Theopolitical Authorization: Óscar Romero, Far-Right Christianity, and a Contest for the Soul of the Americas

This talk examines the assassination of Archbishop Óscar 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 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 theopolitical doppelgängers to explain the mirroring through which Christian nationalists created permission structures for violence.