Christofascism in higher education: creative disobedience against authoritarian moral order

This conceptual paper explores Christofascism – Dorothee Sölle’s term for the authoritarian fusion of Christianity with nationalism – in higher education. While often analyzed as a theological or political ideology, I argue that Christofascism also imposes a moralistic pedagogical logic within higher education, privileging obedience, moral purity, and conformity to dominant norms. Drawing on Sölle’s work and recent developments in the United States and Hungary, I illustrate how political leaders like Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán mobilize Christian nationalist rhetoric to reshape higher education. Through their interventions, universities become battlegrounds where critical inquiry is repressed and dissent pathologized in the name of restoring national and spiritual order. Situating this analysis within broader conversations on nationalism and authoritarianism in higher education, I examine how ‘creative disobedience’ may serve as a counter-practice. This concept foregrounds plurality, critique, and ethical resistance, offering a vital framework for reclaiming higher education as a space of democratic transformation.