Postsecular Performance. Critical analysis of power dynamics in polito-performative practices

• Applicant: Dr. Christian Kern
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 545972161

In the network "Postsecular performances" we analyze performative practices in which people publicly negotiate political issues and refer to religious signs and beliefs. Our focus is on the "performative", i.e. non-verbal dimension of staging, shaping and embodiment in the political public sphere. Examples are manifold: swearing-in ceremonies of politicians with references to God; blessings of war material; street protests or artistic interventions with references to symbols of faith. We conduct the analysis with the following guiding questions: What implicit and explicit referencs to faith traditions can be found in exemplary polito-performative practices? Which dynamics of transcendence take shape in these practices? How do these references to faith repertoires, the dynamics of transcendence and political issues interact and (re)produce or change power relations? The research goal of the network is to reconstruct typical ways in which actors exercise and shape power in and through postsecular politico-performative practices. Our aim is not a comprehensive theory, but an open compilation of different types of power relations - a critical typology. Current research in theology and performance studies lacks such a systematization and a differentiated analysis of postsecular performances. Previous research approaches either work out how polito-performative practices of this kind stabilize relations of domination or, on the other hand, advocate for unconditional openness. In a more nuanced way, our network aims at elaborating the numerous variants that we assume to exist between these two poles, in order to make visible both the diversity and the ambivalence of postsecular polito-performative practices. The network enables interdisciplinary and international synergies: Researchers as well as practitioners from systematic and practical theology, from performance studies, performance philosophy, from theater education and pastoral work are active in it. It specifically includes members in early career phases who can gain international experience in the network and further develop their competences from multiple perspectives. In four working meetings in the period March 2024 to May 2026, the network develops for the first time a systematic critical typology of postsecular performances and elaborates a joint book publication, open-access articles, and a multi-media online documentation of the network's activities. With these research results, the network offers for the first time a tool for the theological-critical analysis of postsecular polito-performative practices, which are currently becoming powerful forms of political activity in the context of societal structural change.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks