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The Church Against the State
The Church sees the world as God’s good and harmonious Creation, a primordial peace.
As Europe began to abandon the Church in the early modern period, it left this vision behind. The new societies it built presupposed primordial competition and fear instead. Order could be secured only by centralized, monopolized power that recognized no higher authority. Theorists of the time called this new conception of power “sovereignty” and the new Leviathan government it required “the state.”
For centuries now, we have lived in systems like this as fish live in water. We use “the state” as a simple synonym for “government,” and even Christians are tempted to take the logic of sovereignty for the way the world is. But the Church has never ceased to preach “subsidiarity”: real, natural distribution of power. She has never ceased to preach the goodness of Creation—or the reality of grace, renewing bonds of love.
In his acclaimed book Before Church and State, Andrew Willard Jones revealed that society in the High Middle Ages was a striving toward liberation by grace, which led to subsidiarity. In The Church Against the State, he argues that this uniquely Christian political form is still with us, present in our love, our courage, and in all that is noble within us, brought to new life through the Church. By grace, we are liberated to live at home and at peace in a limitless, surprising a world in which every action, every relationship, and every institution is open to the heavens.
Praise for The Church Against the State
Andrew Willard Jones has already established himself as one of the most important Catholic thinkers of this generation. The Church Against the State only solidifies that status. Combining his formidable erudition with a profound theological imagination, Jones thoroughly diagnoses the pathology common to both modern secular politics and to reactionary Catholic attempts to overcome it. Even more, he offers us a vision of what a truly Catholic politics could look like. This is an exhilarating, edifying, and indispensable book. — Michael Hanby, Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America
This work offers a masterful presentation of Thomistic political theory, especially the Thomistic affirmation of subsidiarity, alongside an analysis of the liberal idolatry of the sovereign state. Few authors have Andrew Willard Jones’s knowledge of both contemporary and medieval political theory.... A postliberal and authentically Catholic guide. — Tracey Rowland, University of Notre Dame, Australia
As Europe began to abandon the Church in the early modern period, it left this vision behind. The new societies it built presupposed primordial competition and fear instead. Order could be secured only by centralized, monopolized power that recognized no higher authority. Theorists of the time called this new conception of power “sovereignty” and the new Leviathan government it required “the state.”
For centuries now, we have lived in systems like this as fish live in water. We use “the state” as a simple synonym for “government,” and even Christians are tempted to take the logic of sovereignty for the way the world is. But the Church has never ceased to preach “subsidiarity”: real, natural distribution of power. She has never ceased to preach the goodness of Creation—or the reality of grace, renewing bonds of love.
In his acclaimed book Before Church and State, Andrew Willard Jones revealed that society in the High Middle Ages was a striving toward liberation by grace, which led to subsidiarity. In The Church Against the State, he argues that this uniquely Christian political form is still with us, present in our love, our courage, and in all that is noble within us, brought to new life through the Church. By grace, we are liberated to live at home and at peace in a limitless, surprising a world in which every action, every relationship, and every institution is open to the heavens.
Praise for The Church Against the State
Andrew Willard Jones has already established himself as one of the most important Catholic thinkers of this generation. The Church Against the State only solidifies that status. Combining his formidable erudition with a profound theological imagination, Jones thoroughly diagnoses the pathology common to both modern secular politics and to reactionary Catholic attempts to overcome it. Even more, he offers us a vision of what a truly Catholic politics could look like. This is an exhilarating, edifying, and indispensable book. — Michael Hanby, Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America
This work offers a masterful presentation of Thomistic political theory, especially the Thomistic affirmation of subsidiarity, alongside an analysis of the liberal idolatry of the sovereign state. Few authors have Andrew Willard Jones’s knowledge of both contemporary and medieval political theory.... A postliberal and authentically Catholic guide. — Tracey Rowland, University of Notre Dame, Australia
321 pages, Hardcover
Published January 15, 2025
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November 18, 2025
Overall, these essays form a coherent exploration of subsidiarity as a political alternative to liberalism. The collection ranges widely, from critiques of Hobbes and Carl Schmitt to examinations of medieval political order. For me, the standout pieces were those that delve into the liturgical cosmos of the High Middle Ages and illuminate how the analogia entis and the fourfold sense of Scripture shaped the political order, ultimately grounding the theory of the two powers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review