Intellectuals

January 06, 2020

Capitalism, solidarity, and work: A view from the 16th century

Legal historian Wim Decock of the KU Leuven recently published a study of the economic thought of the Flemish Jesuit Leonardus Lessius (1554–1623). Last week the National Catholic Register posted an interview with Decock about his book and Lessius’s contribution to economics. Continue Reading...

December 31, 2019

Gertrude Himmelfarb (1922-2019): The historian of moral revolution

I just heard some devastating news. Gertrude Himmelfarb, historian, moralist, wife, and mother, has passed. David Brooks has written a touching obituary detailing the life and legacy of this fascinating woman: Economists measure economic change and journalists describe political change, but who captures moral change? Continue Reading...

December 18, 2019

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...

December 18, 2019

Acton Commentary: How socialism causes atheism

Most socialists have been atheists, but does accepting socialist economic principles make believers more likely to become atheists? This week’s Acton Commentary, which is the cover story of the newest issue of Religion & Liberty, explores survey data and anecdotal evidence that a socialist worldview can lead believers to lose their faith. Continue Reading...

December 11, 2019

Wilhelm Röpke on liberalism and Catholic social teaching

This week’s Acton Commentary, adapted from my preface to the newest Acton Institute publication The Humane Economist: A Wilhelm Röpke Reader, illustrates what makes Röpke such an interesting and vital economist: Röpke saw his project in holistic terms involving intersecting and interdependent spheres or orden that to be fully appreciated and understood scientifically must be examined in their economic, social, and moral dimensions. Continue Reading...

December 09, 2019

Brian Tierney, rest in peace

The world of medieval history suffered a great loss on November 30 with the death of Professor Brian Tierney. Widely recognized as a leading scholar of medieval Western Christianity and how church law and institutions affected the broader culture of Europe, Tierney wrote widely but also deeply on topics ranging from the origins of papal infallibility to how religion shaped the development of constitutionalism. Continue Reading...

December 04, 2019

Catholic social teaching is for all of life

Senator Marco Rubio’s interest in Catholic social teaching is exciting even if confused in its economic analysis and public policy recommendations. On the Acton Line Podcast released today I discuss with Fr. Continue Reading...

November 25, 2019

Stephanie Slade on markets, planning, and Catholic social teaching

Stephanie Slade writes in next month’s edition of Reason Magazine about, ‘Regulation and ‘the Right Ordering of Economic Life” according to Catholic social teaching: The Church’s surprising lesson for partisans of big government is that the best tools for correctly ordering economic life are found in the choices of individual market actors. Continue Reading...

November 20, 2019

The beatification of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

This week, the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, announced that the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen will be beatified on December 21st in that city’s Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception. Continue Reading...

James Patterson speaks at the Acton Lecture Series

November 14, 2019

Public school installs stained glass window celebrating ‘Christian socialist’

When a public school receives a stained glass window from a church, it typically stirs controversy about the separation of church and state. Yet an elementary school has recently installed a window celebrating a self-described “Christian socialist.” Continue Reading...

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