Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'christianity'

September 10, 2010

Chrysostom on the Poor

From On Living Simply, Sermon XLIII. (HT: American Orthodox Institute Observer, et al.): Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person’s gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Continue Reading...
September 08, 2010

Labor and the limits of work

There has been some good discussion over the past week and Labor Day holiday about the nature of work and its role in our lives (particularly here). The first thing I’d like to point out about Lester DeKoster’s claims regarding work is that he has in mind, at least partially, the classical Greek philosophical distinction between the active and contemplative life, particularly its disdain of manual labor. Continue Reading...
September 01, 2010

Defining Devotion Down

“Freedom of worship” has recently replaced the phrase “freedom of religion” in public pronouncements from the Obama administration, according to news reports. Ralph Benko follows up on the Washington Examiner: President Obama’s recent formulation, “Freedom of Worship” has the religiously serious aghast. Continue Reading...
August 27, 2010

The Superiority of Christian Doctors

A few weeks ago we noted a study on the better quality and efficiency of care provided by religious, and specifically Christian, hospitals. Now today comes a report that “doctors who hold religious beliefs are far less likely to allow a patient to die than those who have no faith” (HT: Kruse Kronicle). Continue Reading...
August 24, 2010

Paul Ramsey on the Church and the Magistrate

One of the inspirations for my little book, Ecumenical Babel: Confusing Economic Ideology and the Church’s Social Witness, was the incisive and insightful critique of the ecumenical movement from the Princeton theological ethicist Paul Ramsey. Continue Reading...