Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Christian Social Thought

No, the Pope doesn’t need distributism (because nobody does)

Pope Francis needs distributism, argues Arthur W. Hunt III in the latest issue of The American Conservative. Hunt says that Americans and popes alike can embrace a humane alternative to modern capitalism: In the midst of their scramble to claim the new Pope, many on the left missed what the Pontiff said was a nonsolution. Continue Reading...

When Work is a Holy Undertaking

At Patheos, Joel J. Miller discusses how God uses work to fashion our souls: Not long ago I looked at an icon of Archbishop Luke of Simferopol and Crimea, a recent Orthodox saint who lived from 1877 to 1961. Continue Reading...

The Forgotten Sin of Covetous Envy

Modern rhetoric of income inequality is driven by covetous envy, says Russell Nieli. Caritas, humility, gratitude, and goodwill toward others are a healthy society’s answer to the ancient curses of envy and pride: The problem of the chronically poor is that they are chronically poor, not that some people make a lot more money than other people and bring about “inequality.” Continue Reading...

Fr. Philip LeMasters on Orthodoxy and Partisan Politics

Today at Ethika Politika, I review Fr. Philip LeMasters’ recent book The Forgotten Faith: Ancient Insights from Contemporary Believers from Eastern Christianity. With regards to the book’s last chapter, “Constantine and the Culture Wars,” I write, … LeMasters does a good job in acknowledging the line between principles of faith and morality on the one hand, and prudential judgments that may not be as clear-cut on the other. Continue Reading...