The Civitas Podcast

Ben Peterson, an assistant professor of government and criminal justice at Abilene Christian University, explores what lies beneath visible crime: loneliness, addiction, and fraying relationships. He discusses Islamic political thought, the limits of law and state power, and Elinor Ostrom’s “social commons.” The conversation turns to churches, families, neighborhoods, hospitality, and everyday courage as foundations for rebuilding trust and social order.

Steven D. Smith, a leading legal scholar emeritus specializing in constitutional law and religion, joins a conversation on natural law, modern secularism, and the First Amendment. They explore whether secularism is truly neutral, how legal reasoning lost its metaphysical foundations, and the medieval roots of church freedom. The discussion concludes with church autonomy and why a free church matters.

Michael Lamb, a Wake Forest scholar of leadership, character, and Augustine’s political thought, explores hope beyond political pessimism. The conversation ranges across common goods, civic peace, rhetoric, persuasion, coercion, liberty, Christian rulers, and the Church’s role in public life. It also examines Augustine’s critique of Rome and competing interpretations of his political theology.

Reuben Slife, editor at New Polity and scholar of post-liberal Catholic political theology, introduces David L. Schindler and his critique of American liberalism. He discusses the nonneutrality of institutions, the theology behind rights and religious freedom, structural sin shaping law and culture, and Schindler’s vision of cosmic liturgy and Christian formation.

Michael R.J. Bonner, scholar of Iranian history with a DPhil from Oxford, discusses liberalism’s tangled origins and its hidden debts to Christian theology. He traces how ideas about free will, equality, nominalism, and secularism shaped modern freedom. The conversation ranges across Sasanian Iran, scholastic debates, the Böckenförde dilemma, and whether liberalism can reclaim meaningful purpose.

John Ehrett, attorney and writer at Lex Politica and author of Martin Luther’s Theology of Antitrust, brings law and theology together. He discusses Luther’s theological critique of monopoly, antitrust as moral inquiry, regulatory capture and predatory pricing, and how the church can speak into economic justice. He also explores Gudina Tumsa’s ecclesiocentric resistance to Marxism and the church’s political witness.

Ephraim Radner, theologian and Anglican priest, reflects on church unity, ecumenism, and the moral cost of division. He assesses twentieth-century ecumenical gains and failures. He argues unity requires sacrifice, shared practices, and sometimes risky hospitality. He explores history, politics, and practical steps like receptive ecumenism and concrete charity.

Bradley Birzer, historian and author who studies cultural and religious thought, discusses Christopher Dawson. He outlines Dawson’s Augustinian framework, his view of Europe and Christendom, and why Dawson declined after Vatican II. They cover baptism as cultural renewal, cosmopolitan respect, liberalism’s limits, and local spiritual renewals.

Kevin Flatt, a historian and associate dean at Redeemer University who studies secularization and Protestantism, discusses how societies organize around sacred or secular orders. He contrasts Western modern institutions with global sacred frameworks, explores contested, elite-driven secularization, and surveys contemporary resacralization movements around the world.

Stefan Borg, Associate Professor at the Swedish Defence University and author of The Return of the Common Good, explores post-liberal thought and its ties to communitarian social liberalism. He traces post-liberalism’s intellectual roots, teases apart left and right strands, and debates migration, feminism, capitalism, and whether post-liberalism needs theological foundations.