In collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics, the Blavatnik School of Government welcomes Dr David Kline (University of Tennessee, USA) for a public webinar to present on his book Racism and the weakness of Christian identity.

David offers a philosophical and critical account of mechanisms of racism and othering in Western Christian identity. Building on theories of society and religion by Sylvia Wynter and Nicolas Luhmann, he traces how the reception of Pauline theology in political theology creates 'religious auto-immunity': a closing-off from others on the basis of distinctions of true/false, proper/improper, pure/impure. His work enables reflection on racism and other mechanisms of othering, as well as the place of Christianity in plural communities.

Professor Zachary Calo (Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar) will offer a response based on his research on how right-wing populism movements have othered Islam in order to construct and defend notions of Christian cultural and political identity. Professor J Kameron Carter (Indiana University Bloomington, USA) will discuss the issue of antisemitism, reflecting on comparisons between racism and antisemitism and what the analytical limitations are of such comparisons.

This event is coupled with the webinar Seeking the common good: The role of churches in a post-secular and post-Christendom context, 15 April 2021, 16:00–18:00 (BST). These webinars are offered as part of the Protestant Political Thought conference of 2021, a collaboration between the Blavatnik School of Government and the Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics.

Please note: The webinars are facilitated over Zoom. Please register below to receive joining instructions. For more information, please email marietta.vandertol@bsg.ox.ac.uk or religion@centreforgeopolitics.cam.ac.uk.