituals and symbols

Securitization of religion

Religion increasingly perceived as threat (radicalism, terrorism, extremism)

Shakman Hurd’s engagement paradigm

Cooperation with religion in peace-building, progressive religious leaders and experts

Omer’s critique of the engagement paradigm

Risk of individualization, essentialization and division (good vs bad religious) + neoliberal frame to avoid social justice

Davidson Hunter’s culture wars

Construction of US public life around orthodox (religious) vs progressive groups conflict + now dominated by nihilism (culture of violence and death) = radicalization and religiosification of religion

Roy (2017)

Islamization of radicalism, no causal link between salafism and radicality of religiosity : religion as convenient ideological vehicle

Mudde & Kaltwasser (2017) + Müller (2017)

Populism as thin centered ideology (parallels nationalism) : people vs elite vs others but no political program of its own, no substance

Freeden (2003)

Ideologies have recurrence, extension, policy impact strength vs populism

Laclau (2005) + Mouffe (2018)

Populism as expression of popular discontent: emergence in hegemonic crises as political form, collective tool and process of construction against authoritarianism within liberal democratic framework

Rosanvallon on democratic backsliding

Populism is always enabled by democracy (in distress) and facilitates the transition into authoritarian regimes

Müller (2017) + Urbinati (2019)

Populism is incompatible with liberal democracy

Zakaria (1997) + Marolla et al. (2024)

Populism as illiberal not antidemocratic

Populism vs liberalism

moralization, overextension of majoritarian principle vs compromise, neutrality, proceduralism and freedom

Lefort “Le lieu vide du pouvoir”

Liberal democracy is defined by the structural emptiness of the place of power (no king, no people)

Right wing populism

insiders (true ethnocultural people) vs outsiders (others, minority) vs (cultural) elites (complicit with outsider)

Left wing populism

people (organized in movement) vs elite (exploiting productive labor)

Peoples of populism (6)

Civic body (demos), nation (ethos), audience (performance), social (class), plebs (marginalized subaltern), crowd

Derrida on the people

“this [American] people does not exist … the signature advances the signer” cf. Amesbury

T. Asad’s exclusionary democracy

“the democratic ethical subject is a loyal citizen and a member of liberal democracy’s priviledged circle of we”

Poe & the crowd

Othering mechanism, legebility implies stereotypes, binarity

WEB Dubois

American crowd (welcoming, infinite, freed) vs mob (culture of white supremacy, self vs others)

Civil religion

Bellah, Rousseau : culturalization of religion by sharing symbols, values, rituals (compatible with other religions)

Christendom vs Christianity (gospel)

identity (tautology, embodied practice) vs faith

L’évangile de la révolution, F-X Drouet

Different christian liberation movements in south america

Böckenförde dilemma

“the liberal secularized state lives by prerequisites in which it cannot guarantee itself” no foundation or core basis = absence of faithfulness

US since 2016

Dysfunctional democracy, state of counter insurrection, uncivil religion, “the fringe has become the carpet” : radicalization of politics, charismaticization of religious right

Religious landscape in the US

62% christians (evangelical protestant majority, 20% catholics), 2% jews, 1% muslim + increasing nones (majority in 18/29yo)

US religious voters

80+% white evangelicals / 25+% of nones for Trump + 70% of nones for Democrats

US foundational narrative

Religious freedom and refuge + frontier revivalism and national evangelism + redemptive narrative

Evangelicalism

literal interpretation of the Bible, Holy Spirit, Millenarianism : conversion, activism, biblicism, crucentrism

Taylor (2024) on MAGA + New Apostolistic reformation

Charismatic and non denominational christianism + shaping activism, spiritual warfare, Heritage Foundation, 7 Mountain mandate, public space as embodiment of congregation

Religious freedom jurisprudence

Very complex + protestant bias, emphasis on inner faith

Kazin (1995)

centrality of populism within protest movement in the US without calling the entire system into question : form of rhetorical optimism

People’s party

Agrarian and labor coalition : the “good producers” (morality rather than struggle)

G. Wallace

Working man, white middle class : the “silent majority” (majoritarian inferiority complex) against desegregation and juristocracy

White christian nationalism

Evangelicals, racial animus, redemptive narrative, militarist vision of border/police, foundational to US, diverse : “freedom, order, violence”

Donald Trump

Specific religiosity : strong godly masculine figure, theology of offense, sacred/profane blur, selective defense, messianic…

MAGA coalition

Hardliners, antiwoke conservatives, mainline/reluctant republicans …

Jericho March vs Jericho walks

January 5th 2021: against city of sin vs silent prayer in front of ICE

Jan. 6th

Saturation of religious symbols and rituals, religiously incoherent, “uncivil religion”

Postliberalism + political catholicism

State as instrumental to collective salvation, ordo amoris (Vance), city of god on earth, bureaucratic infiltration

Hobbes vs Lefort/Spinoza

Absolute sovereign for security vs empty place of power/separation of C/S as distinction between true and false religion

Cerebral Church/catholics without faith

Schmitt, Maurras, Zemmour : Ordo amoris, church as order and hierarchy, “lutheologico politique”, for the church against christ

Liberation theory

Preferential option for the poor, contextualized theology, praxi>doxi, collective action : collective salvation through structural transformation (question about armed struggle, deliberation, multifaith…)

Exodus/Matthew 25 discussion

Immigration : “you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” + morality of God (annihilation)

Progressive religion

Faith based groups around specific policy issues, closing the god gap, nun on the bus + ngoization of religion

Prophetic activism

Legacy of liberation theory, moral awakening/refusal of unjust order, non-violence, interconnected struggle

(New) Sanctuary Movement

asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants sheltering movement following US intervention

Poor People’s Campaign

Bishop William Barber, moral re-awakening, within and outside black church

Don Alberto Vigorelli

You’re either a christian or pro-salvini; immigration stances, religious and judicial reaction

Politicization of evangelicalism in Brazil

Started in the 1990s: territorial reaction from/to catholics after C/S + gender politics emergence

Brazil background

Independence to Empire, Republican coup, nationalist populism, authoritarian coup + 50+% Catholics, 20+% evagelicals, rise of the nones + separation of C/S

3 Mega Churches in Brazil

Assembly of God (AD, decentralized + ties with center left), Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD, hierarchical, close ties with republicans), Church of the Foursquare Gospel (IEQ)

Burity (2016)

Process of minoritization played a role in politicization of brazilian evangelicals: claim to legitimacy as the “good christians of brazil”

Evangelical Parliamentary Front (2003)

Group discussing tax exemptions for Churches, gender politics + very coalitional/fragmented

Bolsonarismo

Precedes Bolsonaro; militaro-religious populism, illiberalism, post-fascim, integralism, varguism

Bolsonaro

Familism, anti-globalism, militarism and politics of truth, messianic figure, vehicle to spread traditional values, consolidated power with appointments (D. Alves 2019)

Brazilian Integral Action

Brazilian fascist movement founded by Plínio Salgado in 1932, inspired by European fascism, with a strongly Catholic nationalist ideology