The Civitas Podcast

James Wood and Peter Leithart discuss some highlights from the past year of the Civitas Group and the podcast. Peter Leithart then leads a discussion on three of James' recent essays, which can be found below with timestamps. (12:35) 1. Ordering our Social Loves, at Ad Fontes/Commonwealth(39:22)2. How Abraham Kuyper Lost the Nation and Sidelined the Church, at Ad Fontes(57:48)3. Can the Church Still Speak? - in Comment Magazine. Click HERE for James' author page at Ad Fontes.

James Wood and Peter Leithart are joined by special guest, Ross Douthat, to discuss the new right and post-liberalism._Ross Douthat is an opinion columnist at The New York Times, and is also a host on the weekly Opinion podcast, “Matter of Opinion.” Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger on its website.A prolific writer, Mr. Douthat has written for The Atlantic and National Review and has been published widely in the popular press. He is the author of several books including The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Recovery (2021) “The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success” (2020); “To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism” (2018); “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics” (2012); “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream” (2008), which he coauthored with Reihan Salam; and “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class” (Hyperion Books, 2005).He has a BA in history from Harvard University.Click HERE for Douthat's articles at First Things. 

Peter Leithart and James Wood are joined by special guest, Professor Nancy Pearcey, to discuss her recent work on the war on masculinity._Nancy Pearcey's latest book is The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes. Her earlier books include Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, The Soul of Science, Saving Leonardo, Finding Truth, and two ECPA Gold Medallion Award Winners: How Now Shall We Live (coauthored with Harold Fickett and Chuck Colson) and Total Truth. Her books have been translated into 19 languages. She is professor and scholar in residence at Houston Christian University. A former agnostic, Pearcey has spoken at universities such as Princeton, Stanford, USC, and Dartmouth. She has been quoted in The New Yorker and Newsweek, highlighted as one of the five top women apologists by Christianity Today, and hailed in The Economist as "America's pre-eminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual."

Peter Leithart and James Wood are joined by special guest Eric Gregory to discuss Augustinian civic liberalism and political theology._Eric Gregory is director of graduate studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University, where he has served on the faculty since 2001. He is a world-renowned scholar in Christian Ethics and Policital theology.He is the author of Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship (University of Chicago Press, 2008), and articles in a variety of edited volumes and journals, including the Journal of Religious Ethics, Studies in Christian Ethics, and Augustinian Studies. His interests include religious and philosophical ethics, theology, political theory, law and religion, and the role of religion in public life. In 2007 he was awarded Princeton’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.A graduate of Harvard College, he earned an M.Phil. and Diploma in Theology from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and his doctorate in Religious Studies from Yale University. He has received fellowships from the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame, the Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Harvard University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Tikvah Center for Law & Jewish Civilization at New York University School of Law. Among his current projects is a book tentatively titled, What Do We Owe Strangers? Globalization and the Good Samaritan, which examines the ethics of humanitarianism in light of secular and religious perspectives on global justice.He serves on the board of directors of the Society of Christian Ethics and the editorial board of the Journal of Religious Ethics.

Peter Leithart and James Wood are joined by special guest Oliver O'Donovan to discuss political theology._Oliver O’Donovan, born in 1945 in London, held teaching posts at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Wycliffe College Toronto before becoming Regius Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology and Canon of Christ Church at the University of Oxford in 1982. He was Professor of Christian Ethics & Practical Theology at Edinburgh from 2006 to 2012. Ordained as a priest of the Church of England, he was an active participant in ecumenical dialogue and a past President of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2000.He has held distinguished visiting lectureships in Cambridge, Durham, Rome, Hamilton, Pasadena and Hong Kong, and delivered the Gifford Lectures at St Andrews University in 2021.He is the author of The Problem of Self-Love in Saint Augustine (Yale 1979), Begotten or Made? (Oxford University Press, 1984), Resurrection and Moral Order (Eerdmans, 1986), On the Thirty-Nine Articles (Paternoster, 1986), Peace and Certainty (Eerdmans, 1989), The Desire of the Nations (Cambridge University Press, 1996), Common Objects of Love (Eerdmans, 2002), The Ways of Judgment (2005), Self World and Time (2013), Finding and Seeking (2014) and Entering into Rest (2017).He was married to Joan Lockwood ODonovan in 1978 in Toronto. They have two sons, both musicians.Jointly he and his wife are the authors of a well-received collection of readings in the history of Christian political thought, From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought 100 - 1625 (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1999) and of a volume of essays, Bonds of Imperfection. Christian politics past and present (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2004). The O’Donovans were married in 1978, and have two sons and four grandchildren.

Peter Leithart and James Wood are joined by James Patterson to discuss Neo-Integralism, Fulton Sheen, Americanism, and more. _Dr. Patterson is an associate professor and the chairman of the politics department at Ave Maria University; a fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy; a fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology; a contributing editor of Law & Liberty; a member of affiliated faculty with the Jack Miller Center, and the president of the Ciceronian Society.-The Civitas Podcast, co-hosted by Peter Leithart and James Wood, exists to explore Christian political theology, with a specific focus on contemporary debates about liberalism and post-liberalism, and to elaborate a distinctively "ecclesiocentric" Theopolitan version of post-liberalism. -Articles referenced in this episode: No to Neo-Integralismby: James Pattersonhttps://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2023/01/23/no-to-neo-integralism/After Republican Virtueby: James Pattersonhttps://lawliberty.org/after-republican-virtue/Two Forms of Catholic Nationalismhttps://lawliberty.org/two-forms-of-catholic-nationalism/

Peter Leithart and James Wood are joined by Jerry Bowyer to discuss corporations, wokeism, discipling businesses, and economics.  _Jerry Bowyer is the chief economist of Vident Financial, editor of Townhall Finance, editor of the business channel of The Christian Post, host of Meeting of Minds with Jerry Bowyer podcast, president of Bowyer Research, and author of The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics. He is also resident economist with Kingdom Advisors, serves on the Editorial Board of Salem Communications, and is senior fellow in financial economics at the Center for Cultural Leadership. Jerry lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, Susan, and the youngest three of his seven children.-The Civitas Podcast, co-hosted by Peter Leithart and James Wood, exists to explore Christian political theology, with a specific focus on contemporary debates about liberalism and post-liberalism, and to elaborate a distinctively "ecclesiocentric" Theopolitan version of post-liberalism. 

Peter Leithart, theologian, and author delves into liberalism, two kingdom theology, Lockean reductionism in Christian political theology. They discuss church reforms, state relations, semantic shifts in the New Testament, and the church's disruptive role in state politics. Exploring the relevance of two kingdoms thought in a post-Christian society and the church's authority in addressing societal issues.

Brad Littlejohn joins Peter Leithart and James Wood to discuss two kingdoms, Christian Nationalism, and Christian commonwealths. They explore post-liberalism, the role of the church in societal renewal, and the Protestant perspective on the common good and nationalism. The conversation delves into regulating speech, virtue, and soulcraft in the state, the boundaries of nations and empires, and the church's advisory role in matters of public witness and state consultation.

Peter Leithart and James Wood talk with D.C. Schindler about his father's work, liberalism, and post-liberal discourse._______About Dr. SchindlerDr. Schindler’s work is concerned above all with shedding light on contemporary cultural challenges and philosophical questions by drawing on the resources of the classical Christian tradition.  His principal thematic focus is metaphysics and philosophical anthropology, but he also works in political philosophy, phenomenology, the philosophy of science, the philosophy of religion, and philosophical theology.  His main historical areas are ancient Greek philosophy (especially Plato and Neoplatonism), German philosophy (especially Hegel and Heidegger), and Catholic philosophy (especially Aquinas and 20th Century Thomism).Dr. Schindler studied the Great Books as an undergraduate at Notre Dame, received a Master’s degree in theology at the John Paul II Institute, and then completed his education with a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy at The Catholic University of America.  After teaching for twelve years at Villanova University, first as a teaching fellow in philosophy and then as a founding member of the Humanities Department, Dr. Schindler returned to Washington, DC to teach philosophy courses at the Institute.  He has published more than a dozen books—including two volumes of a planned trilogy on the nature of freedom with the University of Notre Dame Press and a Robert Spaemann Reader with Oxford University Press—and more than 70 articles and book chapters, and his work has been translated into six languages.  He is an editor of the English-language edition of Communio: International Catholic Review, and a board member of The Review of Metaphysics and New Polity: A Journal of Post-Liberal Thought; he is a translator of books and articles from French and German; he is a Fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at CUA and served on the Executive Council of the American Catholic Philosophical Association; and he has been invited to deliver named annual lectures in a variety of venues, including the Thomas Aquinas Lecture at four universities and colleges, the Bitar Memorial Lecture series at Geneva College, the John Paul II Lecture at the University of Dallas, the Lorenzo Albacete Lecture in New York City, and the Areopagus Lecture at Mars Hill Audio Journal in Charlottesville, VA.