Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Vocation

June 24, 2014

The School of Love: How the Family Teaches Flourishing

In the first episode of For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, Evan Koons discovers a new approach to Christian cultural engagement. Revolving around “God’s economy of all things,” he proceeds to explore six key areas of human engagement, one in each episode, including the economies of love, creative service, order, wisdom, and wonder, and, finally, through the church herself — an organism and institution that runs before and beyond all else. Continue Reading...
June 18, 2014

How Employing Those with Disabilities Transformed a Business

Those with disabilities face unique challenges in the workplace and with regards to vocation. As I recently wrote regarding the story of Jamie Bérubé, a young man with Down syndrome, we ought to be more attuned to these challenges and respond accordingly, rejecting limited notions of “value” and instead viewing all human persons as creators and contributors. Continue Reading...
June 13, 2014

Beauty on a Bike Ride: Learning to Simply Behold

“We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance.” -Hans Urs von Balthasar Last night, I took a brief bike ride through a nearby woods, an activity that’s become somewhat of a routine after the kids are in bed and my wife is at ease. Continue Reading...
June 10, 2014

Unemployment is a Spiritual Problem

The longer that Americans are unemployed, the more likely they are to report signs of poor psychological well-being. A recent Gallup survey found that about one in five Americans who have been unemployed for a year or more say they currently have or are being treated for depression. Continue Reading...
June 03, 2014

Loving the Hunt: Kuyper on Scholarship and Stewardship

In “Scholastica II,” a convocation address delivered to Amsterdam’s Free University in 1900 (now translated under the title, Scholarship), Abraham Kuyper explores the ultimate goal of “genuine study,” asking, “Is it to seek or find?” Alluding to academics who search for the sake of searching, Kuyper concludes that “seeking should be in the service of finding” and that “the ultimate purpose of seeking is finding.” “The shepherd who had lost his sheep did not rejoice in searching for it but in finding it,” Kuyper continues. Continue Reading...
May 29, 2014

Denzel Washington: Share Your Gifts; Don’t Abuse Them

In a short video that recently went viral, Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington offers some spontaneous career advice to a group of young actors. Although the setting is informal and his remarks are off-the-cuff and unrefined — sure to beg questions among theological nit-pickers — his general view aligns rather well with a healthy approach to Christian stewardship. Continue Reading...
May 01, 2014

In Praise of Trade Schools

One of the benefits of a Christian theology of work is that it frees parents up to encourage their children to pursue various employment-related vocations that cultivate creation, rather than prod them to waste a life in the unfulfilling pursuit of the American Dream. Continue Reading...