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Rafael Vizcaíno

Rafael Vizcaíno is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at DePaul University. His work employs decolonial approaches to examine the intersections between race, religion, politics, and secularization. A winner of the American Philosophical Association’s Essay Prize in Latin American Thought, his first book, Decolonizing the Postsecular (forthcoming), reinterprets the modern dialectics of secularization from the perspective of epistemic decolonization. His second book (in progress) examines the relation between philosophy of religion and political theology in the context of decolonization. He has published articles in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Comparative and Continental Philosophy, Journal of World Philosophies, among other journals, as well as chapters in the anthologies Political Theology Reimagined (Duke), Words Made Flesh (Fordham), Creolizing Critical Theory (Bloomsbury), among others.

Essays

Remembering Eduardo Mendieta (1963-2025)

Mendieta was an erudite, critical, generous, and compelling bridge-builder between critical theory, religion, and other fields who signals a path forward.

Stumbling Upon God in Sylvia Wynter’s Fiction

Sylvia Wynter’s fiction invites us to think the secular and the religious together in order to open new “continents of the spirit” and new “planets of the imagination.”

Between the Decolonial and the Postcolonial: An Interview with Mahmood Mamdani

Mamdani’s latest book defends the promise of decolonization against the ongoing nationalist violence of modernity. Rafael Vizcaíno sits with the renowned Ugandan intellectual to discuss postcolonial and decolonial scholarship, the reform-revolution debate, anti-racism, and the example of South Africa.

Enrique Dussel

Rafael Vizcaíno offers a biographical introduction to the philosophical work of Enrique Dussel, a major figure of the decolonial turn. Separate from his theology, Dussel’s philosophy of liberation offers crucial reflections for contemporary political theology.