Ep. 23: 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.

https://reformedlibertarians.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: https://facebook.com/jonathan.mcintosh.161
  - on x: https://x.com/DrJMcIntosh
  - blog: https://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com
  - other blog: https://naturallawlibertarian.wordpress.com
  - His book The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faerie:
  https://amazon.com/dp/1621383156
  - articles:
    "Theonomy, General Equity, and Libertarianism"
  https://reformedlibertarians.com/theonomy-general-equity-and-libertarianism-by-jonathan-mcintosh/
    “Aquinas and Libertarianism: Coercion and the Common Good in the Summa’s Definition of Law”
  https://www.marketsandmorality.com/index.php/mandm/article/view/1587
    “The Libertarian Aquinas”
  https://libertarianchristians.com/2021/04/05/the-libertarian-aquinas/
  
  
• Links for The George Buchanan Forum
  - website: https://tgbf.org
  - on FB: https://facebook.com/TheGeorgeBuchananForum
  - on X: https://x.com/BuchananForum
  - on YT: https://youtube.com/@thegeorgebuchananforum6899
  - Presentation by Jeremy Bunch on “George Buchanan & Scots Reformed Resistance Theory”:
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=JZcpcYqhs5o
  
  
• The Silence Of St. Thomas, by Josef Pieper
  https://amazon.com/dp/1890318787
  
  
• On the “School of Salamanca” or late Spanish Scholastics’ (early modern Roman Catholic Thomists) economic views:
  https://mises.org/mises-wire/true-founders-economics-school-salamanca
  ( See also Alejandro Cafuen’s Faith and Liberty: The Economic Thought of the Late Scholastics
  https://store.mises.org/Faith-and-Liberty-The-Economic-Thought-of-the-Late-Scholastics-P170.aspx )
  
  
• A more favorable view of Van Til, contra Aquinas
  https://reformedforum.org/podcasts/ctc745/
  ( See the full course on the Doctrine of Revelation by Lane Tipton here:
  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5DwS6MFoBBE-_RkMx4umfvDlligzvj1 )
  
  
• The 1st presentation discussed: “Evaluating Calvin: A Critique of On Civil Government,” by Jonathan McIntosh
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=DS9RW3e7eMQ 
  
  
• The Reformed Political Resistance bibliography
  https://tinyurl.com/RefoPoliResistBib
  
  
• Johannes Althusius rightly contradicts Calvin on political and domestic abuse in Politica, chapter 18, section 105
  https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/althusius-politica#lf0002_footnote_nt_293_ref
  
  
• Rutherford in Lex Rex under question 23, explains that there is no God-given requirement to suffer abuse or tyranny
  https://books.google.com/books?id=SK8rAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA111
  
  
• The 2nd presentation discussed: “Towards a Natural Law Libertarianism,” by Jonathan McIntosh
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=TSQvD9wNXCg
  ( See also: “Why We Need To Get Serious About Natural Rights,” by Jonathan McIntosh
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=3aO0L1q4CUc 
  
  
• David VanDrunen on “What Is Natural Law?”
  https://credomag.com/article/what-is-natural-law/ 
  
  
• Aggression vs harm: “How Do Libertarians Define Crime?,” by Kerry Baldwin
  https://mereliberty.com/lci/how-do-libertarians-define-crime/ 
  
  
• On the Doctrine of Double Effect
  https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/double-effect/
  
  
• Writings by Herman Dooyeweerd
  https://herman-dooyeweerd.blogspot.com 
  
  
• The 3rd presentation discussed: “Figuratively Speaking: the Old Testament, Natural Law, and Libertarianism,” by Jonathan McIntosh
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=97OvUMcYKTk 
  
  
• Economic and political essays by Frederic Bastiat
  https://mises.org/library/book/bastiat-collection
  
  
• For A New Liberty by Murray Rothbard
  https://mises.org/library/book/new-liberty-libertarian-manifesto 
  
  
• The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard
  - text: https://cdn.mises.org/The%20Ethics%20of%20Liberty%2020191108.pdf
  - audio: https://mises.org/podcasts/ethics-liberty 
  
  
• “Against Civil Establishment Of Religion,” by Gregory Baus
  https://reformedlibertarians.com/against-civil-establishment-of-religion/ 
  
  
• Meredith Kline on the typological character of the Old Covenant civil law
  https://sites.google.com/view/typological-civil-law 

The Reformed Libertarians Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute: https://libertarianchristians.com and a member of the Christians for Liberty Network: https://christiansforliberty.net

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What is The Reformed Libertarians Podcast?

The Reformed Libertarians Podcast aims to educate and inspire listeners to intelligently embrace and passionately promote a view of libertarianism as grounded in the Reformed Faith, and informed by a Reformed worldview.

Exploring free society from a Reformed perspective, hosts Kerry Baldwin and Gregory Baus discuss culture, society, politics, economics, theology, philosophy, worldview, and more. Follow the show at reformedlibertarians.com and discover how to think about liberty and human flourishing based in the Reformed Faith.