Acton Vault

The conventional wisdom on C.S. Lewis was that he really didn’t care much for politics, or for law, and so he wouldn’t have spent much time or energy on liberty either. But the conventional wisdom is mistaken. The truth is Lewis was deeply interested in the political, properly understood, as well as natural law, the human person, and genuine liberty. In this session we will explore Lewis’ thoughts on these matters by considering his biography, his keen interest in criminal justice reform, what he believed about the purpose of government, and how his views on natural law and human liberty connect to his Christian convictions.

Micah Watson is associate professor and PPE program director at Calvin University. He is also the executive director of the Paul Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics. His research interests include John Locke and the political thought of C.S. Lewis.

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Myths about economics die hard. What’s worse, such fallacies are destructive to human cooperation and flourishing. Join us for a discussion of six economic lies you’ve been taught and probably believe. 

Caleb Fuller is an assistant professor of economics at Grove City College and a faculty affiliate of the Program on Economics and Privacy at the George Mason University Scalia Law School. He received his BA in economics from Grove City College and PhD in economics from George Mason University. He has published in journals such as ‘Public Choice,’ the ‘International Review of Law and Economics,’ the ‘Review of Austrian Economics’ and others.

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No Free Lunch | Amazon

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Few questions loom as large for parents and students these days as the question of how to afford a college education. College costs have been rising for decades, and all too often, students rely heavily on student loans and graduate with significant debt loads that they spend years paying off.

Alex Chediak, professor of engineering and physics at California Baptist University, has tackled this question and provided parents and students with an invaluable guide in his book Beating the College Debt Trap.

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About Alex Chediak

 Beating the College Debt Trap | Amazon

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Around the world, discouragement erodes the vitality of Christian organizations. Visionaries often succumb to cynicism. Zealous advocates give up. Leaders coast as their passion for the cause grows cold.

Grounded in deep research, The Gift of Disillusionment: Enduring Hope for Leaders After Idealism Fades invites followers of Jesus to sustain hope in long-term service. It’s about moving past the false hope of idealism and the faint hope of disillusionment to discover true Christian hope.

Peter Greer is the president and CEO of HOPE International, a global Christ-centered economic development organization serving throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

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The Gift of Disillusionment | Amazon

Peter Greer Author Page | Amazon

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This week, we go back in time to October 9, 2014, and the Acton Institute’s 24th annual dinner for this speech from Daniel Hannan.

Hannan is a British writer, journalist, and politician. He served as a Member of the European Parliament representing South East England from 1999 through 2020, standing down from the EU Parliament upon in the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU in 20202, for which Hannan was a lead campaigner.

Hannan first rose to international prominence in 2009 when a video of a short speech he delivered to the EU Parliament when viral. In the speech, Hannan strongly criticized then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his response to the 2008 global financial crisis, calling him the “the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government.”

In his address to our 2014 Annual Dinner, Hannan stressed the importance of not taking for granted the sublime inheritance of our liberal democratic systems of governance, and the importance of defending that heritage with a sense of optimism and confidence in what is good about the way we do things.

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Christ calls us to spiritual poverty. In today's prosperous society, that call frequently goes unheard or misinterpreted. In this lecture from 2011, Acton's President Emeritus, Rev. Robert. Sirico discusses how one can live out Christ's call in the middle of a prosperous society.

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Christian Poverty in the Age of Prosperity (Rev. Robert A. Sirico - Acton Institute)

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In 1783 George Washington said that “we have a national character to establish.” 110 Years later Frederick Jackson Turner published “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” and wrote these words: “to the frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics… coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind…, that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with freedom…” Turner identified the closing of the frontier as a watershed for national character. In the 110 years since, we have observed that Washington’s project could not be contained in limned geographic descriptions. Have we, then, a national character? And if we do, is it a friend to liberty?

Professor William B. Allen is a professor of political philosophy at Michigan State University, and at the time of this recording was the Senior Visiting Fellow at the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good at Villanova University. His areas of expertise include the American founding and U.S. Constitution; the American founders (particularly George Washington); the influence of various political philosophers (especially Montesquieu) on the American founding; liberal arts education, its history, importance and problems; and the intersection of race and politics.

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Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse describes how the socialist ideal of equality has played an independent role in the breakdown of the family, arguing that socialism has attacked the family directly and has adopted policies that have led to demographic collapse.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse is the founder of the Ruth Institute, an interfaith international coalition to defend the family and build a Civilization of Love. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and taught economics at Yale and George Mason Universities.

The lecture was presented in Grand Rapids, Michigan on January 3, 2008.

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On April 14, 2015, The Acton Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy jointly hosted Timothy Carney for a lecture on the topic "Is Big Business a Danger to Economic Liberty?"

Timothy P. Carney is the senior political columnist at the Washington Examiner, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of three books. Tim was a 2012 Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Hillsdale College and he sits on the board of visitors for the Institute for Political Journalism.

A protégé of the late columnist Robert Novak, Tim was senior reporter at the Evans-Novak Political Report and became editor when Novak retired in 2008. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and many other publications. He is author of Obamanomics (2009) and The Big Ripoff (2006), which won the Templeton Enterprise Award from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the 2006 Lysander Spooner Award for the "best book on liberty." Tim is a native of Greenwich Village and an alumnus of St. John's College in Annapolis. He now lives in the D.C. area with his wife and six children.

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Timothy Carney Author Page | Amazon

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We go back in time to April 2011, when Samuel Gregg, current senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, discussed the social teaching of Benedict XVI, illustrating how much the pope changed the focus of Christian engagement with political, social, and economic questions. Whether the subject was Islam, ecumenism, the rise and decline of the West, or simply "Who is Jesus Christ?,” Benedict opened up discussions once considered taboo and caused even hardened secularists to rethink some of their positions. Two years after Gregg’s lecture, Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, and Jorge Bergoglio was elected his successor, assuming the name Pope Francis.

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About Samuel Gregg | AIER 

'The Modern Papacy' by Samuel Gregg

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