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Through the application of an analytical model categorized as “missionary,” this article examines the cultural and political‐religious frames that sustain the leadership of Hugo Chávez. It demonstrates that missionary politics is a forceful presence in today's Venezuela, and should be understood as a form of political religion characterized by a dynamic relationship between a charismatic leader and a moral community that is invested with a mission of salvation against conspiratorial enemies. The leader's verbal and nonverbal discourses play an essential role in the development of such a missionary mode of politics, which seeks to provide the alienated mass of underprivileged citizens with an identity and a sense of active participation in national affairs. This study argues that purely utilitarian and materialistic explanations of Chávez's leadership fail to capture these soteriological dynamics in his movement.

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The study of the relationship between populism and religion has for a long time remained a neglected area of social-scientific research. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of religious populism. A subtype of populism, religious populism, is analyzed in its two dimensions: as an openly religious manifestation, in the form of the politicization of religion; and as a subtler religious manifestation, tied to the sacralization of politics in modern-day societies. The chapter ends with a discussion on the nexus between politics and religion and on the need to focus on the repeated intersections between the two fields.