SOCIETY AS A MORAL BODY

Catholic Political Theology
in Revolutionary Philippines

A Dinner Talk with Prof. Johaina Crisostomo

We are used to thinking about civil society as being made up of individuals. The traditional account of the “social contract” that we have inherited from a Northern European Enlightenment entails individuals surrendering their individual rights to participate in the life of the state. This talk explores an alternative political imaginary from a forgotten Hispanic-Asian world whose administrative center, for more than three centuries under Spain (1571-1898), had been the port city of Manila. In 1896, the Captaincy General of Manila of the Spanish East Indies became the cradle of the last Hispanic war of independence when the secret society of the Katipunan launched the Philippine insurrection against Spain.

Examining the political philosophies of these Filipino revolutionaries, this talk will illuminate the obscured, yet profound, Catholic intellectual traditions they inherited as colonial subjects of a global Spanish Catholic empire. For these Filipino revolutionaries, civil society was not conceived as an assembly of distinct persons, but as a political “mystical body” operating as one, indivisible moral unit. Amidst this different vision of political community, one that values social cohesion over rupture, how did these insurgents justify the need for revolt? We will be looking at the Tagalog revolutionary literature of this turbulent period for a glimpse into this divided Catholic world, where the political theology of Catholic Spain was weaponized against it by its own colonial subjects in the Pacific.

This event is open to the general public. Dinner will be provided. RSVP is required.

Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026
Time: 6:00PM - 7:15PM
Location: Berkeley Institute (2134 Allston Way, 2nd floor)