Conspiracism as Political Theology: Project 2025 and Ecclesiologies of Conspiracy

Scholars of religion have worked with the connections between conspiracy theories (and their accompanying conspiracist epistemologies) and religiosity, with various framing phrases from conspiracy theories about religions, to conspiracy theories in religions, to conspiracy theories as religions. But the critical paradigm of political theology has yet to be used – in detail – to analyze conspiracism and its structures and persuasive techniques. This presentation begins such a task by using Project 2025 as a case study in conspiracist political theology. Beginning from the premise that the intentional and ordered world posited by conspiracy theorists bears family resemblances to the teleological orders of Jewish and Christian messianisms and eschatologies, this presentation analyses the self-conscious rejection of conspiracism in Project 2025, treating its approach to trust-building as indicative of wider ecclesial-social conjugations in American society.