“Beyond Distributism”

by Thomas E. Woods Jr. - October 8, 2008

Thomas E Woods Jr., author of a new Acton monograph on distributism, looks at this movement made popular by early twentieth-century British Catholics Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton. Distributists sought to manage economic competition, which they viewed as destructive and destabilizing, by grouping occupations into self-regulating trade associations and granting the central state a supervisory and coordinating role over business and labor. But their arguments turn out to be based on logical and economic fallacies, as well as on a serious misreading of European history. "Theory and experience alike testify that the market alone can deliver an economy that is just, humane, and prosperous," Woods concludes.

“No Morality, No Markets”

by Samuel Gregg D.Phil. - October 1, 2008

Samuel Gregg looks at the moral failures that led to the financial crisis and asks why more free-marketers aren't also asking questions about the human factor. "One explanation for this silence could be that some market-advocates have embraced, consciously or otherwise, the soft relativism so prevalent in Western societies but which renders coherent moral analysis impossible," he writes. "It may also be that many free-marketers have long been incapable of articulating more-than-utilitarian arguments for markets in particular and liberty in general."

October 2008

• Chicago birth of Freedom Premiere Receives Praise
• Help Continue Acton's Mission
• birth of Freedom Lecture
• Acton Interns Publish "Don't Ban the Bottle"
• Acton and You

Volume 18, Number 1 • Winter 2008

Featuring:

“Theology at Work: Faithful Living in the Marketplace -- An Interview with David Miller,” an interview with David W. Miller

David W. Miller is the executive director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School, and asst. professor (adj) of business ethics at Yale School of Management. Miller brings an unusual "bilingual" perspective to the academic world, having also spent sixteen years in senior executive positions in international business and finance.

Miller received his Master of Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. While studying there, he co-founded the Avodah Institute in 1999 and still serves as its president. Avodah's mission is to help leaders integrate the claims of their faith with the demands of their work. Miller is also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Miller serves as an advisor to several corporate CEOs and senior executives on questions relating to faith and work. His book God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press. Miller recently spoke with R&L managing editor Ray Nothstine.

Volume 11, Number 1 • Spring 2008

With this issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality, we introduce a new semi-regular feature section, the Status Quaestionis. Conceived as a complement to our Scholia, the Status Quaestionis features are intended to help us grasp in a more thorough and comprehensive way the state of the scholarly landscape with regard to the modern intersection between religion and economics. Whereas the Scholia are longer, generally treatise-length works located in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, the Status Quaestionis will typically be shorter, essay-length pieces from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. The first installment of the Status Quaestionis will feature an essay by Sergey Bulgakov (1871–1944), a renowned and influential Russian Orthodox theologian. His essay included in this issue, "The National Economy and the Religious Personality," first published in 1909 and translated here by Krassen Stanchev, represents the first and in many ways most lasting Orthodox Christian response to the Weber thesis.

Also in this volume, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo considers "The Importance and Contemporary Relevance of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth." Marek Tracz-Tryniecki explores "Natural Law in Tocqueville’s Thought." Christopher Todd Meredith examines "The Ethical Basis for Taxation in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas." José Atilano Pena López and José Manuel Sánchez investigate "Smithian Perspective on the Markets of Beliefs: Public Policies and Religion." Surendra Arjoon discusses ethics in the corporate culture with "Slippery When Wet: The Real Risk in Business." Gregory Mellema expounds on "Professional Ethics and Complicity in Wrongdoing."