The Josias Podcast

Contributors to The Josias and Ius & Iusitium pick their favorite movies and discuss them.  The result of the draf t: To vote for a winner click here . Bibliography Tertullian, De Spectaculis ( On the Shows ) John Francis Nieto, A Study of Film . Music: Max Steiner, “Tara Theme” from Gone with the Wind.   If you have questions or comments, please send them to editors(at)thejos...

Do rights exist, or are they moral fictions? What is the significance of the distinction between objective and subjective rights? In this lecture, Pater Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist. gives an account of rights and their relation to the common good. Bibliography and Links Hispanus, Petrus. “ Notes on Right and Law .” The Josias (2017). Legge, Dominic O.P. “Do Thomists Have Rights?” Nova et Vetera , Eng...

The debate on socialism continues, with Pater Edmund playing the socialist and Alan Fimister taking the anti-socialist side. Joel is joined by Chris to moderate the discussion. Bibliography and Links Leo XIII,  Rerum novarum  (1891) Pius XI,  Quadragesimo anno   (1931) Ernest Fortin, “ Sacred and Inviolable: Rerum Novarum and Natural Rights “ Karl Marx, Theories of Surplus Value, ch. 9...

Alan Fimister comes on the podcast to debate socialism with Pater Edmund. For the purposes of the debate, Pater Edmund takes the socialist side, arguing that the injustices of modern capitalism, which orders all things to the private interests of capitalists, requires the adoption of socialism to subordinate economic matters to the common good of the political community. Alan Fimister takes the an...

Historicism seems to be a challenge to an integralist account of politics, because it denies that there is an unchanging truth about the human good accessible to our minds. In this episode the editors talk to Felix de St. Vincent and Brett Favras about Collingwood’s historicism, Leo Strauss’s critique of Collingwood, and Alasdair MacIntyre’s much more positive response to Colling...

Our new technical editor, Chris, moderates a discussion with the editors of questions raised by our listeners. Nota bene : In the discussion of distributism at the 1:10 mark when Pater Edmund said “that’s what integralism is all about” he meant to say “thats what  distributism  is all about.” A slip of the tongue. Bibliography and Links Joel Augustine, “ Dyarchy is Dy...

Prof. Thomas Pink joins the editors to discuss Thomas Hobbes’s radical rejection of the scholastic understanding of law as a coercive teacher, and the anti-integralist motives behind that rejection. Bibliography Thomas Pink, “ Suarez on Authority as Coercive Teacher ,” Quaestio  (2019). Petrus Hispanus, “ Notes on Right and Law ,” The Josias (2017). Music : J.S. Bach, Schafe Können...

The editors discuss Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Libertas praestantissimum , on the true nature of liberty—both natural and moral—and on the errors of the liberals. Bibliography Pope Leo XIII, Libertas praestantissimum (1888). “ Contrasting Concepts of Freedom ,” The Josias (2016). Music : Gustav Mahler, Lied Des Verfolgten Im Turm , from Des Knaben Wunderhorn . Performed by Elisabeth Schwarzk...

The encyclicals Deus caritas est and Spe salvi raise two opposite objections against Christianity:  Christian love seems too altruistic , opposed to one’s own happiness; while  Christian hope seems too egoistic, opposed to proper concern for temporal society. The editors discuss these objections with New Testament scholar John Kincaid. They argue that a true understanding of the Ne...

We live in a society in which the few live in excess, while the many live in miserable and wretched conditions. We live in a society in which the poor are defenseless against the inhumanity of employers and the unbridled greed of competitors. We live in a society in which these evils are compounded by a devouring usury practiced by avaricious and grasping men. We live in a society in which innocen...

Continuing a series of reflections on important 20th century critiques of modernity and liberalism that has included episodes on Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue and Leo Strauss’s Natural Right and History , the editors are joined again by Gabriel Sanchez to discuss Eric Voegelin’s The   New Science of Politics . They discuss Voegelin’s critique of positivism, the problem...

Justice, according to St. Thomas, is the perpetual and constant will to render each one his right. Distributive justice, commutative justice, potential parts, quasi-integral parts, debt, cannibalism—in this episode, the editors cover it all. Bibliography Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa IIae qq. 58, 61, 79, 80 Plato, The Republic , especially Book I Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics Carl Hoffman...

The Josias Editors discuss punishment and the good of order in a teleological universe. Bibliography Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II Q. 60 ; II-II Q 64, A 2 ; II-II Q. 108. Plato, Gorgias . Music : “Bin ich nun frei Wirklich frei,” Das Rheingold, Richard Wagner. Vienna Philharmonic, George Solti, Gustav Neidlinger as Alberich. Header Image : Alberich, by Arthur Rackham. If you...

Does natural law demand a world government? Bibliography Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano , 1922. Henri Grenier, World Government is Required by Natural Law , The Josias, 2015. Rafael de Arízaga, Sovereignty and the Supreme Power , Pax in Bello, 2019. Music : Johannes Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Berlin Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel. Header Image : The Spanish Riding School in Vienna. If you ha...

The editors are joined by special guest Daniel to discuss the Resurrection of Christ. Along the way they explore what it means for Christ to be New Adam, the necessity and fittingness of the Resurrection, and the meaning of the Resurrection both as the cause of the order of human society and the principle of the life to come. A very blessed Easter Season to all our readers and listeners! Bibliogra...

The editors return and deconstruct integralism by taking on the post-structuralism of Jacques Derrida, but in the end discover they were metaphysicians all along. Along the way, the discussion veers into Nietzsche, 19th century interpretations of Bach, internet meme culture, vaccinations and the anti-vax movement, Jacob Klein, David Foster Wallace, and so much more. Bibliography Roland Barthes, El...

A familiar voice returns after a long absence. Three voices discuss what it means to be brave, the cowardice of Dr. Proudie, the softness of clerics more generally, the brilliance of Monteverdi, and the exquisite comedy of Plato’s Laches. Bibliography Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIae 123-140 . Plato, Laches . Josef Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues . Anthony Trollope, Barches...

«To reject natural right is tantamount to saying that all right is positive right, and this means that what is right is determined exclusively by the legislators and the courts of the various countries. Now it is obviously meaningful, and sometimes even necessary, to speak of “unjust” laws or “unjust” decisions. In passing such judgments we imply that there is a standard of...

In which, your hosts take aim at Frederick II (the  other Frederick II), and discuss Prudence as truth and the distinction between false and true Prudence. Along the way they also touch on: Prudence as the Queen of the virtues; why Arnold Schoenberg (!) was a good artist; legalistic American bureaucrats in post-war Germany; and why man is not the measure of all things. They also get around to MacI...

In which your editors get brain worms, join a Bayou death cult, discover why they are “all like that,” achieve the goods internal to the practice of podcasting, and still find time to discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s seminal work, After Virtue.  Links The Josias Podcast, Episode VIII: Virtue   Felix de St. Vincent and Brett Favras, Integralism, MacIntyre, and Final Ends: Towards a Se...

Honking geese, Byzantine chariot racing, and a rousing discussion of the deep and essential connection between the liturgy and the common good—in this episode, your hosts are joined by Jonathan Culbreath and Doctor Peter Kwasniewski. Along the way, they discuss the liturgy as focal point for the common good in the church and in secular society, public versus private devotion, and compare Charles d...

How ought we to think of our common life as human beings created in the image of God? Do our modern habits of thought prevent us from understanding what was going on in the Middle Ages? And more importantly: can the Middle Ages help us to escape the errors embedded in our common life today and thus open a path towards unfeigned peace? What is sovereignty? Is it necessary for peace? How do nature a...

A freewheeling discussion in which our editors have a very TAC moment discussing the connection of the music of the spheres and the virtues, and then set out to discuss Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics, but somehow talk more about Plato. Important topics are covered such as, how much virtue does it take to refrain from throwing a baby from an upper-story window? Is there any sense in which Bertrand...

That Christ died for our sins is at the heart of of the Christian faith: “For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3). But what does it mean that He died for our sins? How did Christ’s death save and redeem us? Prof. Michael Waldstein and Professor Timothy Kelly join the editors to contemplate the...

Historian and theologian Alan Fimister joins the editors to discuss whether Pope Leo XIII was right to ask French Catholics to recognize the Third Republic. And more generally: does political engagement in modern parliamentary politics engender liberalism in Catholics? What form of government is best anyway? Alan defends the Lancastrian theory of the English Constitution as a mixed-form republic a...