Acton Institute Powerblog

Promoting free societies characterized by liberty & religious principles

Christianity and Liberalism

Over at the Gospel Coalition last week I reviewed Larry Siedentop’s Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism. As I conclude, “The story he tells is true, but at some points only half-true. Continue Reading...

How Christianity Gave Us the Modern World

“Christianity undergirded the development of Western liberalism (in the old, good sense of the word),” says Rich Lowry. In fact, without Christianity there would probably not be anything like what we conceive as true liberty: The indispensable role of Christianity in the creation of individual rights and ultimately of secularism itself is the subject of the revelatory new intellectual history Inventing the Individual by Larry Siedentop. Continue Reading...

The Historic Creeds vs. Passing Theological Fads

Evangelical Christians sometimes struggle with how best to enforce “orthodoxy.” The past century of Protestant history could be written as a story of attempts to define what’s essential and what’s debatable on issues from the Bible’s “inerrancy” to more recent controversies over marriage, sexuality, and women’s ordination as pastors. Continue Reading...

Why Christianity Is Necessary for Liberty

Depending on one’s perspective, religious freedom was either born or died with the founding of the United States of America. The colonial powers of Europe of the late 18th century had dominant religious majorities and established churches. Continue Reading...

The Sowell of black America

“Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” —Augustine Thomas Sowell is a towering figure in the liberty movement, certainly the most (in)famous “black conservative” of the 20th century. Continue Reading...

Why are schools closed? Unions and partisanship, study finds

On Monday, children across the nation ceased giving thanks as they returned to school after their extended holiday break. However, millions more would rejoice if they had that opportunity (as would their parents), an opportunity that a new study finds they are denied not on the basis of science, but by the brawn of union strength and political pressure. Continue Reading...

Turning points in Catholic social teaching

In a recent Acton Line podcast I began by asking Father Robert Sirico the very large question, what is Catholic social teaching and why is it important today? He answered that the Church has always had a social teaching but that when we usually discuss Catholic social teaching today we begin with Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum. Continue Reading...