A blog series has been launched on the University of Notre Dame’s ‘Contending Modernities’ website. The series is a result of a joint Queen’s University-University of Notre Dame workshop, which was hosted by the Mitchell Institute in August 2023.

The posts explore ‘turbulent religions’, including the study of how religious actors, institutions, and discourses disrupt societal and political norms and practices, whether by contributing to violence or peacefully challenging injustices and inequalities.  They analyse religion’s role in historical and contemporary currents of violence – most notably around the themes of race and nationalism – and their relation to apocalyptic and conspiratorial thinking. 

In the latest blog, Assistant Director of the Contending Modernities research initiative, Joshua S. Lupo writes on 'The Political Theology of Traditionalism: Steve Bannon, the Far Right, and the End of Days'.

https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/theorizing-modernities/political-theology-traditionalism/

Joshua S. Lupo

In this role, he serves as the editor and writer for the Contending Modernities Blog and the classroom coordinator for the Madrasa Discourses program. He has published articles and reviews in Sophia, Soundings, Critical Muslim, Reading Religion, and Religious Studies Review. With CM Co-Director Atalia Omer, he is the co-editor of Broken Solidarities: Feminism, Race, and Transnationalism (Notre Dame Press, 2022) and Religion, Populism, and Modernity: Confronting White Christian Nationalism and Racism  (Notre Dame Press, 2023). His current book project is titled After Essentialism: A Critical Phenomenology for the Study of Religion.