Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Christian Social Thought

We Should Affirm All Callings—Even Pastoral Ones

The winter issue of Leadership Journal is on vocation and callings. In the lead editorial, managing editor Drew Dyck reminds us that while it’s important to affirm the calling of lawyers, journalists, and plumbers, we need to remember that being a pastor is a calling too: I applaud this move toward a more holistic understanding of vocation. Continue Reading...

The Idle Ents

Last week I had the pleasure of participating in the First Kuyper Seminar, “Economics, Christianity & The Crisis: Towards a New Architectonic Critique,” held at the VU University Amsterdam. I gave a paper on “The Moral Challenges of Economic Equality and Diversity,” which focused on envy as a moral challenge particularly endemic to market economies: “Since envy arises out of inequality, envy and inequality go together. Continue Reading...

Does the Work of Truck Drivers Matter to God?

Don’t believe the vocational lie, says Paul Rude, for God has imbued your mundane work with immense dignity and significance: The interview playing over my car radio was standard fare. The host of a Christian program was interviewing a wildly popular contemporary Christian music star—little more than background noise as I drove down the highway. Continue Reading...

How to Develop a Christian Mind in Business School (Part IV)

Note: This is the fourth in a series on developing a Christian mind in business school. You can find the intro and links to all previous posts here. As I mentioned in the last post, when in this series I talk about developing a Christian mind in b-school I’m referring primarily to learning how to think Christianly about things as they are symbolized, things as they are known, and things as they are communicated. Continue Reading...

Vatican II and Religious Liberty

Of all the documents that came out of the Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae (Declaration on Religious Liberty) was, says Omar F.A. Gutierrez, the most revised, debated, and controversial. Continue Reading...

Preventing inauguration blues

For those who voted for Mitt Romney, the Presidential Inauguration on January 21st could be a difficult day. Presidential elections have always been simultaneously exciting and frustrating. Today, alarmists on the left and the right place television advertisements, preach sermons, design billboards, and the like, proclaiming the apocalyptic consequences of the wrong person assuming the office of President of the United States. Continue Reading...

The Fiscal Cliff Deal and Intergenerational Justice

So … what happened? With regular coverage of the US “Fiscal Cliff” running up to the new year, PowerBlog readers may be wondering where the discussion has gone. While I am by no means the most qualified to comment on the matter, I thought a basic summary and critique would be in order: With six minutes to read this 157 page bill, the US House of Representatives passed it. Continue Reading...

Combatting Textbook Tyranny

In addition to my post in late November about the textbook bubble (spurred by this post from AEI’s Mark Perry), the Atlantic‘s Jordan Weissmann joins the discussion, asking, “Why Are College Textbooks So Absurdly Expensive?” Continue Reading...