The Josias

The Josias is an English-language website devoted to Catholic integralism, the view that, in the words of a 2023 Catholic Register summary, Church and state are both oriented toward the common good and the Church therefore has authority to direct government in spiritual matters.

History and editors. The Austrian weekly Falter credited Edmund Waldstein, a Cistercian monk of Heiligenkreuz Abbey, with founding the site in 2014 and called it the integralist movement's central publication; a Josias announcement says co-editor Urban Hannon had been involved since its inception in 2014. A November 2021 announcement identified Waldstein as editor-in-chief and presented a first print anthology, Integralism and the Common Good, Volume 1: Family, City, and State, co-edited by Waldstein and Peter Kwasniewski for Angelico Press. A second volume, The Two Powers, edited by Waldstein, was announced in November 2022 (Angelico Press). The site later announced that Waldstein and Joel Augustine had given up the joint editorship for practical reasons and that Hannon had become editor.

Content. The site publishes theoretical essays on Catholic political order. An early item in its scholastic "dubium" format asked whether integralism is essentially bound up with racism, nationalism and totalitarianism and answered in the negative. Its about page directs readers to Waldstein's blog Sancrucensis for a fuller account of the integralist position.

Criticism. European critics have focused on the Josias circle's influence in the United States. Falter's 2024 profile described Waldstein as a source of ideas for the American right; the German theology site Feinschwarz criticised his integralism, and a paper published by the International Theological Institute notes that the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung has warned against integralism, naming Waldstein. For the wider movement, see integralism and postliberalism.