Non declinavit ad dextram sive ad sinistram.
by Jonathan Culbreath One hears a good dose of defeatism recently expressed by Catholics who, though serious about their faith, are pessimistic about the practicability or desirability of seeking the integralist ideal in the current political climate.[1] The confessional State is deemed too lofty a goal to be worth seeking in the present circumstances. …
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 …
Continue reading “The Josias Podcast Episode XII: Prudence as Truth”
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 …
Continue reading “The Josias Podcast, Episode X: Liturgy and the Common Good”
1. Acts are determined by their objects. The etymology of “object” suggests something thrown against. The object of an act is that against which or on which the act acts. The object of seeing is color. And color determines seeing; it makes seeing into the kind of act that it is. The object of hearing …
by Peter Kwasniewski “There is no doubt that Bonaventure thought of himself as a theologian, and was, moreover, seen by his contemporaries as a theologus. But, keeping in mind the whole history of philosophy, we should not neglect the fact that the model of philosophy which celebrates the so-called “autonomy of philosophical thought” is itself …
Continue reading “On Recovering a Genuine Thomism in Our Times”
The following paper was delivered at the Conference Heute gerecht leben: Impulse zu Ordnungskonzeptionen aus katholischer, orthodoxer und schiitischer Tradition, Vienna, September 19th, 2016.[1] A pdf version can be found at the VIQo Circle website. A version of this paper was also published in: Stefan Gugerel, Christian Machek and Clemens Egger (eds.), Ordnungskonzeptionen für die Zukunft: …
by Stomachosus The main purpose of our civic actions must be the promotion of the common good. Voting becomes a duty when the common good or the good of religion demands it: It is the duty of all citizens who have the right to vote, to exercise that right when the common good of the state …
(Note: I have revised the central section of this essay since its original posting in the light of constructive criticism.[1] A printable version can be found here). 1. Introduction: Three Theories Political philosophy or politics, according to Aristotle, has an architectonic role in the practical order because it is concerned with the highest good.[2] All other …
Must the political order be derived from a cosmic model (or, at any rate, from an external, transcendent reference point), or are there valid and effective substitutes? Can unaided humanity, through the mobilization of its faculties, create a sacred, or at least a myth, powerful enough to convey a model? If the answer to these …
Continue reading “Logos and Leviathan: Leonine Perspectives on Democracy”
by Charles De Koninck In 1943 the Belgian born dean of the department of philosophy at the University of Laval in Quebec, Charles De Koninck (1906-1965), published his controversial book On the Primacy of the Common Good: Against the Personalists, in which he argued that the private good of persons is subordinate to their common good. …
Continue reading “The End of the Family and the End of Civil Society”