Category: Blogposts

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 Collingwood and historicism.

Bibliography and Links

R.G. Collingwood, An Autobiography, 1939.

Felix de St. Vincent and Brett Favras, “Integralism, MacIntyre, and Final Ends: Towards a Secular Account of Christian Politics,” The Josias, 2018.

Alasdair MacIntyre, A Short History of Ethics, 1966; After Virtue, 1981.

Nathan Pinkoski, “Alasdair MacIntyre and Leo Strauss on the Activity of Philosophy,” Review of Politics, 2020.

Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History, 1953; On Political Philosophy: Responding to the Challenge of Positivism and Historicism, 2018; “Lectures on Plato’s Meno,” 1966.

Music: W.A. Mozart, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Act 3 “Nie werd’ ich deine Huld verkennen,” Les Arts Florissants under the direction of William Christie.

Header Image: William Hogarth, “The Seraglio.”

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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 Dyarchical: A Reply to Meador“
• Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Emma; Mansfield Park; Persuasion; Sense and Sensibility.
• Maurice Baring, The Puppet Show of Memory.
• Duane Berquist, Lectures on Ethics.
• John Brungardt, “Shorting the Market on the Common Good;” “The Question of Catholic Integralism: An Internet Genealogy.”
• Thomas Crean and Alan Fimister, Integralism.
• Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe.
• Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop; Barnaby Rudge; Martin Chuzzlewit; David Copperfield; Bleak House; Little Dorrit; Hard Times.
• Andrew Willard Jones, Before Church and State.
• Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels.
• J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.
• Anthony Trollope, The Barsetshire Novels; The Palliser Novels.
• Walter Ullmann, The Growth of Papal Power in the Middle Ages.
• Edmund Waldstein, “An Education in Desire;” “The Soul in the Novel: From Daniel Defoe to David Foster Wallace;” “Reasoning is worse than scolding;” “On Weddings in Novels;” “Prayer Begins in Pointlessness and Stupidity;” “Don’t Even Try;” “You Will Be Honored in the Presence of All;” “The Way of the Cross and Real Apprehension of Sin;” “What it is Like to Celebrate Mass.”
• Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited; The Sword of Honour Trilogy; A Handful of Dust.

Music: W.A. Mozart, Serenade 13 in G Major, KV 525, “Eine kleine Nachtmusik,” II. Romanze. Performed by the Camerata Salzburg under the direction of Sándor Végh.

Header Image: “Hans Christian Andersen,” by Kirill Chelushkin.

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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 sicher weiden wo ein guter Hirte wacht, from Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208. Performed by Elisabeth von Magnus and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Ton Koopman.

Header Image: Charles-Émile Jacque, Landscape with a Herd (1872).

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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).
• Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., “Contrasting Concepts of Freedom,” The Josias (2016).

Music: Gustav Mahler, Lied Des Verfolgten Im Turm, from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Performed by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of George Szell.

Header Image: Raphael Statt, O.Cist. Beflügelter Schritt.

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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 New Testament demands a full understanding of the common good (showing that love is neither altruism nor egoism, but communion in the good), and a deep understanding of the relation of the temporal and the eternal (showing that hope for  eternal happiness and peace does not make us indifferent to the temporal happiness and peace, which are a participated likeness of the eternal). Integralism provides precisely the account of the common good, and of the relation of temporal and eternal that is necessary.

Bibliography

• Pope Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, 2005.
• Pope Benedict XVI, Spe salvi , 2007.
• Brant Pitre, Michael P. Barber, and John A. Kincaid, Paul, a New Covenant Jew: Rethinking Pauline Theology, 2019.
• John Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 2015.
• Henri de Lubac, Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, 1947/1988.
• Charles de Koninck, “In Defence of Saint Thomas: A Reply to Father Eschmann’s Attack on the Primacy of the Common Good,” in: Laval théologique et philosophique (1945).
• Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., Integralism: The Breadth and Depth of Catholic Social Teaching (Book Proposal, 2019).

Music: “Là ci darem la mano,” from W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, sung by Barbara Bonney and Thomas Hampson, accompanied by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Header Image: Max Slevogt, Don Giovannis Be­geg­nung mit dem steinernen Gast, 1906.

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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 innocent children are murdered in abortion clinics. We live in a society in which the sin of Sodom is paraded with open pride and enjoys the favor of the laws. We live in a society in which depravity exults; science is impudent; liberty, dissolute. We live in a society in which the holiness of the sacred is despised; sound doctrine is perverted; and errors of all kinds spread boldly. We live in a society in which the divine authority of the Church is opposed and her rights shorn off. We live in a society in which by institutions and by the example of teachers, the minds of the youth are corrupted. We live in a society… We live in a society? Do we actually live in a society? What sense does it make to call the clownish chaos of our lamentable times a “society”? The editors are joined by P.J. Smith of southern Indiana to discuss these and related questions.

Bibliography and Filmography

• Henri Grenier, Moral Philosophy, §§ 1032-1036.
• Petrus Hispanus, “Notes on Right and Law,” The Josias, 2017.
• Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891.
• Pierre Manent, “Modern Democracy as a System of Separations,” Journal of Democracy 14.1 (2003).
• Todd Phillips (director), Joker, 2019.
• Snowpire, JOKER – Starring George Costanza from Seinfeld, 2019.

Music: “Vesti la Giubba” from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, sung by Luciano Pavarotti.

Header Image: Joaquin Phoenix in Joker (2019)

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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 of representation, and the thesis that modernity is “gnostic”.

Bibliography

• Eric Voegelin, The New Science of Politics.
• Gabriel S. Sanchez, “MacIntyre, Strauss, and Some Voegelin.”

Music: Also sprach Zarathustra, by Richard Strauss.

Header Image: Photograph of a Tree in the Mist, by Pater Edmund

If you have questions or comments, please send them to editors(at)thejosias.com.

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