It has become popular to describe intractable divisions between domestic factions as cold civil wars. Our panel seeks to retheorize this heuristic category with studies of the QAnon conspiracy complex (USA); the Christians for National Liberation movement (Phillipines); and President Erdogan's theological rhetoric (Turkey).
This paper addresses urgent questions surrounding the popularity and persistence of contemporary conspiracy theories. The rise of conspiracy theories like “Pizzagate” and “QAnon” have inspired both rhetorical and physical violence while promoting ideological division tantamount to a “cold” civil war. This paper seeks a more comprehensive understanding of this issue by exploring the religious dimensions animating the perpetuation of conspiracy theories in the face of disaffirming evidence. I aim to contribute a more nuanced analysis of conspiracy theories by examining phenomenological features related to the experience of unmasking secrets. While building on classic approaches to conspiracy theory and failed prophecies, this paper will contribute a phenomenological approach by utilizing Michael Taussig’s theory of the production of the sacred through the unmasking of secrecy. Through this exploration of the religious dynamics of conspiracy theories, I will argue that the power of conspiracy theory lies in the experiential power of revelation.
In the aftermath of colonialism several liberation movements emerged with an intention to displace colonial structures and governance. They heralded a different vision of the state that counters the colonialists’ vision. In my paper I ask how theology is utilized, shaped, and translated in the political agenda of liberation movements, and consequently in the same simultaneous process, how liberation movements are shaped, influenced, and changed by theology. The experience of Christians for National Liberation in the Philippines is a case where the dynamic simultaneous process of theology shaping liberation movements and liberation movements shaping theology is happening. In the process, revolutionary violence as a means of reclaiming subjectivity is justified. This paper suggests that theology provided for the people an organizing framework that gives justification for armed resistance and revolutionary violence in a postcolonial condition.
On February 6, a 7.8 earthquake struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria; nine hours later, a 7.5 quake hit, destroying or severely damaged over 200,000 buildings, with an official death count of 56,000. The vocalized fury at state failure—its woeful unpreparedness in a known earthquake zone and inadequate emergency response—prompted a rare apology from President Erdogan. At the same time, he invoked the Islamic notion of *kader*—destiny, the will of Allah—to frame the disaster as beyond human responsibility, suggesting that blame itself is an act of impiety. But framing the earthquakes as *kader* failed to resonate even with supporters, and officials have since abandoned evocations of “destiny” as the cause of devastation. The abortive attempt to frame the disaster as *kader* may reflect a diminution of the intensity of the religious aspects of the “cold civil war” that has fractured Turkish society during the past decades.