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Thomas D. Howes

Thomas D. Howes is Editor-in-Chief of The Vital Center, founder of the Reagan Caucus and Reagan Caucus Action, and a Lecturer in Politics at Princeton University. He is co-authoring, along with James M. Patterson, a book to be published by Acton Institute called Why Postliberalism Failed. He also has a nearly-completed book manuscript in defense of constitutional democracy from the perspective of natural law theory.

American founding

Retrieving Scholastic Consent Theory 

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Communal consent is usually necessary to authorize civil leaders to make governmental decisions for the whole community, and that this is a demand of general justice on the part of the purported authorities themselves. 
Rome

Martin Rhonheimer, the Church’s Swiss Army Knife 

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If Rhonheimer’s work never gets the appreciation it deserves, he has already changed the conversation in subtle ways. Modifying Oliver Wendell Holmes’s definition of a great thinker, I would wager that 100 years after Rhonheimer passes on, whether they know it or not, Catholic philosophers and theologians “will be moving to the measure of his thought.”
Small child holding an iPad

Virtue Can’t Be Learned from Devices

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During the pandemic, schools deployed digital technologies enabling them to efficiently transmit content and monitor student engagement at a distance. Unfortunately, these technologies have become entrenched, and screen-based activities now dominate many classrooms. But to develop intellectual and moral virtue, schools must engage students’ bodies, minds, and souls. Screen-centered, digital modes of learning undermine education because they are incapable of fostering virtue in embodied human beings.
School hallway

Public Education and Liberal Neutrality

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Attempting neutrality in public education ends up creating a systemic preference for a particular ethical standpoint—a rather controversial one at that. Ironically, this creates a tension between public schools and the principle of liberal neutrality. Fortunately, this tension can be resolved without abandoning government-financed education through policies that are both popular and effective: school vouchers and education savings accounts.