Amherst professor Austin Sarat discusses the contrasting positions of Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump on capital punishment, set against the backdrop of the Justice Department’s April 2026 announcement to restart and expand federal executions. Professor Sarat argues that the Pope’s moral condemnation of the death penalty as an affront to human dignity—offered without anger or political calculation—exposes the cruelty underlying the Trump administration’s embrace of capital punishment and should reinvigorate the abolition movement in the United States.
University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton examines Donald Trump’s public projection of himself as a messianic figure, contextualizing this behavior within his interactions with other global leaders and religious authorities. Professor Hamilton argues that the American religious right is responsible for fostering Trump’s dangerous messiah complex and urges them to reckon with the authoritarian monster they have helped create.
