Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton represent the best known and broadest schools of American thought on how best to balance liberty with the need for order. Dr. John Pinheiro looks the intellectual origins of their principles and what we might glean from each to help build a free and virtuous society.

Further Reading

The American Experiment in Ordered Liberty

The Christian Roots of American Liberty

Dr. Pinheiro’s Substack

Guest Info

John C. Pinheiro is an historian and Director of Research and Publications at Acton Institute. He holds a PhD from the University of Tennessee. He is the author of many books and articles, including The American Experiment in Ordered Liberty. His newest book, edited with Dylan Pahman, is The Christian Roots of American Liberty: A Reader. He is working on another book “Place, Tradition, and the American Founding.”

A free and flourishing society needs two things: the rule of law, and freedom. The purpose of government is to secure those two conditions. But the dominant view today is that freedom and law are in opposition to each other. Dr. Adam MacLeod looks at the Christian vision of a free government.

Guest Info

Adam J. MacLeod is a Professor of Law and Co-Associate Dean for Faculty Research at The Catholic University of America, and a Fellow at the Center for Law and the Human Person. He was previously Professor of Law and Katherine A. Ryan Chair at St. Mary’s University and, before that, Professor of Law at Faulkner University, where students twice named him Professor of the Year. He has been a visiting fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University and research fellow at George Mason University. He serves as Senior Fellow of the Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy.

To remove God from education is to tear education itself at the seams. Ali Ghaffari joins us looking at John Henry Newman’s vision of the University and how education should address the entire person.

Guest Info

Ali Ghaffari is the inaugural Executive Director of the St. John Henry Newman Institute (JHNI). A retired U.S. Navy commander with 20 years of service—including combat deployments and a faculty appointment teaching leadership at the United States Naval Academy—Ali discovered the Catholic faith through the great books tradition. His passion for integrating faith and learning led him to found Divine Mercy Academy (MD) in 2019, a classical K-8 school that has since grown to nearly 150 students. Ali now channels his convert’s zeal, educational vision, and proven leadership to advance JHNI’s mission of renewing Catholic education rooted in truth, beauty, and goodness.

We are reaching the celebration of the semi-quincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and at this crossroads in history we must ask a question. What made this nation possible? Marcus shares some thoughts.

Further Reading:

The Christian Roots of American Liberty

The Roots of American Order

Fr Kusi Cobona is a Fijian priest who is retiring after more than 40 years of ministry, most recently at Sts. James, Cornelius and Cyprian parish in Mason, Michigan. He joins us to reflect on his years of priesthood and shares a healing experience he had while on a parish mission.

Further Reading

Read: Father Cobona’s remarkable Saint James’ Day story of healing

Guest Info

Fr. Kusi Cobona was born in 1956 on the “Garden Island of Fiji: Taveuni”. He attended the Pacific Regional Seminary and was ordained a Marist Priest on December 1, 1984. He came to the United States and was incardinated into the Diocese of Lansing. Bishop Boyea installed Fr. Kusi as pastor of St. James Church, Mason, in 2010. He has remained as pastor through consolidation and now serves at the Catholic Community of Sts. James, Cornelius and Cyprian. Fr. Kusi obtained his US Citizenship on May 18, 2016. He has been actively involved in the Knights of Columbus and has led several mission trips to Fiji. He is retiring this week after serving for over 41 years as a Catholic Priest.

The conventional wisdom has it that C.S. Lewis disdained and ignored politics. The conventional wisdom is mistaken. Dr. Micah Watson joins us to explore Lewis’s understanding of the political as it relates to timeless principles of morality and the stubborn realities of fallen human nature.

Guest Info

Dr. Micah Watson is a native of the great golden state of California where he completed his undergraduate degree at U.C. Davis. He earned his M.A. degree in Church-State Studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and holds M.A. and doctorate degrees in Politics from Princeton University. Professor Watson joined the faculty at Calvin College in the fall of 2015.  He directs the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics program (PPE) and is the executive director of the  Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics. He holds the Paul B. Henry Chair in Political Science.  Professor Watson is the author of several articles and book chapters, the co-author of C.S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law (Cambridge), and more recently Hopeful Realism: Evangelical Natural Law and Democratic Politics (IVP Academic). He and his wife Julie and their five children and one son-in-law make their home in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Though he was not a Christian, Robert Nisbet was closely allied to Christian Humanists and the Christian Humanist movement throughout his life. Dr Brad Birzer looks at his core ideas--of community and conservatism.

Recommended Readings from Dr. Birzer:

Nisbet, The Quest for CommunityNisbet, The Twilight of AuthorityNisbet, The Present Age

Guest Info

Bradley J. Birzer is Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and Professor of History, Hillsdale College. He is also author of several books, including the award winning Russell Kirk: American Conservative, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth, Tolkien and the Inklings (forthcoming), American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson. He has proudly been involved with the Acton Institute--as a student, then instructor--since the very early 1990s.

Over the past few years, some conservative Catholic theologians have reintroduced the political philosophy of “Catholic integralism” as the true social teaching of the Catholic Church, one even binding on the consciences of Catholics. These “neo-integralists” argue that governments must be subject to the spiritual authority of the Catholic Church, and for that reason governments ought to coerce the baptized to obey the Catholic hierarchy. We discuss the problems with this approach with Dr. James Patterson.

Further Reading

Why Postliberalism Failed

Guest Info

James M. Patterson is Associate Professor in the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee. He is also a Contributing Editor at Law & Liberty, and president of the Ciceronian Society, an ecumenical fellowship of Christian scholars dedicated to the study of tradition, place, and “things divine.”

Stephen Henley joins us to share his work with Legatus and how his organization helps prepare Catholics to be ambassadors of Christ.

Guest Info

Stephen Henley is the President of Legatus

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. They represent two essential roles of the Church – Peter, the magisterial authority, and Paul the evangelical mandate of the Gospel. The Catholic Church is unique in how she unites the understanding of both these saints as necessary parts of our baptism. Marcus has more.