What is truth? And how can testimonial and confessional modes of speech witness to it? These questions have long animated testimonial studies as well as public theology. Both share the analysis that testimony can constitute forms of knowledge, especially if and when “objective” truth cannot be had.
Today, on social media and in national politics, algorithmic and populist-driven attention economies generate their own discourses. Their personalized, experienced-based and emotional forms of speech often operate without a shared commitment to scientific objectivity or standards of rational public deliberation.
In this context, our conference aims to illuminate the religious backgrounds of testimonial and confessional speech as political-theological categories and their relevance today.
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