This session explores freedom of religion in the relationship between church and state, and in view of Project 2025 (Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise).
Congdon's "Resident Arsonists" argues that while much has been made of the New Apostolic Reformation and its dominionist theology of the Seven Mountain Mandate, the actual policies of the second Trump administration are better understood through the lens of postliberalism.
Kennel's "Conspiracism as Political Theology" 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.
Asano's "Stepping on the Image of Christ" shows that despite persecution, hidden Christians preserved their faith through adaptation and resilience, demonstrating how religious identity endured under suppression in early modern Japan.
Finally, McNulty's "Towards Synodal Parliamentarianism?" argues for a qualified form of 'synodal parliamentarianism' in which synodality is seen as developing an ongoing dialogue in the Vatican II-era between Catholic ecclesiology and liberal-democratic society.
While much has been made of the New Apostolic Reformation and its dominionist theology of the Seven Mountain Mandate, the actual policies of the second Trump administration are better understood through the lens of postliberalism—a family of ideologies that share a commitment to the belief that the manifest flaws of liberal society are the result of liberalism itself, and thus the goal should be the replacement of the modern liberal state with a new postliberal society. Key proponents of political postliberalism include Patrick Deneen, Gladden Pappin, Sohrab Ahmari, and Adrian Vermeule, but not enough attention has been given to the theological postliberals of the 1980s and 1990s—George Lindbeck, Stanley Hauerwas, Richard John Neuhaus, among others—who helped lay the groundwork through the principles of (1) antipluralist intratextualism and (2) ecclesiocentrism. The “resident aliens” of Hauerwas’s youth have become the “resident arsonists” of today.
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.
In 17th-century Japan, after the expulsion of Catholic missionaries, the Shogunate enforced the ritual of efumi (image-trampling) to suppress Christianity. All citizens were required to register with Buddhist temples, and Christian practice seemingly disappeared on the surface level. However, some Christians maintained their faith in secret while publicly conforming to state mandates. This paper examines how hidden Christians navigated religious oppression by performing efumi and practicing Christianity clandestinely. Forced apostasy through torture and trampling on sacred images inflicted deep psychological and spiritual trauma. Hidden Christians, at the same time, however, venerated a statuette of the bodhisattva Kannon as a figure of Mary, adapting Buddhist imagery to sustain their beliefs. The use of Maria Kannon statuettes illustrates how these communities exercised agency, blending cultural familiarity with covert devotion. Despite persecution, hidden Christians preserved their faith through adaptation and resilience, demonstrating how religious identity endured under suppression in early modern Japan.
Pope Francis has repeatedly insisted that "the Synod is not a parliament." The Synod on Synodality, however, recently concluded with a magisterial document approved by a two-thirds voting majority of an ostensibly-representative voting body. If this is not a parliament, then what is?
Drawing on analyses of the global Synod and the German Synodal Path, this paper argues for a qualified form of "synodal parliamentarianism": synodality develops an ongoing dialogue in the Vatican II-era between Catholic ecclesiology and liberal-democratic society, increasingly operationalized by deliberative structures that resemble parliamentary democracies. This transformation has tangible impacts both for Lumen gentium's proto-democratic theology of the laity and the Church's treatment of marginalized people, particularly LGBTQ+ Catholics. In future Synods, and in the synodal project more generally, the Church stands to learn that clear, binding, and even "democratic" structures are necessary to "journey together" in a contemporary context.