Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Publications

March 11, 2011

Religion & Liberty: An Interview with Thomas C. Oden

Religion & Liberty’s winter issue featuring an interview with patristics scholar Thomas C. Oden is now available online. Oden, who is a Methodist, recalls for us the great quote by Methodist founder John Wesley on the Church Fathers: “The Fathers are the most authentic commentators on Scripture, for they were nearest the fountain and were eminently endued with that Spirit by whom all Scripture was given.” Oden reminds us of the relevancy of patristics today, he says “You can hardly find any contemporary political issue that has not been dealt with, in some form, in a previous cultural and linguistics situation by the early Christian writers.” We hope you will enjoy the interview and the portion of this interview that was previewed on the PowerBlog in January. Continue Reading...
March 08, 2011

Review: Defending Constantine

We’ll have the Winter 2011 issue of Religion & Liberty online later this week and you won’t want to miss it. Subscribe here. We’re previewing the issue on the PowerBlog with a book review that, because of space limitations, had to be shortened. Continue Reading...
February 23, 2011

Kuyper on Secularism

From Abraham Kuyper’s opening address to the First Social Congress in Amsterdam, November 9, 1891, The Problem of Poverty: The first article of any social program that will bring salvation, therefore, must remain: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” This article is today being erased. Continue Reading...
February 11, 2011

Theology at Work & David W. Miller

Jordan Ballor already highlighted Rob Moll’s piece in today’s Wall Street Journal in his earlier post on business and Christian ministry. The piece quotes David W. Miller who was interviewed in the Winter 2008 issue of Religion & Liberty on the topic of theology at work. Continue Reading...
February 10, 2011

Some Thoughts on Social Media and Publishing

After hearing about an established Christian publisher recently launching an official blog for their products, I did some thinking about the relationship between the traditional publication outlets and social media. I’m sure that traditional publishers have a relatively large budget for print advertising, but it seems that they are very slow to hire professionals to do serious social media work, blogging, and online advertising. Continue Reading...
January 26, 2011

Talking About Babel

Two more thoughtful reviews of Jordan Ballor’s Ecumenical Babel: Confusing Economic Ideology and the Church’s Social Witness are in. Ross Emmett says that, “those concerned about the role of the church in the world today can learn a lot by reading and reflecting on Ballor’s excellent critique of the ecumenical movement’s political economy.” And in the new issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality, Thomas Sieger Derr agrees with Jordan that the ecumenical movement should be “appropriately circumspect in its ethical pronouncements on specific matters of public policy.” And, on his blog, Hunter Baker (he’s a PowerBlogger, too) chats with Jordan about Babel. Continue Reading...