Religious Practices, State Techniques and Conflicted Forms of Violence in Colombia's Peacebuilding Scenarios
| Autor | Carlos A. Manrique |
| Cargo | PhD in Philosophy. Associate professor at the Universidad de los Andes |
| Páginas | 56-72 |
56
Religious Practices, State Techniques and Conflicted Forms
of Violence in Colombia’s Peacebuilding Scenarios*
Carlos A. Manrique**
Received date: March 18, 2018 ·Acceptance date: July 5, 2018 · Modication date: August 17, 2018
https://doi.org/10.7440/res67.2019.05
How to cite: Manrique, Carlos A. 2019. “Religious Practices, State Techniques and Conicted Forms of Violence in Colombia’s
Peacebuilding Scenarios”. Revista de Estudios Sociales 67: 56-72. https://doi.org/10.7440/res67.2019.05
* A first draft of this paper was presented at the workshop “Thinking Law and Violence with Jean and John Comaroff” organized by
Esteban Restrepo and Julieta Lemaitre (with the support of the School of Law) at the Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) in October
2017. It was a privilege to be part of this space for challenging collective thinking, and I am most grateful to the workshop organizers
for its clarity of purpose and pertinence, and to the Comaroff’s for their generous and gracious engagement with the participants.
Parts of this paper are in close dialogue with the research project with the same title that was awarded a Fulbright Visiting Scholar
fellowship for the academic year 2018-2019.
** PhD in Philosophy. Associate professor at the Universidad de los Andes. Latest publications: “El discurso de los movimientos sociales
como lugar para pensar el conflicto político.” Las Torres de Lucca: revista internacional de filosofía política 10: 135-173, 2017; “La
guerra y la paz pensadas desde la acción política de los movimientos sociales.” In Intervenciones filosóficas en medio del conflicto:
debates sobre la construcción de paz en Colombia hoy, compilated by Anders Fjeld, Carlos Manrique, Diego Paredes y Laura Quintana,
189-206. Bogotá: Ediciones Uniandes – Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2016. * ca.manrique966@uniandes.edu.co
ABSTRACT | This article analyzes the political reach and eects that diverse religious discourses and practices
are having in Colombia’s current “peacebuilding” historical juncture. Examining two specic case studies of
entanglements of the religious and the juridical, it traces pragmatically dierential ways in which the complexes
relations between religiosity, statecraft and violence can be played out in Colombia’s “post-agreement” historical
epoch. It argues that our analysis of these case studies should move away from secularism, as a normative stance
and an interpretative grid, towards a conceptualization of dierent forms of eective imbrication between the
religious, the political and the juridical, that the understanding of the theologico-political in the works of Schmitt,
Derrida and Foucault, might help us to think through. In this way we could better evaluate the contrasting
political rationalities of diverse pastoral practices oriented by dierent gures of the theologico-political, and
their social and political eects.
KEYWORDS | Thesaurus: Latin America. Author: political theology; religion and law; religion and peacebuilding;
religion and politics; secularism
Prácticas religiosas, técnicas estatales y formas de violencia en conflicto en escenarios de construcción
de paz en Colombia
RESUMEN | Este artículo analiza los alcances y efectos políticos que diversos discursos y prácticas religiosas están
teniendo en la actual coyuntura histórica de la “construcción de paz” en Colombia. Examina dos estudios de
caso especícos de imbricaciones entre lo religioso y lo jurídico para trazar desde allí modos pragmáticamente
diferenciados en los cuales pueden darse las complejas relaciones entre religiosidad, estatalidad y violencia
en la Colombia del “post-acuerdo”. Se argumenta que nuestros análisis de estos casos deben ir más allá del
secularismo, como marco normativo y esquema interpretativo, y moverse hacia una conceptualización más
cuidadosa de las diferentes formas de entrecruzamiento entre lo religioso, lo político y lo jurídico. Para avanzar
en esta dirección se propone examinar los esfuerzos por parte de Schmitt, Derrida y Foucault de caracterizar una
conguración teológico-política que aún persistiría en el marco de los Estados que se pretenden seculares. De
esta manera, podríamos entender y evaluar mejor diversas prácticas pastorales marcadamente diferentes,
que se orientan por guras de lo teológico-político no sólo distintas sino incluso antagónicas, y los efectos e
implicaciones sociales y políticos de estas prácticas.
57
Religious Practices, State Techniques and Conflicted Forms of Violence in Colombia’s Peace-Building Scenarios | Carlos A. Manrique
DOSSIER
PALABRAS CLAVE | Thesaurus: América Latina. Autor: religión y construcción de paz; religión y ley; religión y
política; secularismo; teología política
Práticas religiosas, técnicas estatais e formas de violência em conflito em cenários de construção
de paz na Colômbia
RESUMO | Este artigo analisa os alcances e efeitos políticos que diversos discursos e práticas religiosas têm na
atual conjuntura histórica da “construção de paz” na Colômbia. Examinam-se dois estudos de caso especícos
de imbricações entre o religioso e o jurídico para traçar, a partir disso, modos pragmaticamente diferenciados
nos quais podem ocorrer as complexas relações entre religiosidade, estatalidade e violência na Colômbia do
“pós-acordo”. Argumenta-se que nossas análises desses casos devem ir além do secularismo, como contexto
normativo e esquema interpretativo, e mover-se em direção a uma conceitualização mais cuidadosa das
diferentes formas de entrecruzamento do religioso, do político e do jurídico. Para avançar nesse sentido,
propõe-se examinar os esforços por parte de Schmitt, Derrida e Foucault em caracterizar uma conguração
teológico-política que ainda persistiria no contexto dos Estados que se pretendem seculares. Dessa maneira,
poderíamos entender e avaliar melhor diversas práticas pastorais marcadamente diferentes, que se orientam
por guras do teológico-político não somente distintas como, inclusive, antagônicas, e os efeitos e implicações
sociais e políticos dessas práticas.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE | Thesaurus: América Latina; secularismo. Autor: religião e construção de paz; religião e lei;
religião e política; teologia política
“My recommendation as an elder brother is that none of our citizens
should stay apart from the indenite civic strike and that
everyone should participate it in a peaceful manner.”1
Monseigneur Héctor Epalza, Bishop of Buenaventura
(Diócesis de Buenaventura 2017)
In the rst section of this article, I map certain debates
in contemporary interdisciplinary theorizations of the
entanglements between forms of religiosity and forms
of political agency. This mapping leads to questions pro-
voked by these debates, questions that the analysis of
the two case studies that follow seeks to explore. The
second section discusses a controversial incident, relat-
ed to the deant gesture of two mayors in remote rural
towns of Colombia, who decided, in June of 2017, to con-
secrate their municipalities to Jesus Christ via juridical
decrees. This is the occasion for characterizing secular-
ism as the normative stance and grid of intelligibility
which are absolutely dominant in our country in fram-
ing the terms of the debate about the relation between
religion and politics at the level of public opinion (opin-
ion makers, academics, public intellectuals, government
ocials); and more important, an occasion for starting
to problematize and critically interrogate this dominant
framework of interpretation and political evaluation.
1 “Mi recomendac ión como Herma no mayor es que n ingún
habitante d e esta ciudad deb e margin arse del pa ro cívico
inden ido y deben hacerlo de ma nera pacíca […] ” Monseñor
Héctor Epal za, Obis po de Buenavent ura (Dióces is de Bue-
naventu ra 2017).
The third and fourth sections set forth a contrast between
two dierent “theologico-political” structures at place in
two scenarios where religious practices and political or
juridical actions done in the orbit of the State imbricate.
The rst scenario is the one just mentioned, the sec-
ond one is the civic strike in Buenaventura, Colombia’s
main Pacic Coast port, and the quotation that serves
as an epigraph of this article is meant to illustrate the
intense and unequivocal involvement in the strike of the
regional hierarchy of the Catholic Church. We face here
an imbrication of the religious and the political which,
unlike the previous one, was largely unnoticed.
In order to understand these signicantly dierent
“theologico-political” structures it is necessary to
re-conceptualize what does it take for a religious dis-
course or practice to inscribe itself in the law. What
does it mean for a form of religiosity to be written,
inscribed, in the law? This reconceptualization, we argue,
has to move beyond the mainstream version that we owe
to political liberalism, whose conception of this “inscrip-
tion” is extremely limited and insucient. This article
undertakes this task taking resources from the also very
dierent accounts of a certain “theologico-political” reg-
ister that would still persist in the secular liberal State,
according to Schmitt, Derrida and Foucault.
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