western civilization – Acton Institute PowerBlog

February 20, 2019

Western Civilization: force for good or source of evil?

No one event prompted me to write about this topic—it is a general, and certainly growing, impression. But a glance at various happenings in recent years gives some indication of what I want to comment on. Continue Reading...

April 12, 2017

Video: John Stonestreet on the gospel in a culture of identity crisis

The changes in western culture over the past decades reflect a major shift in how we think of the nature of reality and, in particular, the human person. In light of these changes, how is the Church to address the deep issues of the day without becoming captive to political ideologies? Continue Reading...

April 05, 2017

John Stonestreet doesn’t want to talk about sex

On the latest edition of Radio Free Acton, John Stonestreet, the President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, joins Marc Vander Maas to talk about the current cultural and moral malaise of the West and affirms the unique role of Christianity in the development and sustaining of western civilization. Continue Reading...

June 18, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 5 of 12 — Capitalism from Christendom

[Part 1 is here.] A common reading of Western history holds that the principles of the free economy grew out of the secular Enlightenment and had little to do with Christianity. Continue Reading...

June 13, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 1 of 12

The West has made some remarkable steps forward culturally in the past several generations, as, for instance, in the areas of civil rights (the unborn being a notable exception), race relations, and cooperation among Christians of different traditions. Continue Reading...

December 13, 2013

TCC: Lessons in Liberty & Restraint

Last week, an exciting new organization called the Transatlantic Christian Council (TCC) hosted its inaugural conference. The theme of the conference was “Sustaining Freedom”, which aligns well with the Council’s mission “to develop a transatlantic public policy network of European and North American Christians and conservatives in order to promote the civic good, as understood within the Judeo-Christian tradition on which our societies are largely based.” Continue Reading...

November 14, 2013

Richard Weaver on Liberty and Christianity

Richard Weaver, one of the great intellectuals of the 20th Century, and author of Ideas Have Consequences, published an essay in the early 1960s on Lord Acton (pdf only). Much of Weaver’s essay is worth highlighting, but one excerpt in particular reminds us of the central significance of Christianity in the battle for freedom. Continue Reading...

October 31, 2013

Reformation and the Need for Truth

Martin Luther “did more than any single man to make modern history the development of revolution,” declared Lord Acton. (Lectures on Modern History) The Protestant Reformation profoundly changed the trajectory of Western Civilization. Continue Reading...

September 20, 2013

Revival, Calvin Coolidge, and Recovering America’s Foundations

Often many on the political right believe that reform or change in the country is just one election or another president away. Some declare another Ronald Reagan can fix America’s problems, but entirely miss that there may be no culture left to support a president like Reagan. Continue Reading...

June 06, 2013

Is FDR’s D-Day Prayer Now Considered Partisan?

Our changing culture and society has now largely pushed Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s notable and resolute prayer over to the side of partisan politics. Today is of course the 69th anniversary of American, British, and Canadian forces landing at Normandy, a day Roosevelt declared in 1944 would preserve our way of life and “religion.” Continue Reading...

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