In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair speak with Andrew Willard Jones about how to live humanly within the empire of modernity. Andrew traces his journey, from a secular upbringing, to embracing the Catholic tradition and a deep commitment to family and community. An exceptional thinker among a new generation of Catholic theologians, he explores how modernity and its liberalisms have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the world and what it means to be human. But this is no retreat into religious or academic abstraction. Andrew lives and works daily in a growing community embodying a shared Christian life—an “other kingdom” that echoes Augustine in our age of unravelling. This conversation reveals a cosmic dimension to everyday life: a way of living shaped by the love of God has the potential to transform all of society. It also raises urgent questions for churches, parishes, and Christian communities in this post-liberal moment. If what’s at stake is humanity itself, then our response must be rooted in love and friendship, not power or control.
Andrew Willard Jones is a political theologian whose work is primarily concerned with historical political theology and with the reconciliation of the post-modern with the pre-modern. He is currently Professor of History and Political Theory and Academic Dean at The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Ohio, a new college teaching students the Catholic intellectual tradition while training them in skilled and dignified labour. A founding editor of the journal New Polity, his writing is recognised as having broken new ground in Catholic political thought, and he lectures widely, in both academic and ecclesial contexts. The author of many books, Andrew holds a PhD in Medieval History from Saint Louis University with a focus on the Church of the High Middle Ages. He and his wife Sara are busy raising their eleven children in Steubenville, Ohio.
Links
For Andrew Willard Jones:
https://www.collegeofstjoseph.com/academic-faculty
https://newpolity.com/podcasts-hub/church-against-state
https://newpolity.com/podcasts-hub/meet-andrew-willard-jones
https://newpolity.com/blog?author=5bbdf5b7e4966bea2acb7dee
Books:
The Church Against the State: On Subsidiarity and Sovereignty(New Polity, 2025)
The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2021)
Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX, (Emmaus Academic, 2017)
Evidence of Things Unseen: An Introduction to Fundamental Theology (Emmaus Road, 2019)
The Word Became Flesh: An Introduction to Christology (Emmaus Road, 2019)
This Is My Body: An Introduction to Ecclesiology (Emmaus Road, 2019)
Catholic Topical Index (Verbum, 2013)
For Alan J Roxburgh:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork
Books
Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unravelling: Leadership in a Changing World (with Roy Searle)
Joining God in the Great Unravelling
Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions
Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time
For Jenny Sinclair:
Substack: https://t4cg.substack.com/s/from-jenny-sinclair
Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclair
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CG
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUK
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/
