Month: April 2016

April 21, 2016

Distributism Is the Future (That Few People Want)

Over the years, many of us here at Acton have been engaged in long-running (and mostly congenial) feud with distributists. Family squabbles can often be the most heated, and that is true of this rivalry between the Christian champions of distributism and the Christian champions of free markets here at  the Acton Institute. Continue Reading...
April 21, 2016

The ‘Tragedy’ of the (Boston) Common

Boston Common Asset Management bills itself as “a leader in global sustainability initiatives.” Why would an investment portfolio management company label itself with the appellation “Common” when it carries such negative baggage? Continue Reading...
April 20, 2016

Why It Was Always Going to Be Tubman on Our Money

Last Summer I predicted that Harriet Tubman would be replacing Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. I was almost right. She’ll be replacing Andrew Jackson. The U.S. Treasury announced last year that the $10 bill is the next paper currency scheduled for a major redesign — a process that takes years because of the anti-counterfeiting technology involved — and will feature a “notable woman.” Continue Reading...
April 20, 2016

Time and Eternity: The Abiding Profit

“The temporal achievements of science, technology, inventions and the like also have a divine significance,” writes Abraham Kuyper in this week’s Acton Commentary, an excerpt from Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World. Continue Reading...
April 19, 2016

What Christians (Should) Mean When We Talk About Conscience

A new Pew Research survey finds that the majority of American Catholics  (73 percent) say they rely “a great deal” on their own conscience when facing difficult moral problems. Conscience was turned to more often than the three other sources — Catholic Church’s teachings (21 percent), the Bible (15 percent) or the pope (11 percent) — combined. Continue Reading...
April 19, 2016

Video: Freedom and the Poverty Industry

Kris Mauren, executive director of the Acton Institute, kicks off the second season of the Free Market Series, a television program for American and Canadian audiences produced by The World Show in partnership with the Montreal Economic Institute and broadcast on PBS affiliates. Continue Reading...
April 19, 2016

Audio: Samuel Gregg on Rerum Novarum’s Relevance for Today

Acton Institute Director of Research Samuel Gregg is in Rome this week for Acton’s conference on the 125th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s ground-breaking encyclical Rerum Novarum. The conference – titled Freedom with Justice: Rerum Novarum and the New Things of Our Time – takes place on April 20th from 2-7:30 pm at the Roma-Trevi-Conference Center in Rome, Italy. Continue Reading...