La fe en la protesta: discursos y representaciones religiosas contestatarias en el estallido social (2022-2023) en Perú

This article analyzes the discourses and strategies of participation of religious actors—linked to Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism—in the citizen protest movements that took place between December 2022 and March 2023, which constituted one of the most critical social conflicts in contemporary Peruvian political life, as they called into question the democratic mechanisms for responding to the protests and revealed the accentuation of practices of discrimination and stigmatization against historically excluded sectors of the country. In this context, we are interested in highlighting, on the one hand, the impact of the religious factor—in its various forms—on the production of a type of memory and thematization of current social conflicts. On the other hand, we place on the agenda for discussion the way in which certain religious agents, through their participation in protests, generate disruptions that cause discomfort not only at the level of political power, but also at the level of institutionalized ecclesiastical spheres themselves. The actors we analyze represent the rebellious face of religion in Peru, which contrasts with the theological discourse and political strategy of conservative and neo-fundamentalist groups and movements.