According to the natural law tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Old Testament civil law wasn’t merely political, but was also “figurative” or symbolic in nature. Yet in his actual interpretation of the judicial precepts, Aquinas treats them almost entirely as political, an error that results in an overly broad and (ironically) theonomic understanding of the general equity principle of Old Testament civil law. In this paper, I critique Aquinas’s account, and argue that a narrower, libertarian interpretation of the general equity of the judicial precepts (along the lines of the Non-Aggression Principle) is able to more consistently appreciate their biblically figurative character.

George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history.

Learn more at... https://www.tgbf.org

Behind Roman Catholic and Reformed debates over soteriology, or the doctrine of salvation, lie conflicting views of man’s pre-fall nature. The donum superadditum, or “superadded gift,” is the Roman Catholic doctrine that when Adam was created, he had to be given a special, supernatural grace just to harmonize his spiritual and bodily natures. The Reformed theologians rejected this idea, believing it implied a degrading view of man’s original, unfallen nature, and taught instead that man’s original righteousness, while created by God, was not alien but integral to his natural state. But aside from its implications for the doctrine of salvation, what might be the political and social ramifications of these divergent anthropologies? This paper will examine early modern Reformed and Roman Catholic views of the image of God and the donum superadditum, attending to the ways in which these competing visions imply different notions of the naturalness of political society.

George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history.

Learn more at... https://www.tgbf.org

The free-running Snake and Clearwater Rivers once provided significant natural assets to mankind: beauty, clean water, fish, recreation, transportation, inspiration, waterfowl, solace. Many of these assets are now compromised. Since the four lower Snake River dams were finished in 1976, return rates for salmon to Lower Granite Lock and Dam have consistently fallen below 2%. Dam construction transformed the free-flowing river into a series of slack water “lakes” running over one hundred miles from Tri-Cities, WA to Lewiston, ID. The low flow, increased temperature, and high nutrient load in these lakes significantly limit juvenile salmon’s ability to migrate to sea and mature salmon’s ability to spawn. Snake River salmon and steelhead currently require significant ecological subsidy to prevent complete failure. Removal of the four lower Snake River dams and select others including Dworshak would restore these natural assets and eliminate the need for billions of tax-payer dollars earmarked for salmon restoration and dam maintenance annually.

George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history.

Learn more at... https://www.tgbf.org

Through historical narratives like the 1619 Project and critiques of the “post-war consensus,” both the post-liberal Left and Right seek to find meaning in our past while dismantling our national myths. This raises a critical question for Christians: are the historical methods employed by these political identities defensible? Or is there a more historically Christian approach to understanding and remembering the communal past?

George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history.

Learn more at... https://www.tgbf.org

This talk will help define the increasingly popular term 'regenerative agriculture,' and will explore how it intersects with critical elements of food production sustainability, which is foundational to civilization itself. The systems we have built to produce and distribute food, and just about anything else for that manner, extract and consume finite resources, while at the same time our agricultural systems do not maximize constant or infinite resources. In response to this challenge, we have turned to technology. But the technology simply props up those unsustainable systems. The world has seen this folly before.

George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history. Learn more at...

https://www.tgbf.org

https://www.facebook.com/TheGeorgeBuchananForum

Contrary to the post-Cold War, triumphalist narrative, after WWII the United States did not altruistically transcend power politics and become the world’s stabilizing umpire. Geopolitics was never turned off as Peter Zeihan claimed, nor did history end as Francis Fukuyama predicted. Instead, it was a period of brutal business as usual, and we are just now becoming aware of the cost.

George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history. Learn more at...

https://www.tgbf.org

https://www.facebook.com/TheGeorgeBuchananForum

Cherished by some while deplored by others, the concept of natural rights has had a deeply ambivalent legacy among conservative Christians. This presentation will give a definition and short history of the concept of natural rights, review some of the main objections to the idea, and conclude with a defense of the coherence and, indeed, inevitability of the doctrine of natural rights.

George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history. Learn more at...

https://www.tgbf.org

https://www.facebook.com/TheGeorgeBuchananForum

Monetary and fiscal policy have undergone dramatic changes since Covid-19, and movement towards Modern Monetary Theory has accelerated in the U.S.. Economics as a profession still views the theory as heterodox and has largely left it alone to “die on the vine” as it were. Because MMT is a bit of an intellectual curiosity and is politically advantageous to both the democrats and the republicans, it is gaining momentum in an applied context. Because conservatives and libertarians want to be left alone and to leave others alone, they have too often been apathetic to the weeds growing in their gardens.

I argue that the inflation we have seen over the past few years will not be anomalous in the next two decades. It is the result of MMT slowly taking hold. This talk is designed to provide an overview of the primary assumptions of MMT and untangle the Gordian knot of truth and lies it so carefully weaves together. Finally, we will outline the ultimate consequences, intended or unintended, by such a philosophy of employment, money, and prices.

George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history. Learn more at... https://www.tgbf.org

https://www.facebook.com/TheGeorgeBuchananForum

Why does it seem so difficult for people to acquire, exercise, and establish political rule over others? Why can't human rulers get their human "herds" to obey them willingly like shepherds can with sheep? Why is everyone always revolting against the regime? Xenophon's Education of Cyrus begins with reflection on these questions apparently connected to the anthropological case for libertarianism. For Xenophon, the figure of Cyrus the Great would seem to resolve them decisively in favor of absolute tyranny: Cyrus makes it look so easy to conquer nations and subjugate individuals that not only does the regime itself seem natural but the tyrannical one most of all. Man looks made to be dominated, until even the greatest of kings proves inadequate to the task. Should we look for an even greater king with an even better art of kingship, or is this proof that man is born free and for freedom? This presentation introduces the political writings of the greatest student of Socrates not named Plato and attempts to provide a defense of natural liberty and a skeptical perspective toward attempts to subsume that liberty in or under political life.George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history. Learn more at... https://www.tgbf.orghttps://www.facebook.com/TheGeorgeBuchananForum

For over a decade Pr. Douglas Wilson has been introducing the highly suggestive term Mere Christendom into contemporary Christian discourse as a way of describing what it is that Christians ought to be striving for politically. With the recent publication of his book by the same title, this is as opportune a time as any to ask: Just what is “Mere Christendom”? What appear to be its essential affirmations, denials, and insights? What have been some of the notable criticisms of it so far, and in what ways might these criticisms miss the mark? On the other hand, from a natural law libertarian point of view, what are some of its apparent ambiguities, tensions, and (as-yet) unanswered questions? This talk will address these questions and more.George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history. Learn more at... https://www.tgbf.org https://www.facebook.com/TheGeorgeBuchananForum