Gender and geopolitics in ‘secular time’

This article argues that gender must be central to our theorisations of emergent religious geopolitics. It does so through an engagement with B utler's reflections upon secular time ( B utler J 2008 S ecular politics, torture, and secular time The B ritish J ournal of S ociology 59 1–23), and the ‘cultural reanimation’ of R oman C atholic cultural underpinnings of French culture in the defence of the torture and maltreatment of Islamic bodies. Drawing from both the broader, tactical gender geopolitics of the C atholic C hurch and the embodied experiences of C atholic faithful in Latin America, the paper argues that the concept of cultural reanimation fails to capture the skilful way in which the Holy See asserts a gender theology that transcends the individual faithful body, through to the body of humanity. The ambiguous position of religious institutions in contemporary geopolitics as both cultural and political facilitates the construction of boundaries and territories that transcend and cut through the politics of the state.