Author of ing Europe” and Acton’s Director or Research, Samuel Gregg, will be at The Heritage Foundation on Thursday, February 7 to speak on “Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future.” The event can be attended in person or viewed online. Visit the Heritage events page for more details. Read an excerpt of ing Europe” and purchase the book here. ...

If we asked many of our fellow Americans today “What is the purpose of government?,” undoubtedly, we might be barraged with some vexing ical answers. But I’m not one to believe that a good deal of our citizens can’t answer this question quite intelligibly. Still, I don’t think it would be enough to embody a healthy republic. It is time for our country to ask these basic questions again. It seems as if the looming chaos of our current national...

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. But as Gutierrez argues, it also represented a development, rather than a reversal of Catholic teaching: The perception of the Church’s teaching by many was that whenever she found herself in the minority, the Church would cry religious liberty. However, if the Church was in the majority, the state...

You’re part of this world, aren’t you? A tree-herder should know better! 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. And since...

Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research and author of the book ing Europe“, says one of America’s real debt dangers is our increasing sense of entitlement from the government. In today’s Investor’s Business Daily editorial, Gregg states our “insatiable appetites” are getting us into the very deep economic trouble that no one, least of all politicians, seems to want to face: …Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker famously lamented in 2007: “We all know what to do, but we don’t know...

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. But then the discussion landed on the topic of serving the Lord in ministry. The musician told the listening world how his brother was once...

Registration is now open for Acton University, planned for June 18-21, 2013. Courses for this year’s conference (subject to change) include Theology of Work, Social Entrepreneurship, Rise and Fall of the European Social Market, Fertility’s Impact on the World Economy, and Islam, Markets and the Free Society. (A full course listing can be seen here.) If you’re new to Acton, or would like to share the Acton University experience with someone, please enjoy Acton Institute Presents: Acton University. ...

New rental markets are popping up all over the place, as detailed by a recent Wall Street Journal article. The trend is beginning to drive a larger movement labeled by some as “collaborative consumption,” wherein “sharing” is pushed as a way of “reinventing old market behaviors.” Over at Carpe Diem, Mark J. Perry provides a helpful round-up on the phenomenon, pointing to the already mentioned WSJ article, a new Collaborative Consumption Hub web site, and a host of relevant products...

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 municated. That is, how to think Christianly about...

Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute, recently had two interviews discussing his latest book, ing Europe. Here is his interview on the Armstrong & Getty Show: [audio: Here is his interview on the Dennis Miller Show: [audio: Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach, the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International and former special adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said this about ing Europe: Highly readable, well researched, and extremely timely. This book is the definitive case why America should cling...