Christian Social Thought

February 13, 2018

Fact check on China as ‘best’ model of Catholic Social Teaching

Dominating the Vatican news cycle over the past week was a controversial statement made by the Chancellor of the Vatican’s Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences. In a Spanish interview, it was the Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo who said upon returning to Rome from Beijing: “Right now, those who are the best at implementing the [Catholic] Church’s social doctrine are the Chinese.” Continue Reading...

February 09, 2018

Unreality reigns at the Vatican

The team the worked on the original Macintosh computer claimed that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had a “reality-distortion field.” As Andy Hertzfeld explains, the “reality distortion field was a confounding melange of a charismatic rhetorical style, an indomitable will, and an eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand.” Continue Reading...

January 31, 2018

4 lessons on Christian vocation in politics from Gov. Bill Haslam

In our explorations of Christian vocation, the faith-and-work movement has been largely successful in reminding us of the meaning and purpose of our work, from parenting in the home to manual labor in the fields to teaching in a school to trading on Wall Street. Continue Reading...

January 26, 2018

Jennifer Roback Morse on the economic consequences of family breakdown

The 2018 Acton Lecture series got off to a great start yesterday with an address by Jennifer Roback Morse, a longtime friend and collaborator with the Acton Institute. She addressed how the breakdown of the family unit within culture generates significant problems, both socially and economically, and suggested some ways we can all work to address the issue going forward. Continue Reading...

January 04, 2018

The dystopian prospects of a world without work

Humans have long daydreamed about a day or a place where work is no more, whether found in a retirement home on a golf course or in a utopian society filled only with leisure and idleness. Continue Reading...

December 15, 2017

Reimagining work in the coalfields

The American coal industry is facing serious challenges. In states like West Virginia, the effects have been particularly painful, causing many communities to struggle under a projected 23% decline in related jobs and leading vast numbers of residents to leave the state altogether. Continue Reading...

December 05, 2017

Rome conference on Jesuits, globalization reaps record attendance

On November 29 the Acton Institute filled the Pontifical Gregorian University’s aula magna to maximum capacity with at least 380 participants, a record attendance during Acton’s 17 years of academic programming in Rome. Continue Reading...

December 04, 2017

Christian freedom isn’t about choice

As supporters of economic freedom, we frequently find ourselves in vigorous defense of personal choice, whether in business, trade, consumer goods, education, or otherwise. But while the elevation of economic choice is based on plenty of principle, not to mention historical and empirical analysis, we ought to be careful that our views about freedom aren’t confused or conflated in the process. Continue Reading...

December 01, 2017

No size or space in subsidiarity

When thinking and talking about principle of subsidiarity I’ve tended to resort to using metaphors of size and space (i.e., nothing should be done by a higher or larger organization which can be done as well by a smaller or lower organization). Continue Reading...

November 27, 2017

Natural rights revisited during Salamanca University’s 800th anniversary

Note: Some PowerBlog readers might be wondering why the Acton Institute is holding a Rome, Italy, conference on November 29: Globalization, Justice, and the Economy on 16th and 17th Century Spanish scholasticism (The conference will be broadcast on LiveStream. Continue Reading...

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