May 5–6, 2023

Steubenville, OH 43952

You've been excited by the Christian tradition concerning money. You've been worried that our society fits the classical definition of a tyranny. Maybe you've even slogged your way through a Christian theory of gender. Now, log off and take a road trip to Steubenville, Ohio, to meet some of your favorite New Polity thinkers. We'll think together, pray together, and converse together, building on the foundations of previous discussions in order to understand and enact a redeemed model of Catholic politics.

This year, as requested, we’ll have more time for questions, more time to socialize with other attendees, and a new format we think you’ll love. Register now!

Conference Price: $150

Religious Save 15%
Students Save 15%

We hope you can attend in person! Digital access will not be offered this year.

Christopher Check is President of Catholic Answers, the Catholic world’s largest lay-run apologetics and evangelization apostolate (Catholic.com). Before joining Catholic Answers, he served for two decades as Executive Vice President of the Rockford Institute, publisher of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. Before that, he served for seven years as a field artillery officer in the United Sates Marine Corps. Chris holds a degree in English Literature from Rice University.

He writes and speaks at home and abroad on Catholic heroes and villains and is the creator and voice of The Lepanto Lectures, a series of audio recordings on glorious and tragic events in Church history about which Fr. Peter Stravinskas declared: “Christopher Check has performed a valuable service in providing historically reliable information on certain neuralgic topics, often used to discredit the Church. Each lecture is presented in an engaging style and full of facts geared to make an intelligent response to various ‘black legends.’ I recommend these talks most enthusiastically.”

Christopher and Jaqueline have four sons, Nicholas, Alexander, John Paul, and Nathanael. The Checks breed and show Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, famed companions of the Stuart Kings. Their kennel, Top Meadow Cavaliers, is named after G.K. Chesterton’s Beaconsfield Estate.

Michael Hanby is associate professor of religion and philosophy of science at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America. He is the author of the compelling No God, No Science?: Theology, Cosmology, Biology, which reassesses the relationship between the doctrine of creation, Darwinian evolutionary biology, and science more generally. He is also author of Augustine and Modernity (Routledge 2003) which is simultaneously a re-reading of Augustine’s trinitarian theology and a protest against the contemporary argument for continuity between Augustine and Descartes. He has contributed chapters to a number of volumes and is also author of several articles appearing in Communio, First Things, New Polity, The Political Science Reviewer, Modern Theology, Pro Ecclesia, and Theology Today.  His 2020 article, “The Abolition of Man and Woman,” co-authored with Dr. Crawford and Dr. McCarthy, appeared in The Wall Street Journal. He was a principal author of The St. Jerome Education Plan, a nationally recognized curriculum for Catholic elementary and middle schools and is a founding board member of the St. Jerome Institute, a Washington DC liberal arts high school in the Catholic tradition.

Shawn and Beth Dougherty have been farming together since 1985, in settings as unlikely as the muddy banks of the Trinity River in Irving, Texas, urban backyards in three states, and a steep, rocky hillside in Ohio labelled by the state ‘not suitable for agriculture’.  Their ongoing endeavor has been to rediscover the means by which their forbears, all the way back to their remotest ancestors, produced food without the aid of Purina, Monsanto and Archer-Daniels-Midland.   Incidentally to that pursuit, Shawn worked as a theatre professional, professor of Drama at Franciscan University of Steubenville for 25 years, and maintenance man at a Franciscan convent, while collaborating with Beth on the production and education of eight children (now with five daughters-in-law and twelve grandchildren).  Their farm, The Sow’s Ear, is in Jefferson County, Ohio, where they raise dairy and beef cows, sheep, pigs, poultry, and lots of grass.  They speak, write and teach across the country on regenerative, human-scale farming based on holistic grass management and the partnership of lactating ruminants.  They are the authors of The Independent Farmstead (Chelsea Green Publishing), and the series The Independent Farmstead’s Field Guides to Inputs-Free Farming and Homesteading. They can be found at the blog onecowrevolution.wordpress.com. 

Andrew Willard Jones holds a PhD in Medieval History from Saint Louis University with a focus on the Church of the High Middle Ages. Jones’s work is primarily concerned with historical political theology and with the reconciliation of the post-modern with the pre-modern. Methodologically, his work treats history as a theological discipline and not as a secular archaeology. Jones is the author of Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in St. Louis IX’s Sacramental Kingdom and the one-volume history of the Catholic Church The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics. He is also working on an overview of the Church's social teaching.

Alex M. Plato is an Assistant Professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville and resides with his wife and children in the city of Steubenville, Ohio. He was born, just eleven minutes after his twin brother, on January 9th, 1979 in Lakeview, Oregon, an idyllic town with more cattle than people.

Plato received a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies summa cum laude from Corban University (then Western Baptist College) in 2002. His interdisciplinary studies included several areas of concentration: music, theology, philosophy, literature, and education. In his final year he received the Graduate of the Year award and the year following was invited to be the first Alumni speaker of the Dr. Richard L. Caulkins Annual Lectureship. In 2007, he earned a Master of Arts summa cum laude in the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology. In December of 2014, at Saint Louis University, he defended, with highest distinction, his dissertation “Anscombe on Double Effect and Absolutism: An Inquiry into Modern Moral Philosophy and Traditional Morality.” His work was directed by Dr. Gregory Beabout.

Marc Barnes holds a PhD in Theology from St. Mary's University Twickenham. He is a father of two, the editor of New Polity magazine, and the president of The Harmonium Project, a nonprofit dedicated to urban revitalization and transformation in Steubenville, Ohio.

Jacob Imam is the Executive Director of New Polity. He holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford. He lives in Steubenville with his wife, Alice, and sons, Blaise and Leo.

Maria Brandell is a fellow and researcher at New Polity. She currently resides in Steubenville, though she proudly hails from the Queen City Cincinnati, Ohio. Brandell received a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in Philosophy, Theology, and Catechetics from Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is currently working on an overview of Catholic social doctrine with Dr. Andrew Willard Jones. Her other projects have focused mainly on the topic of gender, with a particular interest in exploring the social role of female monastic communities and spirituality.