Gastvortrag von Prof. Massimo Faggioli, Ph.D.: „Far-Right Catholicism and Trump: The Theo-political Polarization in the USA
and its Global Consequences“

Hörsaal I der Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät, Karl-Rahner-Platz 3, EG

 The relations between prominent US Catholics and the Trump movement has occupied the center of the debate within the Church in the USA, but it has important consequences also for European and global Catholicism. The lecture will introduce to the roots of extreme conservatism within American Catholicism and their cultural and theological connections to the Trump-adjacent far right: the rejection of the Second Vatican Council, the resurgence of „Catholic integralism”, and a post-democratic political theology. The evening will also look at the current alliances between US and European Catholicism, focusing on the similarities and differences with the so-called “New Right” in Europe.

Massimo Faggioli, Ph.D. is Full Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia, USA). He is an expert in the history and reception of the Second Vatican Council, the papacy, new Catholic movements and intersection of Catholicism and global politics. Prof. Faggioli is a columnist for “La Croix International” and “Commonweal”. His books and articles have been translated and published in multiple languages. His most recent publications include: M. Faggioli, Theology and Catholic Higher Education: Beyond Our Identity Crisis (Orbis Books, 2024); M. Faggioli and B. Froehle, Global Catholicism: Between Disruption and Encounter (Studies in Global Catholicism, 1) (Brill, 2024); M. Faggioli / C. Clifford (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II (OUP, 2023).