The Sower
The Sower is a Podcast of the Ciceronian Society. The Ciceronian Society exists to equip and encourage Christian scholars to serve the church as a center of cultural and civic renewal. Through our events, publications, and podcasts we provide the space and opportunities that Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox scholars need for professional growth and intellectual discipleship. Since 2012, we have been building a network of friends with a love for our core themes - tradition, place, and ‘things divine’ - and with a genuine commitment to the church and the life of the mind. To learn more about our society, our conferences, and the peer-reviewed journal, Pietas, visit https://ciceroniansociety.org/
Episodes
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 E...
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...
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 Univers...
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: h...
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...
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...
Josh Bowman leads a discussion of Aristocratic Voices: Forgotten Arguments about Virtue, Authority, and Inequality (Lexington Books, 2025) co-edited by Richard Avramenko and Ethan Alexander-Davey. Ethan joins us for the talk along with two chapter authors, Luke Sheahan and Michael Harding.
Our conversation covers a lot of ground, considering the thought of W.H....
This special episode is a recording from our 2025 Conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
The round table title is "Building Places of Intellectual Community," and the speakers are:
Paul Mueller (American Institute for Economic Research)
Jeff Nelson (The Russell Kirk Center)
Zach Howard (Bethlehem College)
After Q&A, there are remarks by Josh Bowman, Bill Batchelder, and James Patterso...
Josh Bowman shares some information on the upcoming 2026 conference in Omaha, NE before turning to the Menard Family Center for Economic Inquiry at Creighton University. He’s joined by economic scholars Dr. Colin O’Reilly and Dr. Michael D. Thomas.
The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Panel and paper proposals are due Septe...
Josh Bowman chats with Winston Brady of Thales Press and Thales Academy, along with Josh Herring of Thales College in North Carolina. We discuss the definition, style, future, purpose, and beauty of classical education, along with its relationship to place and the Ciceronian Society generally.
Thales Academy: https://www.thalesacademy.org/
Thales Press: https://www.thalespress.org/
Thales ...
Josh Bowman talks with David Michael Phelps, president of Harmel Academy. (This 2025 episode combines 2 episodes previously published in 2023.)
Harmel Academy is a post-secondary Catholic trade school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pioneering an exciting new strategy for the formation and education of men. To learn more, go to https://www.harmelacademy.org/
Select books mentioned:
A. G. Sert...
Josh Bowman talks with Dr. Carl Richard, Professor of History at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. Dr. Richard has spent decades recovering the impact of the ancient Greeks and Romans on the American Founders and on American history generally. He has also turned to the influence of the Bible and Christianity on America’s founding, and now to the history of the Presidency.
We begin b...
Josh Bowman talks with legal scholar Jack Ferguson about his recent article exploring Cicero’s impact on the American Founders. We discuss natural law, republicanism, executive power, and more.
Jack’s article is “The Ciceronian Origins of American Law and Constitutionalism” from The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, which can be found here: https://journ...
This episode concludes a series interviewing our first ever cohort of conference fellows. Josh Bowman talks with Matthew Chambers, a Nisbet Fellow, who teaches humanities at ECPI University in Virginia Beach and who is also entering his dissertation phase as a PhD Candidate in Humanities at Faulkner University. We discuss the relationship between the teachings of the early church and tha...
James Patterson joins Dr. Glenn Moots for a conversation on Christian Nationalism. (This 2025 episode combines 2 episodes previously published in 2023.)
Glenn Moots is a prolific writer and teacher from Northwood University in Michigan. Learn more about Glenn Moots here: https://www.northwood.edu/directory/faculty/glenn-moots/
Glenn’s adapted talk from the National Conservative conferen...
Josh Bowman talks with Albert Norton, a practicing attorney and author of several books on the tension between religion and postmodernism. His most recent book is The Discovered Self, just released, concerning what he regards as a dangerous inward turn to the therapeutic worldview.
Our main topic is his 2023 book The Mountain and the River: Genesis, Postmodernism, and the Machine. Our c...
This episode continues a series interviewing our first ever cohort of conference fellows. Here, Josh talks with Sean Sirks, a graduate student at Virginia Tech and one of this year’s Nisbet Fellows. We discuss the philosophy of mathematics, numbers, metaphysics, and Shakespeare’s King Lear.
Visit our website to learn more about our conference fellowship program...
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