Postsecular rhetoric of the Pope: a discourse analysis of Pope Francis’ TED Talks

Abstract

Abstract Pope Francis has gained a title as ‘the Pope of Surprises’ for his unprecedented and unconventional papal narratives, personal viewpoints, and equally electrifying mediatised public appearances. One of these surprises was his videotaped appearance on TED. By adopting postsecularism as a conceptual framework, this study examines the dominant discursive features in Pope Francis’ TED Talks. Three main types of narrative features were found: emphasis on the postsecular solidarity between the religious and the secular, negotiating religious doctrinal engagement in public spheres, and finally, de-emphasising the papal magisterial authority. While the surface language of the Pope’s TED Talks operates in a postsecular inclusive discursive spirit, its ontological roots are nevertheless cemented in a Catholic epistemology and a faith-motivated claim for moral theology. The similarities between Christian sermons and TED’s communicative norms and practices make the Pope’s new rhetoric possible without excessive attenuation of the Catholic vocabulary.