]]>
The Josias is planning an online reading group to discuss Andrew Willard Jones’s new book, Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX. Jones’s book is perhaps the most important recent work on a subject of great concern to The Josias: the relation of spiritual to temporal power. Jones argues that the understanding of the relation of spiritual and temporal power elaborated in the teachings of the popes of the High Middle Ages has been imperfectly understood by historians. Historians have tended to place that understanding, and the conflicts in which it was elaborated, in the context of the narrative of the rise of the sovereign, national state. Jones argues that that narrative, in which conflicts between spiritual and temporal power in the Middle Ages are viewed as conflicts between the “secular” power of “the state” and the “religious” power of the “church” for “sovereignty” within society obscures the way in which medieval society actually functioned and understood its own functioning. In the Middle Ages, he contends, there was no such thing as “religion” or “the secular” in the modern senses of those words, there was therefore no such thing as “the church” in its modern sense of a voluntary association with purely religious aims, and there was no such thing as “the state” or the “sovereign” monopoly of power that characterizes that modern institution. Before Church and State is not only an insightful treatment of an historical period; it is also an important contribution to the proper understanding of perennial Church teaching on the relation of the two powers.
The reading group will begin discuss one chapter of the book a week. The discussion of the Introduction will start on Thursday, June 1st. To sign up, fill out the following form:
We would like to draw the attention of our readers to the following conference on the common good at the University of Notre Dame. The theme is clearly closely related to our concerns here at The Josias, and some of our authors will be presenting papers.
CONFERENCE: THE COMMON GOOD AS A COMMON PROJECT
March 26-28, 2017
The Common Good as a Common Project is a graduate student conference sponsored by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.
Keynote speakers:
- Alasdair MacINTYRE, University of Notre Dame
- Jean-Luc MARION, University of Chicago and the Sorbonne
- Jean PORTER, University of Notre Dame
- Emilie TARDIVEL-SCHICK, Institut Catholique de Paris
The common good enjoys a central place in classical and Christian social thought. Although the concept is frequently invoked in both theological and political discourse, its rhetorical use is rarely connected to a more satisfying theory of its form or content. When rigorously conceived, however, the common good has ramifications for nearly all social inquiry, both empirical and theoretical. The resurgence of interest in the principle of the common good demands a two-fold conversation: one part building a conception of the common good that moves beyond vague or platitudinous gestures and the other applying the principle to social questions in a rigorous and intelligent way. This conference aims to embody that conversation across the many disciplines which can view the common good as their common project.
We invite both theoretical and applied papers that address key questions about the common good: Is the common good still relevant today? Which conception of the common good best illuminates our understanding of politics, ethics, economics, and other social institutions? What arrangements in family life, civil society, and politics will best foster the common good? Submissions are welcome from the perspective of any discipline of social inquiry, including but not limited to: philosophy, theology, political science, sociology, economics, history, and law. The conference will be structured to foster exchange among competing theoretical conceptions of the common good as well as debate about the application of these conceptions to particular disciplines and moral/social/political problems.
PLEASE SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT OF NO MORE THAN 300 WORDS BY NOVEMBER 15, 2016 TO [email protected].
NOTICES OF ACCEPTANCE WILL BE SENT BY DECEMBER 6, 2016. SCHOLARS OF ANY RANK OR EXPERIENCE ARE WELCOME TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL, BUT SOME PREFERENCE WILL BE GIVEN TO SUBMISSIONS FROM GRADUATE STUDENTS.
All presenters at the conference will receive a private hotel room for two nights during the conference as well as a small stipend of up to $150 to help defray documented transportation expenses. There is also a limited fund to further assist those who may be traveling from abroad; such funds will be awarded upon request, based on availability. For more information, please email us at the above address or visit the conference website at nanovic.nd.edu/cg2017.
Today in the United States is the highest feast day in the political calendar. We ask you, dear readers, in the spirit of St. Pius V, to pray Psalm 73 (74) and offer a rosary for the conversion our rulers and the restoration of Christ’s social reign among us.
]]>