The Sower

Josh Bowman chats with Winston Brady of Thales Press and Thales Academy about his evocative and moving novel, The Inferno (Fidelis Press, 2023). We discuss the nature of sin and repentance, as well as themes of vice, evil, greed, American History, suicide, depression, and Hell. Winston’s story, creatively described in his novel, is a testimony of God’s redeeming love and forgiveness. 

** This episode discusses suicide and may contain content that is disturbing to some. Listener discretion is advised. Also, if you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please seek immediate help from a professional or from emergency services. For example, dial 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. **

Buy the book here: https://www.fidelispublishing.com/authors/winston-brady

The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE.  

To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

This special episode is a recording from our 2025 Conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

The panel is "Theological Perspectives on the Market," and the speakers are:

John Robinson (James Madison University) - "Scarcity, Isolation, and Dependence: Economic Insight in CS Lewis's The Great Divorce"

Erik Matson (Mercatus Center) - "Economics and Evil"

Paul Radich (Catholic University of America) - "From the Invisible Hand to the Inexorable Hammer: Cosmological Affinity between Adam Smith and Karl Marx"

Dylan Pahman (Acton Institute) - "The Fourth Face of Power: Toward a Pure Theory of Friendship"

If you like this panel, please consider attending our next conference, March 12-14, 2026, in Omaha, Nebraska. For details, go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/conference/2026-conference-registration/

0:00 Episode Introduction

1:56 Panel Introduction

4:15 Robinson

15:30 Matson

32:47 Radich

47:28 Pahman

1:07:31 Q & A

To find out more about our activities, sign up for our newsletter, or make your tax-deductible gift, please visit https://ciceroniansociety.org/

Josh Bowman leads a discussion on the recently republished 1973 book The Social Philosophers: Community and Conflict in Western Thought (American Philosophical Society Press, 2025) by the American sociologist Robert Nisbet (1913-1996). Joining him are Luke Sheahan of Duquesne University, author of the foreword to this edition, and Paul Mueller of the American Institute for Economic Research. 

Nisbet’s book focuses on the historical development of communities that he categorizes as military, political, religious, revolutionary, ecological, and plural. Which community is dominant today? What are communities even for? 

To check out the book itself, go to: https://www.amphilsoc.org/publications/social-philosophers-community-and-conflict-western-thought

The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE.  

To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

This special episode is a recording of a panel at the June 2025 meeting of the Academy of Philosophy and Letters in College Park, Maryland. We are grateful to the APL for their permission to publish this recording.

The panel is titled "Book Roundtable – Aristocratic Voices: Forgotten Arguments about Virtue, Authority, and Inequality" and the panelists are:

Ethan Alexander-Davey, Campbell University, “Aristocracy and the Forms That Fit”

Matthew T. Cantirino, The University of Dallas, “Henry Adams: Aristocracy in an American?”

Luke C. Sheahan, Duquesne University, “Authority, Hierarchy, and the Social Bond in the Aristocratic Thought of Robert Nisbet”

Michael Federici, Middle Tennessee State University, “Irving Babbitt on Democracy and Leadership”

Michael Harding, Montgomery College, “Against the Tarantulas: Nietzsche on Aristocracy”

To find out more about our activities, sign up for our newsletter, or make your tax-deductible gift, please visit https://ciceroniansociety.org/

To learn more about the APL and their programs, visit https://philosophyandletters.org/

The APL 2025 Conference schedule is here: https://philosophyandletters.org/2025/02/14/2025-conference-schedule/

0:00 Introduction

7:51 Ethan Alexander-Davey, Panel Introduction

20:52 Matthew Cantirino on Henry Adams

37:13 Luke Sheahan on Robert Nisbet

49:35 Michael Federici on Irving Babbit

1:01:09 Michael Harding on Nietzsche's Tarantulas

To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

This special episode is a recording from our 2025 Conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

The panel is "The Gifts of Christian Humanism," and the speakers are:

Chris Armstrong (Anselm House) - "Twentieth Century Christian Humanism and the Retrieval of the Premodern Real"

Darrell Falconburg (Russell Kirk Center) - "Christian Humanism and the Renewal of Education"

Jason Jewell (State University System of Florida) - "Irving Babbitt and the Natural Law"

If you like this panel, please consider attending our next conference, March 12-14, 2026, in Omaha, Nebraska. For details, go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/conference/2026-conference-registration/

0:00 Introduction
1:34 Biographies & Prayer
4:43 Armstrong
24:52 Falconburg
44:09 Jewell
1:02:52 Q & A 

Josh Bowman speaks with Joy Moore, a Nebraska native, mother, and writer now living in South Dakota. She is also an adjunct law professor at the Univ. of South Dakota. This episode focuses on her newest project concerning the topic of friendship.

The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE.  We hope you’ll join us! Register here: https://ciceroniansociety.org/conference/2026-conference-registration/

To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

Josh Bowman interviews Nate Roberts, founder of the Michigan Academy of Folk Music (MAFM). (This 2025 episode combines 2 episodes previously published in 2023.)

In the first half of this episode, we talk through Nate and MAFM’s approach to music education and its overlap with classical education, homeschooling, and more. In the second half, we talk about the role of music in discipleship and moral and spiritual formation generally.

https://www.mifolkmusic.com/

Listeners may be interested to hear some of Nate’s recordings. Search for the following albums where you listen to music:

Unadorned and Commonplace by Hayes Griffin & Nate Roberts

Structures by Nate Roberts and Doug Scheuerell

Dendrophilia by Nate Roberts Trio

The Meaning of a Tree by the Field Hymnal

If you enjoy learning and writing about any of the topics discussed in this Podcast, we encourage you to visit our website to sign-up for our newsletter and to register for our upcoming conference.

https://ciceroniansociety.org/

The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Panel and paper proposals are due September 1, 2025.

To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

Josh Bowman talks with his longtime friend and former professor, Paul R. Dehart on his new book, The Social Contract in the Ruins: Natural Law and Government by Consent (Univ. of Missouri, 2024). DeHart is Professor of Political Science at Texas State University.

DeHart argues that modern attempts to root political obligation and morality in contractarian thought on voluntarist terms are self-referentially incoherent as well as a normative failure. What implications might this have for the American Founding and Constitutional thought? Can the classical natural law tradition get along with social contract theory? Is social contract theory worth saving? Does the “consent of the governed” even matter? 

We discuss this and much more, giving attention to thinkers such as Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Althuisus, Richard Hooker, and many others. 

Dr. DeHart’s profile at Texas State University https://faculty.txst.edu/profile/1922208

His Books:

The Social Contract in the Ruins: Natural Law and Government by Consent (Univ. of Missouri, 2024) https://upress.missouri.edu/9780826223050/the-social-contract-in-the-ruins/

Uncovering the Constitution's Moral Design (Univ. of Missouri, 2017) https://upress.missouri.edu/9780826221308/uncovering-the-constitutions-moral-design/

Also mentioned:

The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Vol. 2: The Age of Reformation, by Quentin Skinner

And works by Francis Oakeley, J. Budziszewski, A. John Simmons, Brian Tierney, and others. 

The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Panel and paper proposals are due September 1, 2025.

To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

0:00 Introduction
3:38 Social Contract Theory
14:30 SCT vs Natural Law Tradition
24:23 Why It Fails
38:01 American Founding
52:24 Covenantal Realism
1:12:19 How to Handle Disagreements
1:23:18 First Principles
1:26:57 Paucity of Consent