Published by New Polity
Laying the intellectual foundation necessary for building Christian societies free from the violent presuppositions of liberalism.
Listen on Apple PodcastsMarc Barnes and Alex Denley are happy to announce the next New Polity Magazine, Issue 7.3, on AI: The Hype vs The Real. In this podcast, they discuss the loss of textual communities, AI generated homilies, the technocratic paradigm, and other topics from the new magazine.
Marc Barnes and Joe Heschmeyer are from the old world of the Catholic blogosphere. With catchy titles like "Bad Catholic" and "Shameless Popery," the Catholic blogs were the place for long comment threads and an active community. Social media has made that community mostly obsolete, and social media is the default place where people go. In this podcast, they discuss producing content for social media algorithms and how to preserve and encourage attention.
In The Seven Ranges, Will Hoyt sought answers to how and why small, self-sufficient landholders in eastern Ohio consented to the destruction of once-thriving townships and even topography itself via strip mining in the 1960s. In his new sequel, Fear and Trembling in Las Vegas, Hoyt describes the collapse of Western Civilization as experienced by residents in eastern Ohio, Cleveland, and Michigan between 1994 and 2024. In this podcast, Marc Barnes interviews Will Hoyt about his new book and how a sense of America and its grandeur can be brought back.
In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Star Plato discuss the final chapters of the Book of Judith. Specifically, they look at the prayer at the end of the book, where Judith praises God for victory.
America is a special place. And, it even has it's own heresy. In this podcast, Reuben Slife and Marc Barnes discuss Leo XIII's condemnation of "Americanism," and the controversy that it caused. Some US bishops replied to the Pope that no one actually adhered to Americanism, and that it was effectively a "phantom heresy." But, is there something particular to the American way of being Catholic that needs correction? How does this teaching on Americanism relate to America today, on the 250th anniversary?
Magnifica Humanitas has been called the "AI Encyclical," but there's far more to the document: a thorough analysis of Catholic Social Doctrine, an extensive treatment of modern warfare, and how power works in the world today. In this podcast, Alex Denley and Andrew Willard Jones discuss the political philosophy of Magnifica Humanitas, and how the Pope's analysis helps us to understand our future with AI, how the powerful will use it, and what we as Christians can do about it.
The anti-chatbot alliance is growing. With support from the Future of Life Institute, New Polity is hosting a landmark event on AI this October in Steubenville Ohio, bringing together leading Catholic organizations and thinkers to discuss, debate, and chart a path for our world with AI. Event details and tickets will be available in July. In this podcast, Marc Barnes interviews participants at the Future of Life event in Washington D.C. on their projects, thinking on AI, and how an anti-chatbot alliance can be formed. Subscribe to New Polity Magazine! Next one's on AI and will be releasing by August. Subscribe now: https://newpolity.com/magazine Shon Pan is a former technologist and author of "What Christians Should Know About AI: Navigating Artificial Intelligence with Biblical Wisdom" available here: https://www.amazon.com/What-Christians-Should-Know-About/dp/1962802302 Michael Marinaccio is the Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Tech: https://responsible-technology.org Michael Toscano is Senior Fellow and Director of the Family First Technology Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies: https://ifstudies.org/about-us/michael-toscano Lily Abadal is an assistant professor of instruction at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Her research focuses on virtue ethics and moral formation, particularly in relation to emerging technologies. https://www.drlilyabadal.com/bio.html
What does it mean to be holy in America? In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Reuben Slife discuss the newest release from New Polity Press: America in the Mystery of Christ and the Church by David L. Schindler, available now at newpolity.com/books. David L. Schindler, for forty years editor of the American edition of the international theological journal Communio (founded by Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Henri de Lubac), devoted much of his career to a theological analysis of American culture. In the 1980s and ’90s, he carried on a high-profile debate on the question with George Weigel, Michael Novak, and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. Until now, however, none of his books has focused directly on the topic. "America in the Mystery of Christ and the Church" brings together Schindler’s key writings on American culture, presenting his profound and multi-faceted thought in full. It contains a complete chronology-bibliography of his works on America and of the debate with Neuhaus, Novak, and Weigel. In addition, an extensive, original Critical Introduction gives a synthesis of his thought, with special attention to the theme of holiness and to the easily-overlooked positivity of his pursuit: to purify, in Christ, the uniqueness and gifts of the United States.
In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Star Plato continue their discussion of the book of Judith. Specifically, they discuss Judith's "strategy" of using her beauty to trick the Assyrians. What is the meaning and power of female beauty?
Do men and women differ only in regards to the body? Or, can we speak of there being a "female" soul and a "male" soul? How do we explain the different ways that men and women relate to their bodies? In this podcast, Marc Barnes and D. C. Schindler discuss the different ways of explaining sexual difference. Specifically, they discuss Schindler's recent article in New Polity Issue 7.1/2, and a possible way to metaphysically understand the body/soul problem in relation to men and women.
Pope St. John Paul II claimed that "the 'new evangelization', which the modern world urgently needs must include among its essential elements a proclamation of the Church's social doctrine" (Centesimus Annus 5). In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Cy Kellett, host of Catholic Answers Live, discuss how proclaiming the social doctrine of the Church can lead people to Christ.
"The Lord struck him down by the hand of a female!" Is the story of Judith a rejection of male power and patriarchy? What does Judith show about how power is used differently between men and women? How does God reveal his power in the actions of men and women? In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Star Plato discuss the Book of Judith and what it teaches regarding the sexual difference.
Esther defeats the idolatrous god-king through the strange power of weakness. Join Marc and Maria’s discussion of monolithic and idolatrous power structures and their vulnerability to the particular vocation of women.
What is the metaphysical difference between man and woman? Philosophy has long had a problem explaining the difference between men and women, even though it is a basic and fundamental reality. Are men and women different essentially? Is there a particularly "female soul" and a "male soul?" Is the brute fact of the sexually differentiated body the basis for sexual difference, or does that presuppose the problem? In man and woman are we dealing with an opposition or a contrariety? In this new podcast series, Marc Barnes and D. C. Schindler discuss the metaphysics of sexual difference, arguing for a new approach to the question.
What do the matriarchs of the Old Testament teach us regarding the roles of men and women? In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Maria Brandell discuss the biblical story of Esther and how it reveals the specific vocation of women.
The Iran War is close to entering its third week, and hostilities continue to escalate. Off-ramps for de-escalation are closing and the American public is, largely, unsupportive of the war. In this podcast, Alex Denley hosts a roundtable discussion with three professors of the College of St. Joseph the Worker, Dr. Andrew Willard Jones, Dr. Alex Plato, and Dr. Jared Goff, on whether the Iran War fits the criteria of a just war according to Catholic Social Teaching. They also discuss the circumstances of the war, the stated objectives of the Trump administration, and whether modern warfare is capable of being waged justly.
In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Michael Boland discuss the upcoming New Polity magazine, Issue 7.1, on Man and Woman. Specifically, they discuss the philosophical and metaphysical problems of sexual difference, and how our understanding of man and woman impacts our view of politics. Subscribe to New Polity Magazine by March 1st to receive Issue 7.1! https://newpolity.com/magazine The 2026 New Polity Conference is only three months away! Learn more and get your ticket at https://newpolity.com/2026
In this podcast, Matthew Harvey Sanders, CEO of Longbeard (creator of MagisteriumAI), and Marc Barnes, editor of New Polity, debate whether Catholics should build and use AI chatbots. Barnes argues that Catholic AI chatbots are objectively evil because they generate probabilistic statements about the faith, are irresponsible in their responses, and are inherently fake conversations with non-persons. Sanders argues that Catholics should embrace this new technological development and that there is an openness from the Vatican about the creation of a true artificial intelligence. This debate is hosted by Edmund Mitchell of the Faith and AI Project.
What is the Catholic response to AI? Pope Leo XIV, in his recent message for the 60th World Day of Social Communications, takes a critical look at AI: namely, how it is "encroach[ing] upon the deepest level of communication, that of human relationships." Pope Leo asserts that our faces and voices are sacred, a witness to the unique, singular dignity of each human person. With AI already mimicking persons in social media and through deepfakes, the Pope calls for overcoming the "anthropomorphizing tendencies of AI systems." In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Reuben Slife go line-by-line through the message of Pope Leo, and discuss it's implications for the Catholic approach to AI.
The book has long been the place of completed thought, able to incorporate previous work and advance new thought. That is going away. AI generation is polluting the discourse; leading to a state where all "new" publications are, in fact, summarized AI restatements of the previous state of the question. In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Andrew Willard Jones discuss the effects of AI on the the technology of the books, and how a literate culture persists.