Acton Institute PowerBlog - Entries from Monday, September 24, 2007

Club for Growth on The Call of the Entrepreneur

Monday, September 24, 2007

Andrew Roth of the Club for Growth provided a short assessment On The Call of the Entrepreneur. The Call will be the opening film at the American Film Renaissance Festival in Washington D.C. on September 26th.

Roth declared:

I was given a sneak peek of “The Call...” earlier this month. It’s a fun, feel-good movie that provides real life examples of how entrepreneurs have succeeded personally, and how they’ve made the world a better place. The show also cuts into commentary from free market leaders who help clarify the entrepreneur’s vital and indispensable role in our economy.

The Club for Growth, located in Washington D.C., “Works to promote public policies that promote economic growth primarily through legislative involvement, issue advocacy, research, training and educational activity.”

Posted by Ray Nothstine in News and Events at 15:18 | Leave a comment | Trackback

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Blessed Antonio Rosmini

Monday, September 24, 2007

Roman news agency Zenit reports the upcoming beatification of Antonio Rosmini. Rosmini was a notable Italian intellectual and priest who has long been among the figures highlighted by the Acton Institute’s survey of the history of liberty. An additional point making this particular road to sainthood interesting is that some of Rosmini’s thought had been called into question by the Vatican in the nineteenth century. That his theology was sound was confirmed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s vindication of his work in 2001; beatification will affirm his personal holiness.

Posted by Kevin Schmiesing in Vatican at 14:23 | Comments (2) | Trackback

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Reformed Education and Pentecostal Evangelism

Monday, September 24, 2007

I’ve heard it said from a number of leaders in the Reformed community that there is a great opportunity for Reformed churches to be a positive influence on the growth of Christianity abroad, particularly in places like Africa where Pentecostalism has made such large inroads.

The thesis is that as time passes and institutions need to be built, the traditionally other-worldly Pentecostal faith will by necessity need to embrace a more fully comprehensive world-and-life view. Reformed institutions ought to be prepared to step into the breach and provide that worldview education.

On that note, I pass along two items of interest. The first is a newly released book from Fortress Press, Christian Education as Evangelism, an edited collection of essays that argues that if congregations “are to be active in their evangelical outreach, solid teaching is necessary. Likewise learning ministries that are well grounded and alive will spring forth into vital sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ. Christian education leads to evangelism and evangelism leads to Christian education.”

And as a counter-point to the potential for arrogance that might accompany a Reformed educational mission to the Pentecostal world, see this item, “Dutch Protestant leader apologises to Pentecostals,”

Utrecht (ENI). The Protestant Church in the Netherlands has apologised to Pentecostals for negative attitudes held in the past by Reformed and Lutheran Christians towards members of Pentecostal churches. “Even now, one still can often sense an attitude of negativity and condescension,” the church’s general secretary Bas Plaisier said at celebrations in Amsterdam’s Olympic stadium to mark the centenary of the Dutch Pentecostal movement. Such attitudes were also widely held among Protestants in the past, Plaisier said. “I hope that with this centenary celebration we can put an end to this [negative] way of speaking and thinking about one another,” he said. [355 words, ENI-07-0726]

Given the rather distinct lack of commitment to distinctively and confessionally Reformed education among the Christian Reformed Church at the moment (check out this synodical report), I wonder if this sort of educational impetus is something that Westerners find are good for other people, but not themselves.

Posted by Jordan J. Ballor in Educational Choice at 12:48 | Leave a comment | Trackback