Summary – Calvin, Thomism, and Natural Law Libertarianism, with Jonathan McIntosh
An interview with Dr. Jonathan McIntosh on several of his presentations at The George Buchanan Forum. We discuss errors in Calvin’s view of civil government, and we mention the God-ordained check on abuse and tyranny. We then discuss McIntosh’s outline of a classical or Thomistic natural law tradition approach to libertarianism, and his critique of the Aristotelian-Thomist view of politics. We also discuss the neglected figurative or typological character of old covenant civil law by scholastic thinkers. We conclude with information about The George Buchanan Forum and other articles from McIntosh. [Direct mp3 download]
https://reformedlibertarianism.com/023
Main Points of Discussion
| 00:00 | Introduction |
| 00:32 | Episode description |
| 01:30 | Guest intro and background |
| 10:11 | Errors of Calvin’s view of civil government |
| 15:21 | Value in such critique and why Calvin’s erroneous view is popular |
| 19:53 | Comments on Reformers vs Calvin and obsta principiis |
| 23:03 | Natural Law Libertarianism |
| 31:59 | Moral realism, harm, and double effect |
| 39:32 | Errors of a Thomist view of politics |
| 43:56 | Neglected “figurative” or typological character of Mosaic civil law in a scholastic view |
| 51:18 | Respective specifications of moral and civil law |
| 56:00 | Errors of an establishmentarian view |
| 1:00:21 | The George Buchanan forum |
Additional Resources
- Links for Dr. Jonathan McIntosh – on fb – on x – blog – other blog
– His book The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faerie:
– articles:
“Theonomy, General Equity, and Libertarianism”
“Aquinas and Libertarianism: Coercion and the Common Good in the Summa’s Definition of Law”
“The Libertarian Aquinas” - Links for The George Buchanan Forum – website – on fb – on x – on yt
– Presentation by Jeremy Bunch on “George Buchanan & Scots Reformed Resistance Theory” - The Silence Of St. Thomas, by Josef Pieper
- On the “School of Salamanca” or late Spanish Scholastics’ (early modern Roman Catholic Thomists) economic views:
(See also Alejandro Cafuen’s Faith and Liberty: The Economic Thought of the Late Scholastics) - A more favorable view of Van Til, contra Aquinas
(See the full course on the Doctrine of Revelation by Lane Tipton) - The 1st presentation discussed: “Evaluating Calvin: A Critique of On Civil Government,” by Jonathan McIntosh
- The Reformed Political Resistance bibliography
- Johannes Althusius rightly contradicts Calvin on political and domestic abuse in Politica, chapter 18, section 105
- Rutherford in Lex Rex under question 23, explains that there is no God-given requirement to suffer abuse or tyranny
- The 2nd presentation discussed: “Towards a Natural Law Libertarianism,” by Jonathan McIntosh
(See also: “Why We Need To Get Serious About Natural Rights,” by Jonathan McIntosh) - David VanDrunen on “What Is Natural Law?”
- Aggression vs harm: “How Do Libertarians Define Crime?,” Kerry Baldwin
- On the Doctrine of Double Effect
- Writings by Herman Dooyeweerd
- The 3rd presentation discussed: “Figuratively Speaking: the Old Testament, Natural Law, and Libertarianism,” by Jonathan McIntosh
- Economic and political essays by Frederic Bastiat
- For A New Liberty by Murray Rothbard
The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard – text – audio - “Against Civil Establishment Of Religion,” by Gregory Baus
- Meredith Kline on the typological character of the Old Covenant civil law