Imagine yourself in the fifteenth century, at a university in Spain or Italy, a time of increasing scientific discovery, technical innovation, economic development, rising prosperity, and increasing intellectual awareness of the meaning of economic science. You are involved in the great intellectual project of discovering the laws of economics and applying these laws to the world. You have discovered what goes into the creation of a price, what causes inflation, how trade works, and why e to be available...

Do you have to be good to do well? The relationship between virtue and worldly success is one that is often discussed at our Acton events. Parents and teachers try to inculcate good habits in their children and students, not only as an end in itself, but also in the hope that doing good in the spheres of character and morality will lead to doing well in the worlds of work, entrepreneurship, merce. In this issue of Religion &...

When es to business and the economy, the word trust has two – and to some people diametrically opposed – meanings. Trust as a virtue in the marketplace means having confidence in the honesty, reliability, and integrity of market players. It speaks volumes about our free enterprise system that a stranger can walk into a small business, for example, that he has never patronized before, and yet generally trust that he will be served well, dealt with fairly, and...

Why have so many countries been unable to fully adopt a market economy? The answer plex, but there are certain basic conditions that must be met for an economy to e free and prosperous. Two that are non-negotiable are private property and the rule of law. Without these a market cannot exist. An educated workforce, low taxes, and minimal regulation are also helpful. But there is another element that is crucial but often overlooked – it is what has...

Deuteronomy 25:13-16 You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and just weight you shall have, a full and just measure you shall have; that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination...

The Acton Institute has begun a series of lectures – eight in Rome and one in Poland – celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II's landmark social encyclical. The lecture series started in October of 2005 and will continue through 2007. For the next year, Religion & Liberty will feature excerpts from these conference lectures. The following is taken from Catholic Social Teaching on the Economy and the Family: an alternative to the modern welfare...

How, in a market setting, can you be assured that you are getting a good deal? We all know people who distrust every price, believe that most business people are concealing something important, and have a vague suspicion that every enterprise is a racket. These people might have a bias, but they do serve a market function. Business must always be aware that its promotionals and marketing plans must be balanced against the need to inspire trust always. It...

It is a measure of how radically the situation of Europe has changed in the past generation that one regularly encounters seminars and symposia with grand but gloomy titles such as “Whither Europe?” or “The European Future?” The question mark is key. There is much doubt about the health of Europe. Part of that is a demographic issue with plunging birthrates and mass immigration, the specter has been raised of a European future that is lacking Europeans. But it...

With this issue dedicated to Pope John Paul II, it is timely to address mon misunderstanding that Acton is affiliated somehow with the Roman Catholic Church. Sometimes we are also asked whether Acton is linked to the Christian Reformed Church in North America because of the strong Dutch Calvinist presence in Grand Rapids, Mich., where the CRC and the Acton Institute are both based. In either case, the answer is no. Acton has no ties with any particular church...

Capitalism, it is usually assumed, flowered around the same time as the Enlightenment–the eighteenth century–and, like the Enlightenment, entailed a diminution of organized religion. In fact, the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was the main locus for the first flowerings of capitalism. Max Weber located the origin of capitalism in modern Protestant cities, but today’s historians find capitalism much earlier than that in rural areas, where monasteries, especially those of the Cistercians, began to rationalize economic life. It...

This year marks the tenth anniversary of John Paul II's most important social encyclical, Centesimus Annus. Taking its name from the first two words of the Latin text, the title means “the hundredth anniversary” and is a reference to Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical on the condition of the working classes. Rerum Novarum was the most important social encyclical of Leo's pontificate, which lasted from 1878 to 1903. Rerum Novarum's moral insight into the social, economic, and...

Attempts to write of one's own vocation often fall flat. A priest whom I know remarked recently on the fiftieth anniversary of his priestly ordination, “The Lord could have chosen much better, he could have chosen much worse. He chose me.” That is every vocation in sum, and saying anything more often means just multiplying words. Every “vocation story” is an account of God whispering in an individual soul and, as such, it remains somehow inaccessible to others to...