Page - 17 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 4:1

17 | www.limina-graz.eu Sonja Angelika Strube | Antimodernismus als Autoritarismus? | BIOGRAPHY PD Dr. theol. Sonja Angelika Strube ist Privatdozentin für Religionspäda- gogik / Praktische Theologie und Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der Universität Osnabrück. Nach Promotion im Neuen Testament habilitierte sie sich mit einer qualitativ-empirischen Studie zu Alltagsbibellektüren (2009). Seit 2011 forscht sie zu rechtsextremen Einstellungen in christ- lichen Milieus, zu Fundamentalismus im katholischen Glaubensspek- trum sowie zu Antifeminismus / Anti-Genderismus als Strategiethema der Neuen Rechten und veröffentlichte u. a. fünf Bücher zu den genannten Themenbereichen. | KEY WORDS Antimodernismus; Autoritarismus / autoritäre Persönlichkeit; (katholi scher) Fundamentalismus; Gruppenbezogene Menschenfeindlichkeit; rechts extre- me Einstellungen; Religion und Vorurteil; Traditionalismus; Zweites Vatika- nisches Konzil Antimodernism as authoritarianism? Leveraging socio-psychological catego- ries of analysis for theological fundamentalism research There appears to be a strong link between fundamentalist religious styles, which are characterised by preconciliar-antimodernist and traditionalist devotional practices within the spectrum of Catholicism, and explicitly group-specific mis- anthropy. This observation suggests a potential commonality of psychological predispositions underlying both political and religious attitudes that merits in- vestigation. It also suggests that socio-psychological categories of analysis can be fruitfully leveraged for theological fundamentalism research. This article firstly provides a review of key research on the ambivalence of religi- osity and the link between religious styles and biases as well as authoritarianism from a predominantly socio-psychological perspective. In a second step, these socio-psychological categories are applied in an analysis of right-wing Catholic protests against the inclusion of indigenous representatives in the opening cer- emony of the Amazon synod in 2019. This will shed light on authoritarian and ethnocentric beliefs that are being justified by religious exclusivism, punitive concepts of God and corresponding eschatological worldviews. The Church’s in- ternal conflicts surrounding the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, as stud- ied through a socio-psychological lens, can be described as a ‘clash’ between different – more progressive and less complex – religious approaches.