Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'virtue'

What is (and isn’t) Mercy?

In a new essay for the Catholic World Report, Samuel Gregg discusses why it’s dangerous to to overemphasize any one facet of Christian teaching at the expense of a different teaching. Continue Reading...

Why Edmund Burke Supported Free Trade

The Republican Party is fracturing on the topic of trade. Alas, in the same corners where free and open exchange was once embraced as a propeller for economic growth and dynamism, protectionism is starting to stick. Continue Reading...

When Generosity Transforms a Community

Bishop Hannington longed to see an awakening to generosity in his town of Bundibugyo, Uganda, where many viewed giving more as a matter of duty than heartfelt joy. Yet what at first seemed like a significant challenge soon grew even steeper. Continue Reading...

Children Are a Gift to Civilization

With our newfound economic prosperity and the political liberalization of the West, we have transitioned into an era of hyper consumerism and choice. This involves all sorts of blessings, to be sure, but it brings its own distinct risks. Continue Reading...

Bourgeois Equality: The Modern World Can’t Be Explained By Material Causes

Economist Deirdre McCloskey is set to release the long-anticipated conclusion of the Bourgeois Era trilogy sometime next spring. The book, Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World, will build on her thesis that our newfound prosperity is not primarily due to systems, tools, or materials, but the ideas and rhetoric behind them. Continue Reading...

Sloth: When We Reject What God Wants Us To Be

“If we’re not heaven bent on doing more, we’re hell bent on trying to escape all the stuff we have to do.” In Evan Koons’ concluding vlog on the Economy of Wonder, he tackles the difference between sloth and what Josef Pieper has called “virtuous idleness.” Continue Reading...