What makes for a flourishing society?
Many people today, both religious and secular, define freedom as merely the power to do what one wants, uninhibited by morality. Many view entrepreneurship as fundamentally acquisitive, fueled by personal greed and pursued at the expense of community. Both views are eminently mistaken. Rev. Robert A. Sirico answers these critics in A Legacy of Liberty, a new monograph comprising two of his most celebrated essays, “Toward a Free and Virtuous Society” and “The Entrepreneurial Vocation.” In short: Freedom is the necessary precondition for all virtue, and entrepreneurs are the primary agents of economic progress and prosperity for all in our world today.
The monograph also includes an introduction by Acton’s president, Kris Alan Mauren, in which he recounts the Institute’s humble beginnings and impressive growth. Although the Institute started in a small apartment in Grand Rapids, Mich., Acton now has its own building in the heart of Grand Rapids’ downtown. “This organic development mirrors Acton’s vision of human flourishing, centered on the human person as the source and summit of both social institutions and economic life,” writes Mauren. Near his introduction’s conclusion, Mauren summarizes Acton’s core mission: “to plant the seed of Lord Acton’s vision of a ‘society that is beyond the state’ and to cultivate ‘the individual souls that are above it.’”
