Your Algorithm is Your GOD

In this episode we sit down with Dr. Tristan Kapp, scholar of digital religion and analyst of the intersection between technology, belief, and power, for a sharp and historically grounded conversation about the image of Donald Trump as a messianic figure and the deeper currents of Christian nationalism it reveals.

Dr. Kapp unpacks the viral image of Trump as a “doctor” healing America, framing it as a modern form of apotheosis, the elevation of a political leader into a quasi-divine redeemer. Drawing on the biblical figure of Cyrus and ancient patterns of rulers sanctifying their power through divine association, he shows how this narrative resonates strongly with certain Afrikaner communities in South Africa who have long cast themselves as an embattled, covenantal people.

“This sort of narrative of what they call apotheosis… is essentially what scholars of religion tend to refer to this… where he is portrayed as a godlike figure, where he is elevated from a mere mortal to this divine figure, which sort of reinforces the sort of theological authoritarianism,” Kapp remarks.

“We need to be intolerant towards intolerance… to ignore these things at your own peril, but to not avoid engaging with them… By interrogating these things and by opening these things up to scrutiny is, I think, important here,” Dr Kapp asserts

Dr. Kapp makes a strong case for recognising these movements as threats to democratic openness, for confronting rather than ignoring the online ecosystems that sustain them, and for refusing the sacralisation of any political leader.

Watch this episode for a historically informed analysis of how religion, algorithms, and nationalism are being fused into a new form of theological authoritarianism, and what it will take to resist it.