Given the dynamics of the information age and ever-accelerating globalization, humanity faces a variety of new opportunities and challenges when es to creating, collaborating, and consuming alongside those from vastly different contexts. Although Pentecost Sunday has already past, Pentecostal theologian Amos Yong wrotesome related reflectionson this very question, particularly as it relates to Christian vocation.As Yong notes, “location and situatedness matter, and do so across many registers — religious/theological, ideological, socio-economic, political, educational, linguistic, geographical, cultural, ethnic, racial, and experiential.”...

Last night, economics professor David Bratsurprised everyonein defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) in a primary challenge for Virginia’s 7th congressional district. Predictably, the media is now a-buzz about Brat, rapidly catching up on his beliefs, his plans, and so on. Time will tell as for whether Brat is successful as a politician, and whether he is, in fact, a strong conservative alternative to his predecessor.But one item that sticks out in Brat’sacademic CVis his unique interest in...

Today at Ethika Politika, I examine the longstanding claim of the Roman Catholic Church that the universal character of mon good in our present era necessitates a world political authority. The problem, I argue, lies in the tradition’s too closely identifying the good of munities with mon good. The recently canonized Pope John XXIII, for example, states that “[p]ublic authority” is “the means of promoting mon good in civil society” (Pacem in Terris, 136, emphasis mine). And Pope Benedict XVI...

File under allegory: An Austin, Texas, resident whose property tax bill has her “at the breaking point.” As noted by Katherine Mary Ham at HotAir, the resident in question, Gretchen Gardner, deems the $8,500 bill for which she’s on the hook a wee tad cumbersome. “It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” she said. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now...

, Pew Research says this is a global issue. The Americas are the only region not seeing a noted increase. A third (33%) of the 198 countries and territories included in the study had high religious hostilities in 2012, up from 29% in 2011 and 20% as of mid-2007. The sharpest increase was in the Middle East and North Africa, which still is feeling the effects of the 2010-11 political uprisings known as the Arab Spring.There also was a significant...

I met Naomi Schaefer, not yet Riley, while she was editor of “In Character” and just about to have her first book “God on the Quad” published. I invited her to be a speaker at a Catholic business conference that I was involved with in southern California. The following week she married Jason Riley. The writing career continues to produce good stuff. And there are three kids now and a house in the burbs. Good stuff all around. Her latest...

Next week at Acton University I am giving a lecture titled, “Calvin Coolidge and his Foundational Views on Government.” One of the great things about studying Coolidge is that he is extremely accessible. Coolidge noted during his political career that practicing law was valuable for munication skills that promote brevity and clarity in speech. The Coolidge lecture at Acton University will attempt to do likewise. He’s a president that probably would have little trouble with the 140 character limit on...

What just happened in Iraq? Conflicts in Syria and Iraq have converged into one widening regional insurgency and Iraq risks a full-scale civil war after an al-Qaeda-linked militant group called ISIS quickly seized a large section of the country’s northern region. The group has already taken Mosul, the country’s second largest city, and is within striking distance of Baghdad. Insurgents stripped the main army base in the northern city of Mosul of weapons, released hundreds of prisoners from the city’s...

Acton Institute President and co-founder, Rev. Robert Sirico was recently interviewed on both Bloomberg TV as well as Fox & Friends’ Varney & Co. Sirico spoke with Trish Regan on Bloomberg’s “Street Smart” about financial reform in the Vatican: On Fox, Sirico discussed millennials, Cardinal ments on the free market and the Virginia primary: ...

Note: This is the latest entry in the Acton blog series, “What Christians Should Know About Economics.” For other entries inthe series seethis post. The Term: Money What it Means: In economics, money is a broad term that refers to any financial instrument that can fulfill the functions of money (more on that in a moment). There are three basic ways to exchange goods and services: gifting (e.g., I give you a banana, expecting nothing in return); barter (e.g.,...