The Sower

A paradigm for Christian leadership & engagement with the secular world. Josh Bowman interviews Dr. Stephen O. Presley, the Director of Education and Engagement at the Center for Research, Culture, and Democracy (CRCD) as well as a Senior Fellow for Religion and Public Life. The CRCD was one of the Tullia Sponsors for the Ciceronian Society’s 2026 conference in Omaha, and a long time partner a...

An Oakeshottian view of the Declaration of Independence. And a historial look at the Declaration's relation to the Articles of Confederation. Presentations by John Grove (Liberty Fund) and Adam Tate (Clayton State University).  Audio recording of a panel from the 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, March 15, 2026. 0:00 The Sower Episode 91 Introduction by Christopher Anadale 0:5...

Are liberalism and Christianity compatible? Is the American tradition of liberty at odds with Christian teaching? What role might the church have in the civic and economic formation of citizens? Josh Bowman interviews Dylan Pahman and John Pinheiro about a new reader they’ve edited called The Christian Roots of American Liberty. The Christian Roots of American Liberty: A Reader https://shop.acton....

Hillsdale College historian Wilfred McClay discusses: the Sorcerer's Apprentice, allusion, Ariadne, Peter Lawler, Walker Percy, Ted McAllister, Blake, Burke, Chesterton, Emerson, Jaroslav Pelikan, tradition, heritage, Dana Gioia's poem "Planting a Sequoia," Mary Austin, WH Auden, Tocqueville, The Golden Thread, and the nightmarish possibility of an AI Thomas Jefferson. Poem: https://danagioia.com/...

The widely circulated first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was a key influence on the Declaration of Independence. Chris Anadale interviews law professor Nathaniel Fouch about the influence of the Declaration of Independence on state constitutions, the authority of America's founding principles, different responses to Jefferson's egalitarian rhetoric, and more. Nathaniel Fouch is Assi...

A content focused certificate program for classical school teachers & other adults. Josh Bowman and Josh Herring discuss the Ciceronian Society’s most ambitious project to date: The Logres Institute for Classical Liberal Studies, which will be directed by Dr. Herring. The Logres Institute aims to provide the education you wish you had received. Designed with the busy professional in mind, our...

We honor Jane Calvert for her book Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson . Plenary panel from the 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, March 12, 2026. Featuring speakers Joshua Bowman, Michael Maibach, James Patterson, and Jane Calvert. Book: https://www.amazon.com/Penman-Founding-Biography-John-Dickinson/dp/0197541690 Joshua Bowman, Introduction Michael Maibach,...

Working to make it normative to stay in your local place for higher education. Josh Bowman interviews Dr. Nick Ellis, Founder and CEO of Christian Halls International (CHI), which is “reimagining collegiate education through local learning communities that form virtuous people who contribute to flourishing places.” We revisit the unique model (unique at least in America) of CHI and how this quickl...

Josh Bowman interviews Dr. Josh Herring on his new book, Sons of Adam, Daughters of Eve: C.S. Lewis's Images of Gender . We discuss Lewis’s fiction and non-fiction, and how the great Christian apologist, scholar, and author gives us ways to think through masculinity and femininity.  Josh Herring is the Curriculum Program Manager for the Rafiki Foundation and Director of the Logres Institute for Cl...

How do we humanize economics? Are formal & final causes necessary for economics? Plenary panel from the 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, March 12, 2026. Featuring presentations by Michael Thomas, Steven Miller, Paul Mueller, and Diana Thomas. Panel sponsored by the Menard Family Center for Economic Inquiry at Creighton University, https://www.creighton.edu/menard-center-f...

Chris Anadale interviews Madeleine Austin and Matthew Young about the value of place and their home of Pittsboro, North Carolina. Madeleine Austin lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina. She is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. When Madeleine is not playing her banjo, she works as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserves. She also...

Chris Anadale interviews scholar Marco Andreacchio about Shakespeare as a philosophical poet. Marco Antonio Andreacchio was awarded a doctorate from the University of IIlinois for his interpretation of Sino-Japanese philosophical classics in dialogue with Western counterparts and a doctorate from Cambridge University for his work on Dante’s Platonic interpretation of religious authority. He has ta...

Responses to modernism in the three Ransom novels (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength). Plenary panel from the 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, March 12, 2026. Featuring presentations by Joshua Bowman, Joshua Herring, Sean Hadley, Madeleine Austin, and Scott Postma. 0:00 Episode Intro 1:40 Bowman 9:25 Herring 29:28 Hadley 43:45 Austin 59:30 Postma 1:2...

Josh Bowman shares information about the Ciceronian Society's inaugural Fall Symposium, October 11-13, 2026 in Holland, Michigan. He also looks back at our Omaha Conference (March 2026) and forward to our March 2027 Conference in Virginia Beach. Josh Bowman is Executive Director of the Ciceronian Society. Chris Anadale is podcast editor for the Ciceronian Society, and Associate Professor of Philos...

Life and works of the Scottish man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). Ethan Alexander-Davey teaches political science at Campbell University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ciceronian Society. He is co-editor, with Richard Avramenko, of  Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times  and  Aristocratic Voices: Forgotten Arguments about Virtue, Authority and Inequality  both published...

Life and works of the Scottish man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). Ethan Alexander-Davey teaches political science at Campbell University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ciceronian Society. He is co-editor, with Richard Avramenko, of  Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times  and  Aristocratic Voices: Forgotten Arguments about Virtue, Authority and Inequality,  both published...

Chris Anadale interviews Florida lawyer Jeff Bristol about his home in Plant City. Jeffrey Bristol is an independent scholar and a lawyer who has been a regular at Ciceronian Society conferences. His popular writings range from policy and military essays to cultural criticism, with a focus on general anthropological theory and legal and political philosophy as applied to American life. His degrees...

Josh Bowman talks with John Wilsey about his new book, God and Country: Upholding Faith, History, and National Identity  (B&H Academic Press, 2026). We discuss historiography, why history matters for Christians, the importance of virtue for historical thinking, and what it means to have a “rightly ordered patriotism.” John Wilsey is Professor of Church History and Philosophy and Chair of the D...

Josh Bowman welcomes 2026 Herbert J. Storing Prize Nominee Dr. Brooke Barbier. Brooke is a public historian who received her PhD in American history from Boston College, researching Boston’s social and cultural life during and after the American Revolution. In 2013 she founded Ye Olde Tavern Tours, which offers tours of Boston’s historic sites and taverns (beer is included!). She is the author of...

Josh Bowman welcomes Albert Norton back to the show. Bert is a practicing attorney and author of several books on the tension between religion and postmodernism. Today, we specifically consider how understanding this tension might inform the life of modern churches and intellectual discipleship.  His most recent book is The Discovered Self , concerning what he regards as a dangerous inward turn to...

This special episode is an excerpt from a panel at our 2025 annual conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The panel title was "Philip Rieff: Cultural Conflict, Religion and the Self." After a prayer and brief introduction, we hear the following speakers. First, Michael Harding of Montgomery College, with "Rieff’s Use of Nietzsche in Deathworks." Second, William Batchelder of Waynesburg University,...

Еthan Alexander-Davey and Glenn Cronin discuss the life and work of Lev Tikhomirov, who, in his mid thirties, abandoned revolutionary terrorism to become one of the most prominent defenders of the Russian Monarchy and Orthodox Christianity. The conversation focuses on Dr. Cronin’s recent book  The Enduring Enigma of Lev Tikhomirov , which surveys the writer’s major works on revolutionary ideology,...

Josh Bowman chats with Dr. Wayne Braudrick, lead pastor at Frisco Bible Church in Frisco, Texas and member of the Ciceronian Society. We discuss intellectual discipleship, the life of the mind among evangelical Christians, preaching, the importance of place for pastors and Bible study, and much more.  Frisco Bible Church: https://friscobiblechurch.snappages.site/   Josh’s article on Intellectual D...

An introduction to the life and work of Philip Rieff (1922-2006), with Bill Batchelder, Michael Harding, and Chris Anadale, contributors to the 2005 volume The Philosophy of Phillip Rieff (Bloomsbury Academic). Dr. William Batchelder is professor of history and honors program director at Waynesburg University, in southwest Pennsylvania. Dr. Michael Harding is professor of philosophy and chair of h...

This special episode is an excerpt from a plenary panel at our 2025 annual conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The panel title was "Jesus the Tekton: Restoring Common Arts Education," and two of the four speakers' remarks are included here. The first speaker is Fr. Mark Perkins of St. Dunstan's Academy. After an opening prayer and introductory remarks, he presents his paper, "Timber Framing and...