R&L: Dozens of denominations and groups claim to be evangelical. Can you give us a definition of what the word means? Henry: Catholicism and Protestantism have in modern times both had vocal orthodox and liberal elements. Orthodox Protestants were called Fundamentalists because they insisted on the great biblical basics or fundamentals. Modernist control of evangelically-founded schools and institutions and its abandonment of miraculous supernaturalism left to Fundamentalists the demanding fulfillment of world evangelism and missions. As modernist ecumenical bureaucracies...

R&L: You’ve written extensively on the development of the American economic system and in particular the growth of what you call the “transfer society.” Would you briefly define what a “transfer society” is? Hill: The idea of the transfer society is a society where property rights are up for grabs. Very few defined rules exist, or the rules are always subject to re-definition, particularly by constitutional interpretation. The book that I wrote with Terry Anderson, The Birth of a...

With mencement of our second year of publishing Religion & Liberty, we are adding a regular feature by the Reverend Dr. John K. Williams. Dr. Williams is a graduate of Melbourne and Oxford Universities. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree, he taught philosophy at Melbourne for three years before studying for the ministry. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, and served as chaplain and senior teacher at St. Leonard’s College, East Brighton, Australia, for eleven years. Dr. Williams currently...

R&L: In 1986 you were co-chairman of the Lay Commission which issued a statement on religion and the economy and which was signed by a number of lay Catholics. What motivated you to do this? What were some of the reactions, both positive and negative? Simon: The Lay Commission tried to take seriously the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, which is that the laity bring a special Christian Wisdom to worldly affairs. Its critics tried to portray the...

Editors note: In the inaugural issue of this journal there appeared an article entitled “Death Knell for Socialism and Liberation Theology” [January/February 1991]. Subsequent to the appearance of the papal encyclical Centesimus Annus, Acton President Father Robert Sirico predicted in an article in National Review : “… this encyclical constitutes the epitaph for liberation and collectivist movements.… The ‘Christian-Marxist dialogue’ is dead.” These obituaries were, of course, not well received in quarters sympathetic to a socialist-Christian synthesis. It is,...

R&L: Do you think the clergy’s view of the state as a means of solving the real problems minorities face has changed over the years? Williams: The civil rights struggle in our country has been won. At one time black Americans lacked the constitutional guarantees others possessed. Now they have them. Major problems still remain in large segments of the munity, but they are not civil rights problems. The 66 percent illegitimacy rate among blacks nationally, the high crime...

Looming large among the vices constituting the Seven Deadly Sins is invidia, that is, envy. It belongs there. A human being infected by the virus of envy es a mean-spirited individual, incapable of heeding St. Paul’s admonition to “rejoice with those who rejoice.” The triumphs and good fortune of others elicit not pleasure but bitterness, a bitterness warping and twisting the soul. Nearly five decades ago, Joseph Alois Schumpeter, an Austrian-born economist who became a permanent professor of Economics...

There are good reasons to celebrate Centesimus Annus. Pope John Paul II’s blistering rejection of socialism and warm accolades for free enterprise should be trumpeted around the world–as indeed they have been. In large part, however, the ments on socialism versus capitalism are merely the announcement of a judgment long since obvious to anyone who observed history with discernment. Nevertheless, I am excited about Centesimus Annus and see it, in one important respect, as on the cutting edge of...

At a reunion of Johnson administration officials in Austin, Texas, a quarter century after the War on Poverty fired its cannonades, the mood of reminiscence was akin to Wordsworth’s memory of enthusiasm following the French Revolution: “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive.” Sargent Shriver exulted that the Reagan years had not really damaged Great Society programs, most of which were “still in existence, all helping millions of Americans today.” New York Times columnist Tom Wicker described...