Family in the Political-Theological  Imagination

America has robust political and religious roots which animate our dearest institutions. The family, as the first of these institutions, stands in need of a renaissance toward the recovery of these roots. Grounded in the classical legal and religious ideals of the American founding, the family, qua institution, has certain responsibilities within the public square. 

Matt Arbo will offer an overview of the American family’s political roots. Both speakers argue that renewing the family is not simply a private matter but a public responsibility and the key to renewing the American way of life itself.

Maddie Foster will offer an apologetic for the American family’s necessary theological roots, showing that John and Abigail Adams, particularly, advance a publicly Christian notion of family as complex polity, oriented toward the Final End of the political community

Dr. Matthew Arbo is regional director at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. Previously he served as a senior advisor in the US Senate, a leadership consultant, and liberal arts professor. He and his family reside in Falls Church, Virginia.

Maddie Foster serves as Faith and Law’s Director of Mentors and Scholars. Maddie earned her B.A. in Philosophy at Christendom College and her M.A. in Theology at the University of Notre Dame, where she studied as a Holy Cross Fellow. Maddie also completed the Echo Theology Service Program at Notre Dame. Maddie taught theology at Providence Cristo Rey High School in Indianapolis and Notre Dame Academy in Villanova. She also directed the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program at Mar Qardakh School in Erbil, Iraq and worked as a leader within the Nevada 529 Plan at the Vanguard Group. Now dedicating her time to writing and raising her two daughters, Phoebe Abigail and Esther Elizabeth, Maddie and her husband, Luke, make their home in Hyattsville, MD.