Theopolitical Authorization: 脫scar Romero, Far-Right Christianity, and a Contest for the Soul of the Americas
Kevin Coleman
University of Toronto
Date:听Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Time:听3 - 5:30pm
Location:听Boisi Center, 24 Quincy Road, Conference Room听听
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Co-sponsored with The Institute for the Liberal Arts, The Jesuit Institute, and the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Office
This talk examines the assassination of Archbishop 脫scar Romero and the subsequent contestation over his legacy as manifestations of a transnational theological and political struggle in and beyond Cold War El Salvador. Drawing on previously unexamined beatification documents, particularly the听Positio Super Martyrio, Coleman will reconstruct how conservative forces constructed theological justifications that portrayed Romero as a communist dupe rather than as an authentic religious authority. He will introduce the concept of听theopolitical听doppelg盲ngers听to explain the mirroring through which Christian nationalists created permission structures for violence.
Kevin Coleman is an associate professor of history at the University of Toronto. A historian of capitalism, photography, and political conflict in modern Latin America, he is the author of听A Camera in the Garden of Eden听(2016) and co-editor of听Capitalism and the Camera听(2021) and听Coups d鈥櫭﹖at in Cold War Latin America听(2025). He wrote and directed听Stolen Photo听(Se帽al Colombia, 2024), a documentary exploring the 1928 massacre of banana workers in Colombia. His research has been awarded prizes from the American Historical Association听and supported by the ACLS/Mellon Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
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Clark, Serena, and Chelsea Wilkinson. "Chapter 8: Authoritarianism and Theocracy in the 21st Century: Far-Right Christianity and Social Counter-Movements in America". In Social Justice in a Turbulent Era (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023), https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803926155.00013.听
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Van Der Tol, Marietta. 鈥淐hristian Nationalism and the Far Right: A Transnational Entanglement.鈥� Political Insight 16, no. 2 (June 2025): 40鈥�43. https://doi.org/10.1177/20419058251351499.听听听