In a recent speech, President Obama invoked Scripture to justify his ambitious spending plans. In this week’s Acton Commentary (published May 25), Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg notes that the president said nothing about the role of munities and associations in helping our brothers and sisters in need. What’s more, “our leader hasn’t noticed that even some European governments, many of whom have been handing out as much pork as possible to politically-connected, politically-correct crony-capitalists over the past 15 years,...

“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise,” wrote C.S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man. “We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” Even if you’ve read that passage many times (like me) you might have glossed over (as I did) the word “enterprise.” Jacqueline Otto explains why it is significant: Is it possible then, as Lewis asserts, that by making men without chests, we make men that are not...

I haven’t been able to work out all the specifics (perhaps some of my colleagues would be better suited for that), but somehow I feel like this video of the Casteller festival in Spain is a metaphor for the Eurozone. Thoughts? ...

Now that our friend Eric Teetsel is moving over to the Colson Center, AEI’s Values and Capitalism project is looking for a new program manager. You can find more about the job here. Also, PowerBlog readers will be interested in V&C’s excellent blog. Check it out. ...

The deadline to register for the 2012 Acton University conference is this Friday, May 18! This means that you have less than five days to visit university.acton.org to finish that application you started a few days ago. If I were going to try to explain Acton University, I could say that attendees and faculty alike are professionals who are among the best in their respective fields. I could also say that the number and variety of resources brought to the...

Recently we held a blog contest asking people to respond to the following Kuyper quote by sharing how this idea reframes your calling in life, “There can be nothing in the universe that fails to express, to incarnate, the revelation of the thought of God.” We are excited to share with you the three winners of the contest. Our first prize winner is Travis Thomas and his full entry is below. Our two honorable mentions are James Berry and Katelyn...

The Regnery Publishing news release for Rev. Robert Sirico’s new book, Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy is online. The book’s publication date is set at May 22nd and is available to order at Amazon. ...

While Christianity still holds a fair amount of sway in western parts of Germany, in the eastern areas two thirds of the population—young and old—are declared atheists: Bad news for all those who’d hoped Christianity might make eback now that the Cold War-era German Democratic Republic (DDR) is ing an ever more distant memory. Atheism, according to a new study, is very much alive and well in the eastern part of Germany. The statistics are most striking among those under...

One of the issues that arose during last week’s law and religion symposium (in the questions following Wim Decock’s thorough and engaging paper on Leonardus Lessius’ engagement mercial affairs from the perspective of moral theology and philosophy) had to do with the understanding of the relationship between material pursuits and eternal salvation. In some way you might say that Lessius held to a view mercial activity as a worthy expression of the stewardship responsibilities of human beings. At the time...

Our friends at the Foundation for Research on Economics & the Environment (FREE) in Bozeman, Mont., have put together another strong slate of summer programs for clergy, seminary professors and other religious leaders with the aim of deepening their understanding of environmental policy. In its description of the program, FREE notes that many in munities “see an inherent conflict between a market economy and environmental stewardship.” Major religious groups assert that pollution, deforestation, endangered species, and climate change demonstrate a...