Program in Catholic Political Thought

At a time characterized by extreme polarization, alienation, and gridlock we need the wisdom of the Catholic tradition about political life more than ever. Where can we find it? There are very few academic institutions where a student interested in a career as a scholar and teacher can acquire a deep understanding and firm grounding in the Catholic tradition of political thought. So what better place to start such a program than at the national university of the Catholic Church, The Catholic University of America? We have pontifical faculties of theology and philosophy and a department of politics. Between these three faculties and their members we are creating a place where students can acquire the tradition, scholars can extend and apply it, and the general public can look for it.

The centrality of conscience, the common good, subsidiarity, human dignity, human rights, and limited government: these are central values of the Western political tradition and were decisively shaped by the Catholic faith. The Program in Catholic Political Thought at CUA’s Institute for Human Ecology aims to make these ideas available to students in their original sources and with the aid of scholars committed to the truth.

Interdisciplinary Work, Academic Excellence

The Program draws on resources across the University to provide doctoral students with the means to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the tradition of Catholic political thought by:

  • Serving as a clearing house for information about the study of political ideas at Catholic University
  • Sponsoring lectures and colloquia both for faculty and students within the University and faculty and students from other universities who would contribute to and benefit from our resources
  • Encouraging and assisting faculty in carrying out and disseminating their scholarship in both academic and other public forums

Program Leadership

Associate Professor of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America

V. Bradley Lewis, Ph.D.
Professor of Moral Theology, The Catholic University of America

Joseph Capizzi, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Russell Hittinger, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America

V. Bradley Lewis, Ph.D.

Expertise: Political Philosophy, Jurisprudence, Ethics

V. Bradley Lewis, Ph.D. in Government and International Studies, is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. Dr. Lewis specializes in political and legal philosophy. He has written articles on the political thought of Plato and Aristotle and on some figures in the neo-Thomist tradition, as well as on the topics of public reason and religious freedom.

Professor of Moral Theology, The Catholic University of America

Joseph Capizzi, Ph.D.

Expertise: Social Ethics, Moral Theology, Law and Religion

Joseph Capizzi, Ph.D. in Theology, is an Ordinary Professor of Moral Theology at The Catholic University of America. He has published widely on just war theory, bioethics, the history of moral theology, and political liberalism. Dr. Capizzi worked as a research fellow at the VADM James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy from 2013 to 2014.

Executive Director

Russell Hittinger, Ph.D.

Russell Hittinger, a leading scholar of Catholic political and social thought, serves as the Executive Director of the IHE. He is a Research Professor Ordinarius in The Catholic University of America’s School of Philosophy and a member of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, where he served on the consilium from 2006-2018. He co-directs the IHE’s Program on Catholic Political Thought and delivered the Program’s inaugural lecture, “How to Inherit a Kingdom: Reflections on the Situation of Catholic Political Thought,” in 2022.

From 1996-2019, Dr. Hittinger was the incumbent of the William K. Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he was also a Research Professor in the School of Law. He has taught at the University of Chicago, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Fordham University, Princeton University, New York University, Providence College, and Charles University in Prague. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Dr. Hittinger for a ten-year term as an ordinarius in the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. 

In January 2020, Dr. Hittinger delivered the Aquinas Lecture at Blackfriars, Oxford. The American Catholic Philosophical Association awarded him the Aquinas Medal in November 2023.

Dr. Hittinger’s books and articles have been published by the University of Notre Dame Press, Oxford University Press, Columbia University Press, and Fordham University Press, and have appeared in the Review of Metaphysics, the Journal of Law and Religion, the Review of Politics. He has work forthcoming with Catholic University of America Press.