Acton Commentary

April 17, 2019

A secular Jew makes a surprising discovery about Christians and American slavery

“Christians ended slavery. Do you think that’s a conservative simpleton’s mock-worthy bombast, embarrassing the rest of us with his black-and-white, unapologetic caricature of American history?” asks John B. Carpenter in this week’s Acton Commentary. Continue Reading...

March 06, 2019

Christian action in God’s world

This week’s Acton Commentary is adapted from a foreword to a new volume by Acton research fellow Anthony B. Bradley, Faith in Society: 13 Profiles of Christians Adding Value to the Modern World. Continue Reading...

February 20, 2019

A legal test for the Bladensburg Peace Cross

“The challenge … presents the possibility for hope and for worry with regard to the future of religion in American public life,” says Trey Dimsdale in this week’s Acton Commentary. In 1919 the political landscape of Europe had been drastically rearranged, the United States had emerged from relative isolation onto the world scene, and the western world was in shock at the unprecedented scale of the carnage that the Great War had left in its wake. Continue Reading...

January 23, 2019

Brazil takes an Austrian turn

The new Brazilian government’s czar for economic affairs is bringing in the right people, straight from the Austrian School, says Silvio Simonetti in this week’s Acton Commentary. Presidents and prime ministers often resort to the appointment of “czars” to handle a crisis or coordinate complex policies when a show of urgent political engagement seems in order. Continue Reading...

December 19, 2018

Home to Bethlehem

Although the word nostalgia can be used to express a bittersweet longing for some pleasant remembrance of one’s past, it is safe to say that this is the time of the year when it is virtually unavoidable to drift into a sustained sense of nostalgia and where its experience is most intense.  Continue Reading...

December 12, 2018

A way back from secularism

Secularism separates all things, says Rev. Anthony Perkins in this week’s Acton Commentary, even sacred ones, from their source and turns them into objects. These are difficult times that divide Christians from their neighbors and from one another. Continue Reading...

December 05, 2018

Maslow, material needs, and the gospel

“Human beings are created with bodies and souls,” says Jordan Ballor in this week’s Acton Commentary. “We have both material and spiritual needs.” Earlier this year, Susan Mettes of Christianity Today critiqued the use of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a ministry tool. Continue Reading...