"The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate: From Early Modern France to QAnon, Parents’ Rights, and Christian Insurrection"

About the Lecture:

In this talk, I detail how Christian nationalists in the United States have turned to theories of resistance developed during the Wars of Religion in France in order to justify their opposition to reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and campaigns for racial justice. I argue that Christian nationalists’ interest in the French Wars of Religion is part of a broader effort on the Right to disassociate the American Revolution from the French Revolution and the Enlightenment in order instead to forge direct connections between the American Revolution and the religious conflict sparked by the Protestant Reformation over two centuries earlier. This historical reconfiguration allows Christian extremists to claim that ideas such as secularism, pluralism, and social justice are threats not only to their way of life, but also to the very possibility of salvation.   

About the Speaker:

Anna Rosensweig is Associate Professor of French and the Director of the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester. Her research and teaching focus on early modern literature and culture, the intersections of literature and political theory, and performance studies. She is the author of Subjects of Resistance: Rights of Resistance on the Early Modern French Stage (2022) and her work has been published in journals such as Early Modern French Studies, Modern Language Quarterly, and Renaissance Drama.