rerum novarum

August 08, 2023

JPII, Mises, and Economics in Action

Why would a theologian conduct a theological and moral analysis of human action as described by Ludwig von Mises, a representative of the Austrian school of economics? What can an economist and agnostic tell the moral theologian about man? Continue Reading...

June 17, 2021

How socialism fosters an envious, covetous worldview

It’s hard to feel happy for people who are more successful than you. It’s easier to envy them – but doing so means forgetting that high achievers pave the way for others to succeed. Continue Reading...

May 06, 2021

John Paul II on work, socialism, and liberalism

This year marks the 30th anniversary of John Paul II’s important encyclical, Centesimus Annus. While the average lay person might not pay attention to formal pronouncements by the Roman Catholic Church, papal encyclicals are significant in their affirmation of the church’s social doctrine. Continue Reading...

March 21, 2017

‘A habit of the heart’: Michael Novak on social justice

What is “social justice”? For some, it represents an ideal or a vision of a certain kind of society. For others, it’s a placeholder for particular government policies. For others, it’s a mere marker of ideology. Continue Reading...

February 13, 2017

New Issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality (19.2)

The most recent issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality, vol. 19, no. 2, has been published online and print copies are in the mail. This issue features the publication of Acton’s 2015 Novak Award winner Catherine Pakaluk’s lecture, “Dependence on God and Man: Toward a Catholic Constitution of Liberty,” in addition to our regular slate of peer-reviewed articles. Continue Reading...

December 28, 2016

Commentary: Power and the poor

In this week’s Acton Commentary I examine the foundations of what is today identified as the “preferential option for the poor” in writings that appeared 125 years ago, Pope Leo’s Rerum Novarum and Abraham Kuyper’s “The Social Question and the Christian Religion.” Continue Reading...

December 09, 2016

Leo XIII and Kuyper on the social question

This year marks the 125th anniversary of two key documents in the development of modern Christian social thought: the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII and the speech “The Social Question and the Christian Religion” by Abraham Kuyper. Continue Reading...

October 05, 2016

‘Riches do not bring freedom’

The contrast between the treatments by David Bentley Hart and Dylan Pahman of the question of the intrinsic evil of “great personal wealth” this week pretty well established, I think, that in itself wealth is among the things neither forbidden nor absolutely required. Continue Reading...

June 09, 2016

Samuel Gregg: Some political and social movements ‘prioritize equality over freedom’

Following the recent Rome conference “Freedom with Justice: Rerum Novarum and the New Things of Our Time”, held in celebration of 125th anniversary of Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical on private property, the Industrial Revolution and the spread of Marxist ideology, Acton’s Samuel Gregg was interviewed by Shalom World TV. Continue Reading...

April 25, 2016

Are Pope Leo XIII and John Paul II ‘feeling the Bern’?

Alvino-Mario Fantini, editor-in-chief of the The European Conservative, and Michael Severance, operations manager of Istituto Acton, co-wrote an op-ed for The Catholic World Report Are Pope Leo XIII and Pope Saint John Paul II “feeling the Bern”? Continue Reading...

1 2 3 Next >