About Commonwealth

Commonwealth is a collaborative project to retrieve the legacy of classical Protestantism for contemporary politics, and to renew the common life of our own commonwealths today by returning to their sources. 

A new wing of The Davenant Institute’s Ad Fontes journal, it seeks to synthesize the politics of the historic Christian tradition with the politics of the modern world, cultivating a due piety not only toward the classical, biblical, medieval, and Reformational roots of our political institutions, but also to the constitutional and democratic forms of modern political life that God has providentially sustained. Most of us write as Americans, with a deep (though not uncritical) respect for the principles and architects of the American Founding as a faithful application of political Protestantism. All of us, however, write from within our own national and constitutional traditions, with gratitude for all they have given us, but also with a commitment to broadening our political imaginations through disciplined reflection on Scripture and Christian tradition.

About the Editors

Rhys Laverty (Editor) serves as Senior Editor of Ad Fontes and Managing Editor at The Davenant Press, as well as being enrolled in Davenant’s M.Litt in Classical Protestantism. He has written for Ad FontesThe Critic, PloughMere Orthodoxy, and the Theopolis Institute, and writes a regular Substack at The New Albion. He lives in Chessington, UK with his wife Libby and their three children. You can folow him on Twitter at @RDLaverty.

Wyatt Graham (Editor) serves as the Executive Director of the Gospel Coalition Canada, and as President of the Evangelical Theological Society of Ontario and Quebec. He teaches at various institutions, including Ryle Seminary, Redeemer University, and Heritage College & Seminary. He regularly writes a column called De Trinitate and at his website, wyattgraham.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @wagraham.

Dr. Bradford Littlejohn (Associate Editor) holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh is the Founder and President of the Davenant Institute. He also works as a Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and has taught for several institutions, including Moody Bible Institute-Spokane, Bethlehem College and Seminary, and Patrick Henry College. He is recognized as a leading scholar of the English theologian Richard Hooker and Has published and lectured extensively in the fields of Reformation history, Christian ethics, and political theology. He lives in Landrum, SC with his wife, Rachel, and four children. Follow him on Twitter at @WBLittlejohn.

About our Commonwealth Fellows

Adam Carrington is an Associate Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College where he is the Patricia and LaMothe Chair in the U.S. Constitution. He holds a Ph.D. from Baylor University. In addition to scholarly work, he is a contributing columnist for the Washington Examiner and World Magazine. His book on the jurisprudence of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field was published in 2017 by Lexington Press. In the 2020-2021 academic year, he served as a Garwood Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University.

John Ehrett is a writer and attorney based in Washington. D.C. His work has previously appeared in American Affairs, The New Atlantis, the Claremont Review of Books, and many other venues. He is a graduate of Patrick Henry College, the Institute of Lutheran Theology, and Yale Law School.

Glenn Moots is author of Politics Reformed: The Anglo-American Legacy of Covenant Theology (Missouri) and co-editor of Justifying Revolution: Law, Virtue, and Violence in the American War of Independence (Oklahoma). He also contributes regularly to websites such as Law & Liberty. He teaches philosophy and political science at Northwood University in Michigan and has served as a fellow at the James Madison Program at Princeton University. 

Miles Smith IV is a visiting assistant professor at Hillsdale College and a historian of the Old South and Atlantic World. He took his BA from the College of Charleston and holds a PhD in History from Texas Christian University. He is a native of Salisbury, North Carolina.

James R. Wood is Assistant Professor of Ministry at Redeemer University. He recently defended his doctoral thesis in theology at Wycliffe College. Previously, he worked as an associate editor at First Things Magazine, a PCA pastor in Austin, TX, and a campus evangelist and team leader with Cru Ministries at the University of Texas at Austin. He is married to Clare, and they have four daughters.

About our Commonwealth Contributors

Jon Askonas is an assistant professor of Politics at the Catholic University of America, where he works on the connections between the republican tradition, technology, and national security. He is currently working on two books: A Muse of Fire: Why the U.S. Military Forgets What It Learns in War, and The Shot in the Dark: A History of the U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group, the first comprehensive overview of a unit that helped the Army adapt to the post 9/11 era of counterinsurgency and global power competition.  

Mark David Hall is a Professor in Regent University’s Robertson School of Government and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, an initiative of First Liberty Institute. He is also Distinguished Scholar of Christianity & Public Life at George Fox University, Associated Faculty at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, and a Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.  

Jacob Huneycutt is a second-year M.A. student in the Department of History at Baylor University, in Waco, Texas.

Joshua M. Janniere is student at New College of Florida.  Joshua has participated in several fellowships most notably the Center for Culture, Religion, and Democracy’s Shaftesbury Fellowship where he awarded the inaugural Picalldy Prize for outstanding research. He is the President of the Ciceronian Society which is an ISI chapter at New College. Prior to New College he taught Upper-School Literature and Classics at Highlands Latin School.

Onsi Aaron Kamel is a PhD student at Princeton University and Editor-at-Large at Ad Fontes. He holds master’s degrees from both the University of Chicago and Princeton Theological Seminary in theology, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. His academic writing has been published in The Scottish Journal of Theology, and his popular writing has been published in First Things, Mere Orthodoxy, and elsewhere. He lives in Princeton with his wife Elaina, daughter Nora, and son Faheem.

Stiven Peter is an M.A. student at Reformed Theological Seminary-NYC. Previously, he graduated from the University of Chicago with a double major in economics and religious studies. He currently lives in NYC.

Colin Redemer (Ph.D. candidate, University of Aberdeen) is Vice-President of the Davenant Institute, Poetry Editor and podcast co-host for Ad Fontes, as well as a professor at St. Mary’s College, California. He also regularly lectures in Philosophy at Davenant Hall, including ongoing cycles in the works of Plato and Aristotle.

Joe Rigney serves as Fellow of Theology at New Saint Andrews College. He is the author of six books: Live Like a Narnian: Christian Discipleship in Lewis’s Chronicles (Eyes & Pen, 2013); The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts (Crossway, 2015); Lewis on the Christian Life: Becoming Truly Human in the Presence of God (Crossway, 2018); Strangely Bright: Can You Love God and Enjoy This World? (Crossway, 2020); More Than a Battle: Experiencing Victory, Freedom, and Healing from Lust (B&H, 2021), Courage: How the Gospel Creates Christian Fortitude (Crossway, 2023).

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