A Humane Economy

A student of the Austrian School of economics and an architect of West Germany’s economic reconstruction after World War II, Wilhelm Röpke’s intellectual project was marked by sober thinking about the moral implications of the economic order. Perhaps his best-known work, A Humane Economy (originally published in 1960 and released last fall in a new edition), is the fruit of such thinking.

by D. Eric Schansberg

Francis Fukuyama's Unhappy Optimism

Although the decade ended thirty years ago, the 1960s are in many ways still with us. Like Jacob Marley’s ghost, they serve as a haunting reminder of who we once were and who we have become. That the 1960s continue to influence our society is acknowledged by partisans on both the Right and the Left.

by Marc D. Guerra

Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment

Adam Smith (1723—1790) is best remembered today as the celebrated author of The Wealth of Nations (1776), who defined the workings of market economies and defended principles of liberty. To his contemporaries, particularly his fellow thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith was recognized first for his profoundly original contributions to moral philosophy and natural jurisprudence.

by Ingrid A. Merikoski

The Personalism of John Paul II

Samuel Gregg's book, Challenging the Modern World, ventures to identify the fundamental ideas in the social teachings that John Paul II has influenced and to show the extent to which this development is rooted in his writings prior to becoming pope. Given John Paul's stated intent to supply a Christian alternative to (purely) humanistic philosophies, the concern of his papacy for ethics, and the fact that this is the longest and most dynamic papacy of this century, Samuel Gregg's investigation is indeed an important one.

by Richard C. Bayer

The Splendor of Faith

It has been centuries since the Roman Catholic Church has elevated to the papacy a bishop who is both a deft shepherd and an intellectual giant; these two gifts rarely fill the Chair of Peter simultaneously. Avery Dulles, in his book The Splendor of Faith: The Theological Vision of John Paul II, mentions but two: Leo the Great and Gregory the Great–placing Pope John Paul II in company with the few who have most worthily filled the shoes of the great fisherman.

by Michel Therrian

Conservatism, Socratically and Succinctly

In his latest book, Dinesh D’Souza offers a glimpse into a one-sided dialogue on both the merits of and the ideas behind conservatism. He does this by publishing his letters to a curious and interested college student named Chris—who is questioning his own politics and starting to form his own beliefs. These letters each cover one specific topic, many of the so-called “hot” ones—for instance, conservative as opposed to liberal, libertarian, political correctness, feminism, education, abortion, and everything in between.

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A First Amendment Primer

In 1789, with the War of Independence well behind them and the prodigious task of writing a constitution for the new United States of America also completed, the Founding Fathers turned their attention to the individual rights of the citizenry. Thomas Jefferson, in particular, thought that the constitution was incomplete for failing to address the primary freedom of religion. Following the successful passage of his Bill of Religious Freedom in the Virginia Legislature, he brought the issue before the larger Constitutional Convention.

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God, Reason, and the Law

In a recent review of Robert P. George’s The Clash of Orthodoxies, Samuel Gregg, Director of the Acton Institute’s Center for Economic Personalism, observed that “we have witnessed something of a renaissance of natural-law thinking among Christian scholars.” Another piece of evidence of this renaissance is The First Grace: Rediscovering the Natural Law in a Post-Christian World by constitutional scholar and natural-law theorist Russell Hittinger.

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Character for Free

During a recent lecture at Loyola University New Orleans, Michael Novak argued that for centuries individuals have been asking the wrong questions. Up until around 1776, he said, people inquired, “What is the cause of poverty?” Novak suggests they should have been asking what Adam Smith asked—that is, “What is the cause of the wealth of nations?” Or in other words, why are the rich rich?

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John Paul II Remembers the Twentieth Century

In 1993, Pope John Paul II met with Polish philosophers Józef Tischner and Krzysztof Michalski to discuss the events of the twentieth century, namely the rise of Nazism and communism. The Holy Father revisited the transcripts from these conversations and added to his earlier thoughts, expounding on democracy, freedom, and the future of Europe. The resulting work is Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium, published in March by Rizzoli.

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An Orthodox View of Contemporary Economics, Politics, and Culture

In 1967, following two decades of progressively harsher persecution of religion under communist rule, Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha triumphantly declared his nation to be the first atheist state in history. Hoxha, inspired by China’s Cultural revolution, proceeded to confiscate mosques, churches, monasteries, and shrines. Many were immediately razed, others turned into machine shops, warehouses, stables, and movie theaters. Parents were forbidden to give their children religious names.

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Democracy Does Not Ensure Liberty

Eighty years ago, Woodrow Wilson took America into the twentieth century with a challenge to make the world safe for democracy. As we enter the twenty-first century, our task is to make democracy safe for the world”: the very significance of Fareed Zakaria’s The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad is condensed in its brilliant last paragraph. Dr.

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