The Politics of Personhood

This article explores the marginalization of “secular” individuals and religious minorities in the post-secular age. In an era of increasing polarization between religion and politics, religious minorities are increasingly subjected to forced ascription in the American public sphere. Using mimetic theory, this study suggests that interpreted social failures, such as moral decline, are redirected onto marginalized groups, who are then blamed as their cause. By scapegoating these individuals, society tries to expel and symbolically sacrifice them to reinforce social cohesion. This study argues that forced ascription is a form of ontological violence within a broader politics of personhood that undermines individuals’ right to self-identification, and from a Christian understanding of personhood, distorts the realization of their personhood. Through a theoretical-critical and hermeneutical analysis engaging current political events, this article asks how Christian theology can respond to the ontological violence of forced ascription. Drawing on the theological anthropologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Zizioulas, and Stanley Hauerwas, this article develops a constructive account of relational personhood that resists politicization. In contrast to nationalist responses to secularization, this study proposes a dialogical theory of religions in which religious minorities are encountered as “strangers,” God-given partners necessary for the realization of authentic personhood and human flourishing.