What is the Josias?

The Josias was founded by a small community seeking to articulate an authentically Catholic political stance from which to approach the present order of society. Our goal is to make this site a working manual for those who wish to bring their faith into the public square and resist the tides of liberalism, modernism, and ignorance of tradition which have, in the past century, so harmed the Church and tied her hands in the struggle to advance the social reign of Christ.

Contributions to the working manual are organized in the Table of Contents, which orders them according to their place in the division of sciences. A truly Catholic account of politics cannot be understood except with reference to the whole perennial wisdom of practical and speculative philosophy and to the integral tradition of Sacred Theology. We reject the liberal separation of politics from concern with the end of human life and hold that political rule must order man to his final goal. In the natural order, therefore, politics is the principal part of practical science. Man is by nature a part of domestic society, which has its own common good and its own sphere of activity, and therefore domestics (or economics in the classical sense) is a distinct part of practical philosophy. But in the order of proceeding, practical science begins with what is most known to us: namely the order of individual human persons to their ends, which is the subject of ethics. Since man has both a temporal and an eternal end we hold that he ought to be ruled by two powers: a temporal power and a spiritual power. And since man’s temporal end is subordinated to his eternal end, the temporal power must be subordinated to the spiritual power. This view of politics may be called “Catholic Integralism” and “Gelasian Dyarchism.”

In addition to the main contributions to the manual of Catholic Integralism, we offer readers translations of significant, formerly unavailable texts, accompanied by brief introductions. We also offer a Library of other texts useful for our project. This too has a series of introductions.

On our Blog, we offer more ephemeral reflections on various topics, applications of principle to current events, responses to common questions and objections, and reviews of books and works of fine art. Finally, we have a Podcast, where we discuss these topics and debate with each other and with guests.

We welcome you to the site and pray that our work here will be fruitful for you and for building up the Body of Christ. Should you desire to contribute something for publication in these pages, please contact us here.

Editors
Joel Augustine
Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist.
Assistant Editor
Jonathan Culbreath
Copy Editor

Daniel Whitehead

 

HHG2

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