New Polity

In honor of the new Pope Leo XIV, and in celebration of the 134th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Alex Denley and Andrew Willard Jones discuss the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII and the birth of modern Catholic Social Teaching.

In honor of the passing of the Pope, Marc Barnes and Reuben Slife discuss the life of Francis and the theology which he embodied: the theology of peoples. They also discuss Rocco Buttiglione's new book Modernity's Alternative and how Latin America formed the Pope's pastoral life and mission.

At the 2024 New Polity conference, Matthew B. Crawford gave the keynote address in which he contrasted the view of man inherent in technocratic rationalism with that of a Christian view. Drawing from the work of Joseph Ratzinger and Michael Oakeshott, Crawford draws a distinction between an orientation toward receiving life as gift and cramped rationalism that views man as an object to be synthetically remade. The current push for technocratic control over every sphere of life collapses the vertical order of reality and aims to eliminate contingency, risk, and play. In contrast, one who affirms the inherent goodness of being is able to experience a real vitality of life in a meaningful world. Registration is open for the 2025 New Polity conference! Learn more and register at https://newpolity.com/events/2025

In this podcast, Reuben Slife and Marc Barnes discuss the new book from New Polity Press: Modernity's Alternative by Rocco Buttiglione. In the 20th century, a movement of priests and laypeople sought to find a way past the clash of ideologies that wracked Latin America. They found a solution in Latin America itself, which was born out of the conflict between Europeans and natives when, with the appearance of the Virgin Mary at Guadalupe, the grace of God forged one, new people out of strangers and enemies.This movement—called “theology of peoples”—focuses on the reality known as “a people.” Every human person belongs to a people. And every people has a “world”: the way it makes sense out of life, work, love, and the uncertain future.

What is the difference between a people and a nation? In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Alex Denley discuss Ernest Renan's influential lecture "What is a nation?". Renan argues that a nation is not formed by common descent, language, religion, or geography. Rather, a nation is a spiritual principle that requires sacrifice, and a forgetting of the past. Marc and Alex discuss Renan's definition of a nation and how it formed the development of nation states in the modern period.

In this special episode of Political Saints, Marc Barnes and Nicolas McAfee discuss the heroic political life of St. Thomas More. Thomas More was the Lord High Chancellor of England from 1529 until 1531. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and was executed. Pope Pius XI canonized Thomas More as a martyr in 1935. Dr. Nicolas McAfee is the Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the Center for Thomas More Studies. He is the author of Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare: A Way out of the Wreck (Lexington, forthcoming). You can find more on Thomas More Studies here: https://thomasmorestudies.org/ New Polity Conference 2025 is only a few months away! Register at https://newpolity.com/events Subscribe to the greatest magazine on earth: https://newpolity.com/magazine Check out our books at https://newpolity.com/press

For the last five years, the Political Right has been debating over a program for regime change in America: should populism be used to construct a new elite class? Should a new administration retire all government employees? Can the bureaucratic state be maintained but filled with new conservative staff? In this podcast, Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Willard Jones discuss subsidiarity as the solution to this debate, and how it provides a program for genuine regime change. Registration is open for the New Polity Conference 2025! https://newpolity.com/events/2025 Subscribe to New Polity magazine for all our best essays: https://newpolity.com/magazine Check out the books published by New Polity press: https://newpolity.com/press Join the conversation on our discord: https://discord.gg/bNJ2uE7as6

What is the meaning of national identity? Does strong national identity necessarily create a hostile relation with other nations? In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Alex Denley discuss Joseph Ratzinger's short book "The Unity of Nations." Through a discussion of the political theology of Origen and St. Augustine, Ratzinger shows how the early Christians viewed their relation to the nations, and Christianity's nation-unifying gospel. Registration is open for the New Polity Conference 2025! https://newpolity.com/events/2025 Subscribe to New Polity magazine for all our best essays: https://newpolity.com/magazine Check out the books published by New Polity press: https://newpolity.com/press Join the conversation on our discord: https://discord.gg/bNJ2uE7as6

Registration is open for New Polity Conference 2025! https://newpolity.com/events/2025 In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Alex Denley discuss Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's book "The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood." What is distinct about the brotherhood of Christians? Are there different ethical modes of acting to the brother and the non-brother? How does this impact our understanding of peoples and Christianity?

Are we headed to a grand and glorious technological future, bright with gizmos and gadgets and flying cars? In this talk, Andrew Willard Jones expects the opposite: "The Future is Always Worse Than You Think It Will Be." As he explains, there are two paths with the development on new technologies: one which leads to an extension of the humane world into greater areas, and another, the technocratic, which closes and mines the world from within. This talk was given at the 2024 New Polity Conference "Should We, Therefore, Destroy the Servers?" Registration is open now for New Polity's 2025 conference "Our Kind of People." The early bird price ends on January 31st. Register today at https://newpolity.com/events

In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Alex Denley review the latest New Polity Magazine, Issue 5.3, which includes articles on sex discrimination in the workplace, the demise of the hippocratic oath, the state of the pro-life movement, and more. Registration for New Polity 2025 conference is now open! Don't miss out on our early bird price: https://newpolity.com/events/2025

The fifth annual New Polity conference takes “the people” as its theme and object of wonder. Motivated by the apparent victory of populism in the United States' 2024 election, and inspired by the Holy Roman Pontiff's love for Latin America's “theology of the people,” this meeting of theologians, philosophers (and, let's face it, preachers) is devoted to thinking deeply about "the people." All of this is up for discussion and debate, the subject of our good humor and great conversation at New Polity 2025: Our Kind of People. Learn more at https://newpolity.com/events

The Church sees the world as God's good and harmonious Creation, a primordial peace. In his acclaimed book Before Church and State, Andrew Willard Jones revealed that society in the High Middle Ages was a striving toward liberation by grace, which led to subsidiarity. In The Church Against the State, he argues that this uniquely Christian political form is still with us, present in our love, our courage, and in all that is noble within us, brought to new life through the Church. In this podcast, Marc Barnes interviews Andrew Willard Jones on his new book The Church Against the State.

All the energy and vitality today is on the political right; the old conservative reactionary stance has been replaced with active, rival voices aimed at constructing a new regime. One such voice is Bronze Age Pervert and his followers. Through their series "The Politics of Paganism," Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones have explored the Nietzschean proposal, arguing that it is doomed to failure. The pagan cosmos is a closed world which cannot provide the freedom and vitality that Nietzsche extols. In this final episode, Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones discuss the failure of the Nietzschean alternative and the open world of a Christian political order.

Why do we not feel free? As modern liberalism continues to isolate and divide, our common experience is a lack of freedom, of being constrained and enslaved. But, how can true freedom be restored? In this episode of the Politics of Paganism, Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones discuss the New Law and how grace restores true freedom.

St. Thomas Aquinas presents salvation history in three stages: The Age of Nature, the Age of Law, and the Age of Grace. The pagans are stuck within the age of nature; fallen humanity inevitably declines into idolatry and slavery. But, God has a plan for saving man. From the time of Moses until Christ, God's chosen people are in the Age of Law which points forward to the coming of Christ. In this podcast, Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones discuss salvation history and the culmination of the Age of Law in the Cross.

The pagan cosmos is a closed world: the city is never truly self-sufficient, requiring natural slaves and war; regimes rise and fall cyclically; the regime's justice is never true justice. In the Treatise on Law (ST I-II, Q.90-108), St. Thomas Aquinas presents a different vision: the open world of grace. God orders the world through the eternal law; rational creatures participate in providence through human law; divine law is necessary to bring man to his final end. In this episode of the Politics of Paganism, Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones discuss how St. Thomas' vision of law answers the closed world of the pagans.

Plato and Aristotle argue that aristocracy is the ideal regime, but it never lasts for long. What's most powerful wins, and the masses are always the most powerful in number. Eventually, every pagan regime declines into the production of idols and temple slavery---whether Egypt, Greece, or Rome. In this episode of the Politics of Paganism, Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones discuss this decline and what brings it about.

Medically-assisted suicide bills are being introduced in states all over the country. Proponents say that it allows people to "die with dignity" and that it gives people "autonomy." But, the actual reality is far darker. In states like Oregon and California, people have been denied life-saving treatment and recommended suicide. People with disabilities and depression have been pressured into suicide. In this podcast, Pat McGeehan, delegate of West Virginia, Marc Barnes, and Alex Denley discuss the dangers of legalized medically-assisted suicide.

Aristotle's "Politics" is full of deep insight: politics as the architectonic science, the mixed constitution, happiness as the end of the city. But, there's a group which is excluded from human virtue; namely, the natural slave. Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones discuss how the "natural slave" reveals the structure of Aristotle's just city: a limited class of citizens over an unspecified amount of slaves. And, that the despotic relationship extends into the mixed constitution of the citizens. The masses believe they are ruling in a democracy, the notables believe they are ruling an oligarchy, and the one, true philosopher-statesman rules the whole; each class instrumentalizes the other. They discuss how this doesn't vilify Aristotle, or presume nefarious intentions; this is what a science of a pagan political order demands. Ultimately, it is this structure that Christianity transforms from both within and above.

Ted Benna has been called the "Father of the 401k." But now, he says that he created a monster. He intended for the 401 (k) to help turn spenders into savers, but it has become full of hidden fees and salary reductions that only enrich the financial industry rather than savers. In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Jacob Imam interview Ted Benna for his story of the 401 (k).

James Donald Forbes McCann returns for a special episode of Good Money. He has more questions for Jacob Imam and Marc Barnes: Why do Americans use cash? What's the marital debt? Why should people sell their stocks? Check out James's show: https://youtube.com/@jamesdonaldforbesmccann?feature=shared Subscribe to New Polity Magazine! https://newpolity.com/magazine Join the conversation on our discord: https://discord.gg/bNJ2uE7as6

Plato presents a vicious circle that every regime goes through: from a limited aristocracy, to a timocracy of honor, an oligarchy based on wealth, a democracy based on liberty, and, finally, the tyranny of the one against all. While some regimes may be more just than others, it is bound to collapse eventually. Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones discuss Plato's description of the individual and his regime, the circle of regimes, and how Christianity can provide an answer to the circle.

Everyone has a sense of what is just and unjust, but what is the source of justice? In this episode of "The Politics of Paganism," Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Willard Jones discuss Plato's "Republic." Through a discussion of the luxurious city, the myth of the mixture of the elements, the Allegory of the Cave, and finally the Philosopher-King, Alex and Andrew show the tension in Plato between relative and absolute justice; between the shadows of justice in the city and true justice that the philosopher contemplates. If you want to read ahead, next up is Plato's "Republic."

Death comes for everyone. For the Christian, death is the passage into eternal life; but, what about for the Pagan? Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Jones discuss the problem of death for pagan regimes. Using St. Augustine's "City of God," they discuss Cain's murder of Abel, the founding of the city by violence, the inferior law of violence, and the overturning of death by Christ. If you want to read ahead, next up is Plato's "Republic."

As the liberal order continues to collapse, rival voices have gained popularity—groups that aren't content secularizing religion, but rejecting Christianity altogether. Old pagan arguments are resurrecting: the aesthetics of power, might-makes-right, vitalism and tyranny. Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Willard Jones discuss their new series “The Politics of Paganism” and how Christianity can understand and defeat the pagan attacks against it.

Gender season 2 has come to a close. Marc Barnes and Maria Brandell answer your questions and discuss the second season of Gender.

Subscribe to New Polity magazine! https://newpolity.com/magazine Marc Barnes and Alex Denley discuss the latest New Polity magazine, Issue 5.1. Articles include D. C. Schindler on totalitarianism and America, a debate on the stock market, Marc on the medieval practice of sanctuary, and more.

Marc and Maria discuss how the Third-Person perspective of pornography changes the way we view sexual difference.

Euthanasia is becoming legalized across the Western world. Pat McGeehan, Delegate of West Virginia, is fighting against it. Advocates employ slogans like “death with dignity,” and appeal to compassion; but, the actual results are much different. Already, a “suicide tourism” phenomenon has begun, with people flying to states like Oregon to get legal doctor-assisted suicide. Pat tells a story of one of his constituents who, tragically, was a victim of this. Likewise, Canada's MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) program has resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 people since 2016; with legislation only being passed recently to curb the amount of suicide tourism. By legalizing euthanasia, the door is open for gross misuse: the elderly who feel they are a burden to their children could be pressured into an untimely death, people with treatable illnesses could elect to end their lives, hospitals and health insurance providers could increase euthanasia recommendations to patients to decrease costs. But, Pat is fighting for the dignity of his constituents in West Virginia. Euthanasia denies the dignity of the person; Pat is working to uphold that dignity by constitutionally banning euthanasia in the state of West Virginia.

Marc and Maria continue their conversation on Humanae Vitae; specifically on the desire to control the body and its reproduction through abortion. They discuss how abortion not only plays the function of the killing of innocent children, but reshapes the experience of the body as such. This episode is part 2 of a conversation on the Control of the Body. ----- READINGS Contraception, Abortion Episode (I-II) Donum Vitae: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html (All hail the parchment background) Humanae Vitae: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html (All mourn the loss of the parchment background)

Maria and Marc read Humanae Vitae, the Catholic Church's decisive rejection of contraception, as a text which prophesies and makes sense out of the meaninglessness we ascribe to our male and female bodies today. Subscribe to New Polity magazine: https://newpolity.com/magazine Come to our conference! https://newpolity.com/events

America is sinking into pagan practices and beliefs. While Americans may not use the same language as the ancient pagans, John Daniel Davidson believes that the central pagan creed is present: there is no truth, everything is permitted. Liberalism had attempted to create neutral spaces, but as those spaces become more fought over, the only rationale can be one's own power. Dr. Andrew Willard Jones and John Daniel Davidson discuss the roots of a pagan worldview, the extent to which America is pagan, and how Christians should approach the pagan political order.

Everywhere is beige. The same beige houses, the same big box department stores, even the exact same food is served everywhere all across the country. What has this monotone sameness done to produce our cultural moment - one that seems to glorify diversity on the one hand, but ship it out en masse with the other? Join Marc Barnes and Maria Brandell as they explore our desaturated modern world and why we look to gender for the way out. Come to our Conference! https://newpolity.com/events/2024 Don't miss out on great essays. Subscribe to New Polity magazine. https://newpolity.com/magazine

We don't know what to do with consecrated virginity. The only way we can think of it as a disembodied spiritual calling; or as a fairly strange alternative to what is normal, marriage. Marc and Maria describe how Protestantism (and, in particular, Luther) denied the purpose of the virgin.

Modern economics takes the wage for granted, but during the feudal era, working for a wage was considered a sign of poverty. What changed? And how did this shift in economics shift gender roles? Join Marc Barnes and Maria Brandell as they discuss how capitalism rewrote our modern conception of gender. Registration is open for New Polity Conference 2024!: ⁠https://newpolity.com/events/2024⁠ Subscribe to the greatest magazine on earth: ⁠https://newpolity.com/magazine

Welcome to the Politics of Gender Season 2! Gender remains a hotly contested issue: gender constructionists and biological reductionists in an all out warfare. But, Marc Barnes and Maria Brandell argue that the Church can surpass these debates, and provide a way of understanding one's sex beyond imposed identities or brute facts. Subscribe to the greatest magazine on earth: https://newpolity.com/magazine New Polity Conference 2024: https://newpolity.com/events/2024

Join the hundreds of other New Polity readers: ⁠https://newpolity.com/magazine⁠ Marc Barnes and Maria Brandell take another look at the "you complete me" narrative. Is each person's gender an incomplete half, left in lack of the other? Or, is each person complete as their gender and called to join with the other? In defense of completed gendered worlds, Marc talks about the phenomenon of The Boys and The Girls. Gender Season 2 is coming soon! The first two readings will be from issue 4.4 (Silvia Federici's "Accumulation of Labor" and D. C. Schindler's "Perfect Difference"). You can grab a copy of the magazine at https://⁠newpolity.com/single-issues

Happy New Year! Marc Barnes and Jacob Imam take a look back at New Polity in 2023. This year, New Polity hosted its 3rd annual conference, officially launched the College of St. Joseph the Worker, and put out four new additions of the magazine. They also talk about upcoming podcast series in 2024, as well as some exciting books that will release in the new year. Early Bird pricing for the 2024 New Polity conference ends January 1st! Register here: https://newpolity.com/events

Mike Sullivan and Jacob Imam are excited to announce that the College of St. Joseph is now state approved and accepting students for Fall 2024. The College's mission is to teach students a trade, provide a liberal arts education, and graduate them without crippling debt. Learn more at https://collegeofstjoseph.com

Check out our lineup of speakers and register here https://newpolity.com/events/2024 Announcing the 4th Annual New Polity Conference, Should We, Therefore, Destroy the Servers? In this podcast, Marc Barnes, Jacob Imam, and Andrew Jones discuss the role of technology on our lives, the pursuit of a technology for power, and how Christians should approach technology.

Nathan Bird and Jacob Hyman answer your most pressing question: what are we to do? Drawing from their experiences in Chattanooga and Steubenville, they describe how small bets they made on city improvement have produced big results. Institutional barriers (bad city councils, HOA's, and local laws) can be an impediment to change, but there's still hope. Virtuous friends, with a passion for a better life, can revitalize even a decaying city. Welcome to the series finale of Good Cities!

The best of New Polity delivered to your door four times a year. Subscribe now and get 30% off all back issues https://newpolity.com/magazine Are we drowning in too much city plans? Or do we just have bad plans? Nathan Bird and Jacob Hyman argue that good city planning can solve many of our issues. Although developers and "experts" have caused weird and unsustainable developments, they discuss how local cities can retake planning their city. On the docket: imperial zoning laws, detached property owners, transient residencies, automobiles (again), minimum parking laws, and encouraging organic area planning.

Should we flee to the Land or revitalize the City? Jacob Hyman and Nathan Bird discuss how the battle between land and city is a false dichotomy. Each is dependent on the other and both are essential to renewal. They also discuss how the modern city has divorced these ways of life: making the land a commodity to extract resources and the modern city a scattered suburban sprawl. Also, the financial cost of these poorly planned cities has led to urban decay and flight to newer cities. But, there is a plan that the Church has for making cities beautiful and connecting with the land. Breezy paradisal reading delivered to your door 4 times a year. Subscribe to New Polity Magazine today and get 30% off all back issues. https://www.newpolity.com/magazine

In this episode of Good Cities, it's time to get mad at cars...again. Cars were promised to be freedom on wheels, but most people experience driving as forced upon them; monotonous, traffic-ridden, and expensive. Jacob Hyman and Nathan Bird discuss how cars have made us slow, anxious, and separated from each other. Our cities once were bustling downtowns, and now they're a series of parking lots and crisscrossed highways. Also in this episode: what to do to remedy the impact of the car on cities and how to oppose the car for a better city. Welcome to Car Wars 2. Check out our magazine! Subscribe today and get 30% off all back issues. Visit https://www.newpolity.com/magazine

It's time to get mad about cars. In this episode of Good Cities, Nathan Bird and Jacob Hyman discuss how cars have reshaped the city. How did cars become necessary for life? How did the American government implement a car-centered society? How has the rise of suburbia impacted our cities? Welcome to Car Wars (...part 1)!

Welcome to our new series Good Cities! In this episode, engineers Nathan Bird and Jacob Hyman describe the nature of the city. What is a city? Are cities places of sin? What is the purpose of the city? Is there a rivalry between farm and city? How have we built our cities in America? How can we make our cities better?

In this episode of political saints, Andrew Willard Jones, author of "Before Church and State", discusses the life of King St. Louis IX. Dr. Jones shows how Louis fulfilled his role as king within his role as laity. Instead of the modern way of viewing Church and State as in tension with one another, King Louis saw himself as a lay member of the Church sanctifying the temporal order.

In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Alex Denley discuss the highlights from New Polity Magazine 4.2, including the rise of bourgeois society by Christopher Dawson, critiques of the stock market by John Medaille, and more. Subscribe to the magazine today and get 30% off all back issues! Visit https://www.newpolity.com/magazine

Eric Brende is the author of Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology, which describes his experience of living with the Amish. Marc and Eric discuss the role of technology, the aesthetic of homesteading versus urbanism, and how to approach mechanized life.

Jon Blevins is back with a discussion with Jacob Imam on money. Can a Catholic be wealthy? Should publicly traded companies exist? How can we enact a truly Catholic economy? We have a magazine!--- https://newpolity.com/magazine Watch more at newpolity.com/videos Or help us make more: visit https://www.newpolity.com/donate