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The Josias Podcast, Episode XXVIII: Socialism (Part 2)

The debate on socialism continues, with Pater Edmund playing the socialist and Alan Fimister taking the anti-socialist side. Joel is joined by Chris to moderate the discussion.

Bibliography and Links

Leo XIII, Rerum novarum (1891)

Pius XI, Quadragesimo anno (1931)

Ernest Fortin, “Sacred and Inviolable: Rerum Novarum and Natural Rights“

Karl Marx, Theories of Surplus Value, ch. 9

Beatrice Freccia, “Aristotle’s Account of the Relationship of the Household to the State”

Charles De Koninck, “The End of the Family and the End of Civil Society”

Jacques de Monléon, “Short Notes on the Family and the City”

Scott Meikle, “Aristotle and Exchange Value”

Tři oříšky pro Popelku

Music: Prokofiev – Cinderella Suite – Cinderella’s Waltz

Header Image: “Das ist eine wunderschöne Wiese“

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John Zmirak’s Liberalism

In a piece written a number of years ago and in another more recent offering John Zmirak purports to explain the folly of integralism and to propound instead a doctrine fit for ‘patriotic Christians’ which reconciles liberalism in its true sense with the creed of Catholics. The first objection to Zmirak’s patriotic Christianity is his overt endorsement of liberalism. No Catholic is free to embrace liberalism. Zmirak does not mean by liberalism support for democratic institutions but he very explicitly means by the term precisely the error condemned by the Church’s magisterium. Liberalism purports to advocate a public sphere and constitutional order which prescinds from questions of revealed truth and rests solely upon reason. This posture is disingenuous and is firmly condemned as nothing less than Satanic by Leo XIII in his great encyclical Libertas. For, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains  “every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct.” In rejecting its obligations of public worship the liberal state becomes necessarily totalitarian in form and hedonistic in content. As St John Paul II observed “the rights of God and man stand or fall together” and as he said of the teaching of Leo XIII in Libertas it “called attention to the essential bond between human freedom and truth, so that freedom which refused to be bound to the truth would fall into arbitrariness and end up submitting itself to the vilest of passions, to the point of self-destruction.” This is the social order that reigns today and for which Zmirak insists, contrary to the teaching of John Paul II and Leo XIII, liberalism cannot be held accountable. Let there be no doubt it is the Satanic doctrine condemned in Libertas which John Zmirak expressly espouses.

Continue reading “John Zmirak’s Liberalism”
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The Josias Podcast, Episode XXVII: Socialism (Part 1)

Alan Fimister comes on the podcast to debate socialism with Pater Edmund. For the purposes of the debate, Pater Edmund takes the socialist side, arguing that the injustices of modern capitalism, which orders all things to the private interests of capitalists, requires the adoption of socialism to subordinate economic matters to the common good of the political community. Alan Fimister takes the anti-socialist side, arguing that the individual and the family are prior to the state, and have the antecedent duty and right to provide for their subsistence, which requires private property. The debate is moderated (not entirely impartially) by Joel: There are no rules.

Bibliography and Links

Leo XIII, Rerum novarum (1891).

Pius XI, Quadragesimo anno (1931).

W. Borman, “Thomism and Private Property,” The Josias (2017).

Thomas Crean and Alan Fimister, Integralism: A manual of political philosophy (2020).

David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years (2011).

Henri Grenier, “The Lawfulness and Social Character of Private Ownership,” The Josias (2015).

C.W. Strand, “A Catholic Socialism,” Tradinista! (2016).

Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., “Use Values and Corn Laws, Aristotelian Marxists and High Tories,” Sancrucensis, 2015.

Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., “Dialogue with a Catholic Leftist,” Sancrucensis (2016).

Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., “Robin Hood Economics: How should the wealth of the world be distributed?” Plough, 2019.

Music: Дми́трий Шостако́вич, Jazz Suite No.2 – 6. Waltz II.

Header Image: New Harmony, Indiana, as proposed by Robert Owen. Engraving by F. Bate, 1838.

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

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Many thanks to our generous supporters on Patreon, who enable us to pay for podcast hosting. If you have not yet joined them, please do so. You can set up a one-time or recurring donation in any amount. Even $1 a month would be splendid.

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Building a Common Life

It is almost, if not absolutely, impossible for people who view each other with deep suspicion concerning morality to build a common life. And this is completely rational. A difference in moral orientation means that the normal trust in a community that members will not harm each other is not present. Not only physical harm, but intellectual harm. When there is disagreement about how to live morally with each other, children will be morally confused. As intellectual and moral habits form, these children will either act in ways that some approve and others disapprove, or else their confusion will lead to chaotic moral habits that destroy any chance that the community will continue unharmed.  To avoid this, parents may choose to isolate them from opposing moral standards (and thus isolate them from their neighbors.) But unless they live in a community agreed on morality, these children will not benefit from the natural and good diversity of perspective on practical and prudential matters that comes from living in a community of people with different talents and occupations. Instead of either self isolation or a live and let live attitude which hides the deep divides in our communities, we must meet this moral division head on and seek to convince each other to reject the immoral and live together in unity. It does us no good to hide the seething repressed disagreements that occasionally surface on social media behind the thin facade of “basic community goods” which renders our cities essentially shared utilities rather than places for a shared life.

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The Josias Podcast, Episode XXVI: Historicism

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.”

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

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The Josias Podcast, Episode XXV: Questions & Answers

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

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.

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

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The Josias Podcast, Episode XXIV: Hobbes vs. Suárez on Coercion

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

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).

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

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The Josias Podcast, Episode XXIII: Liberty: the Highest of Natural Endowments

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

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.

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

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Many thanks to our generous supporters on Patreon, who enable us to pay for podcast hosting. If you have not yet joined them, please do so. You can set up a one-time or recurring donation in any amount. Even $1 a month would be splendid.

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Litaniae Sanctorum contra morbum coronaviri-MMXIX

Severinus Conversus

℣. Kyrie, eléison. — ℟. Christe, eléison.

℣. Kyrie, eléison.

℣. Christe, — ℟. audi nos.

℣. Christe, — ℟. exaudi nos.

℣. Pater de caelis Deus, — ℟. Miserere nobis.

℣. Fili Redemptor mundi Deus,

℣. Spiritus Sancte Deus,

℣. Sancta Trinitas unus Deus,

℣. Sancta Maria, — ℟. ora pro nobis.

℣. Mater Misericordiae,

℣. Salus Populi Romani,

℣. Salus Infirmorum,

℣. Domina Nostra Salutis,

℣. Sancte Michael Archangele, — ℟. ora pro nobis.

℣. Sancte Raphael Archangele,                                                                 

℣. Sancte Eustachi, — ℟. ora pro nobis.

℣. Sancte Christophore,

℣. Sancte Dionysi,

℣. Sancte Acaci Centurio,

℣. Sancte Cyriace,

℣. Sancte Georgi,

℣. Sancte Vite,

℣. Sancte Pantaleon,

℣. Sancte Blasi,

℣. Sancte Erasme,

℣. Sancte Aegidi,

℣. Sancta Barbara, — ℟. ora pro nobis.

℣. Sancta Katharina,

℣. Sancta Margarita,

℣. Quattuordecim Auxiliatores, — ℟. orate pro nobis.

℣. Sancte Quirine, — ℟. ora pro nobis.

℣. Sancte Corneli,

℣. Sancte Antoni Magne,

℣. Sancte Huberte,

℣. Quattuor Mariscalci Dei, — ℟. orate pro nobis.

℣. Sancte Apollinaris Ravennas, — ℟. ora pro nobis.

℣. Sancte Petre Apostole,

℣. Sancte Luca Apostole,

℣. Sancte Sixte II,

℣. Sancte Sebastiane,

℣. Sancte Cosma,

℣. Sancte Damiane,

℣. Sancte Cypriane,

℣. Sancte Valentine,

℣. Sancte Quintine,

℣. Sancte Adriane,

℣. Sancte Nicola Myrensis,

℣. Sancte Remigi,

℣. Sancte Leonarde Lemovicensis,

℣. Sancte Deodate,

℣. Sancte Gregori Magne,

℣. Sancte Agricola Avenionensis,

℣. Sancte Winoce,

℣. Sancte Edmunde Martyr,

℣. Sancte Colomanne,

℣. Sancte Hugo Cluniacensis,

℣. Sancte Alberte Magne,

℣. Sancte Nicola Tolentinensis,

℣. Sancte Roche,

℣. Sancte Bernarde Ptolemaee,

℣. Sancte Ioannes Nepomucene,

℣. Sancte Bernardine,

℣. Sancte Casimire,

℣. Sancte Francisce de Paula

℣. Sancte Carole Borromee,

℣. Sancte Aloysi Gonzaga,

℣. Sancte Ioannes Francisce,

℣. Sancte Henrice Morse,

℣. Sancte Iohannes Southworthe,

℣. Sancte Andrea Bobola

℣. Sancte Francisce Fatimensis,

℣. Sancte Iosephe Moscati,

℣. Sancte Andrea Marianopolitane,

℣. Sancta Thecla, — ℟. ora pro nobis.

℣. Sancta Corona,

℣. Sancta Natalia,

℣. Sancta Genovefa,

℣. Sancta Godeberta,

℣. Sancta Walpurga,

℣. Sancta Rosalia,

℣. Sancta Francisca,

℣. Sancta Teresia Abulensis,

℣. Sancta Virginia,

℣. Sancta Hyacintha Fatimensis,

℣. Omnes Sancti et Sanctae Dei, — ℟. Orate pro nobis.

℣. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, — ℟. Parce nobis Domine.

℣. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, — ℟. Exaudi nos Domine,

℣. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, — ℟. Miserere nobis.

Oremus: Deus, qui non mortem, sed paenitentiam desideras peccatorum: populum tuum ad te revertentem propitius respice; ut, dum tibi devotus exsistit, iracundiae tuae flagella ab eo clementer amoveas. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.