Who Really Cares?
$14.00 [ purchase ]

We all know we should give to charity, but who really does? Approximately three-quarters of Americans give their time and money to various charities, churches, and causes; the other quarter of the population does not. Why has America split into two nations: givers and non-givers? Arthur Brooks, a top scholar of economics and public policy, has spent years researching this trend, and even he was surprised by what he found. In Who Really Cares, he demonstrates conclusively that conservatives really are compassionate-far more compassionate than their liberal foes. Strong families, church attendance, earned income (as opposed to state-subsidized income), and the belief that individuals, not government, offer the best solution to social ills-all of these factors determine how likely one is to give. Charity matters--not just to the givers and to the recipients, but to the nation as a whole. It is crucial to our prosperity, happiness, health, and our ability to govern ourselves as a free people. In Who Really Cares, Brooks outlines strategies for expanding the ranks of givers, for the good of all Americans.

Gross National Happiness
$19.00 [ purchase ]

Freedom, the Family, and the Market
$10.00 [ purchase ]

The socialist ideal of equality has played an independent role in the breakdown of the family. Socialism has attacked the family directly, and has adopted policies that have led to demographic collapse. Christianity and capitalism offer more appealing and practical solutions to the problems socialism claims to solve.

Acton USB Flash Drive
$20.00 [ purchase ]

Acton's 1GB USB2.0 Flash Drives are a convenient way to transport data from your computer. Featuring an aluminum swivel cover with Acton's logo, you'll be sure to stand out as a tech-savvy pursuer of liberty and free-markets backed by religious principles.

Slitting the Sycamore
$6.00 [ purchase ]

The effectiveness of Christian participation in political, economic, and social life depends upon understanding the proper relationship between the Church and the world, Christ and culture. In this monograph, Eduardo Echeverria illuminates the recent history of thought on this subject, and articulates a way of thinking about the relationship that can appeal broadly to serious Christians in today's world. Using H. Richard Niebuhr's schema as a starting point rather than as the definitive statement on the matter, the author adapts the categories, suggests their strengths and weaknesses, and evaluates them in light of the vision of Pope John Paul II's "new evangelization." Christian engagement of contemporary culture - "slitting the sycamore" - is an essential task if that culture is to be a source of vitality and sustenance. Echeverria points the way.

The Call of the Entrepreneur DVD and Study Guide
$25.00 [ purchase ]

A merchant banker. A failing dairy farmer. A refugee from Communist China. One risked his savings. One risked his farm. One risked his life. "The Call of the Entrepreneur Study Guide" examines several core themes of the documentary including the pernicious effects of zero-sum-game thinking, the role of entrepreneurs in creating new wealth, the risk-taking element of enterprise, and the role of limited government, property rights, and the rule of law, and free markets in unleashing the wealth-creating capacity of entrepreneurs. The Study Guide touches on some topics that are beyond the scope of the film, in particular the role of Judeo-Christian thought in the rise of capitalism and the lessons that the Bible offers for the entrepreneur as entrepreneur. It includes a discussion of human beings as "co-creators" made in the image of God.

Journal of Markets & Morality, Volume 10 Number 2
$15.00 [ purchase ]

This issue of the Journal features a scholia translation of Leonardus Lessius, "On Buying and Selling" from 1605. Lessius was a Jesuit theologian considered to be an important figure in the development of pre-Smithian economics by scholars like Joseph Schumpeter, John T. Noonan, and Raymond de Roover. Wim Decock provides both a translation of Lessiusâ work as well as an introduction placing him in his early modern context of scholasticism and moral theology. Also in this volume, Mary Ann Glendon reflects upon John Paul IIs Challenges to the Social Sciences: "Initial Responses of Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences." John R. Schneider explores Christian Theology and the Human Ontology of Market Capitalism. Donald P. Condit asks "Should Business Be Responsible for Employee Health Care?" Edward J. O Boyle pens a Requiem for Homo Economicius. Pamela Z. Jackson and Jonathan E. Leightner examine Unrighteous Stewards in Biblical and Modern Times. John Meadowcroft considers Altruism, Self-Interest, and the Morality of the Private Sector: An Austrian Approach.

Sourcebook in Late-Scholastic Monetary Theory
$33.00 [ purchase ]

The Sourcebook in Late-Scholastic Monetary Theory is a thematically unified collection of seminal texts in the history of economics on the topic of money and exchange relations (cambium)—its nature, purpose, value, and relationship to justice and morality in financial transactions—within the tradition of late-scholastic commercial ethics. Cambium embraces the development of banking practices and institutions in early modern Europe and, therefore, is much broader in scope than the simple practice of exchanging currency. Here, for the first time, the unabridged texts of Martín de Azpilcueta's Commentary on the Resolution of Money (1556), Luis de Molina's A Treatise on Money (1597), and Juan de Mariana's Treatise on the Alteration of Money (1609) are available in English translation with scholarly annotations. The publication of these foundational texts under a single cover will stimulate exploration of the continuities and discontinuities, agreements and disagreements, innovations and ruptures within the Salamancan tradition of commercial ethics during the latter half of the sixteenth and the early seventeenth century. A close reading shows that the Salamancans were involved not only in an internal conversation within Spain concerning inflation, usury, rates of currency exchange, currency debasement, subjective value, just prices, and so on, but also that they were critical intermediaries in a wider conversation spanning centuries that includes prominent canonists, jurists, philosophers, and theologians. The Salamancans also serve as conduits of scholastic economic reflection to Adam Smith and the political economists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The texts (in conjunction with the introductions by leading authorities) demonstrate the sophistication with which the Spanish doctors examined the new process of using bills of exchange (cambium per litteras) to replace the cumbersome and dangerous transportation of metallic coins between commercial fairs, which led not only to new scholastic insights on interest, credit, and international trade, but also to a much more comprehensive analysis of monetary exchange and banking practices than had been undertaken before.

Myths Christians Believe about Wealth and Poverty
$10.00 [ purchase ]

For Christians, compassion for the poor is a non-negotiable. Compassion alone, however, doesn�t help the poor. In fact, many ideas that Christian leaders advocate really exacerbate the very problems they were intended to solve. So how do we insure that we not only mean well, but also do good? We have to learn to think economically about wealth and poverty. One way to do this is to learn to recognize eight simple myths that many well meaning Christians believe when they think about wealth and poverty.

The Social Mortgage of Intellectual Property
$6.00 [ purchase ]

The AIDs crisis in Africa has given the once-esoteric question of intellectual property rights critical and immediate significance. The issue of pharmaceutical patents is but one dimension of a broad and complicated area at the intersection of law, economics, and ethics. In this monograph, philosopher David Carey supplies an overview of the philosophical and legal foundation of intellectual property rights and argues that a Christian view of those rights is at once appreciative and critical. More specifically, while the Church¹s social teaching upholds the importance of property rights‹including intellectual property rights‹it also places all such rights within the context of obligations toward the common good. In this thought-provoking assessment of the field, Carey pays due attention at once to both economic reality and the demands of justice and charity.

Journal of Markets & Morality, Volume 10, Number 1
$15.00 [ purchase ]

This issue of the Journal features a scholia translation of Cardinal Cajetan's (1469-1534) influential treatise On Exchanging Money (1499). Cajetan is the author of the officially approved commentaries on the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, which are easily available in the magnificent Leonine edition of this magnum opus. He is even more famous as the papal legate whom Leo X (1513-1521) dispatched to Germany in a futile effort to bring Martin Luther back into the Roman fold. Economic historians have pointed out that Cajetan's treatise holds a decisive place in the history of economics because it set forth the fullest and most unqualified defense of the foreign exchange market at its date of publication. Andrew Abela discusses "The Price of Freedom: Consumerism and Liberty in Secular Research and Catholic Teaching." Robert Driscoll examines the relationship between "Ideas, Associations, and the Making of Good Cities." Whereas, Jan Klos, in his article, "The Claim for Secularization as a Contemporary Utopia," critiques the chasm that modern philosophy has wrought in the understanding of human nature. In his ground breaking article on "The Fiscal and Tributary Philosophy of Antonio Rosmini," Carlos Hoevel lays out the central characteristics of Rosmini's economic philosophy. In "A 'Marketless World'? An Examination of Wealth and Exchange in the Gospels and First-Century Palestine," Edd Noell shows that research on the economic context of Jesus' teaching on wealth and exchange points to the need to take into account the nature and extent of market arrangements in first-century Roman Palestine. Gabriel Zanotti, in "Intersubjectivity, Subjectivism, Social Sciences, and the Austrian School of Economics," demonstrates that the subjectivism of the Austrian School of Economics could be based on Edmund Husserl's intersubjectivity theory. In their article, "Can Social Justice Be Achieved?, Arnaud Pellissier-Tanon and Jose Manuel Moreira investigate Bertrand de Jouvenel's and Friedrich Hayek's views of social justice. They conclude that Jouvenel's view prefigures Hayek's famous response to the question of whether social justice can be achieved.

The Call of the Entrepreneur Study Guide
$10.00 [ purchase ]

"The Call of the Entrepreneur Study Guide" examines several core themes of the documentary including the pernicious effects of zero-sum-game thinking, the role of entrepreneurs in creating new wealth, the risk-taking element of enterprise, and the role of limited government, property rights, and the rule of law, and free markets in unleashing the wealth-creating capacity of entrepreneurs. The Study Guide touches on some topics that are beyond the scope of the film, in particular the role of Judeo-Christian thought in the rise of capitalism and the lessons that the Bible offers for the entrepreneur as entrepreneur. It includes a discussion of human beings as "co-creators" made in the image of God.

The Call of the Entrepreneur DVD
$20.00 [ purchase ]

A merchant banker. A failing dairy farmer. A refugee from Communist China. One risked his savings. One risked his farm. One risked his life. Why do their stories matter? Because how we view entrepreneurs - as greedy or altruistic, as virtuous or vicious - shapes the destinies of individuals and nations.

Journal of Markets & Morality, Volume 9, Number 2
$10.00 [ purchase ]

Features articles by David VanDrunen, Andrew Schein, Carl J. Schramm, Roland E. Kidwell and Linda A. Kidwell, Karl Farmer, and Jeanette Delery and Walter Block. The scholia features key selections from Johannes Althusius' (1557-1638) Dicaeologicae, a seminal legal text of the seventeenth century that constructed a single comprehensive juridical system by collating the Decalogue, Jewish law, Roman law, and various streams of European customary law. Althusius was the Reformed syndic of Emden and is widely heralded as a federalist political thinker and early architect of the doctrine of subsidiarity.

Judaism, Markets, and Capitalism: Separating Myth from Reality
$6.00 [ purchase ]

How does one account for the widespread distaste among Jews for a free market political agenda? Will Jews, who earn per capita almost twice as much as non-Jews in America, ever get over their "champagne socialism"? Corinne and Robert Sauer, co-founders of the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, contend that "it is not at all true that Judaism is a set of principles that endorses income redistribution and other progressive social programs." Instead, they say, Judaism is a system of throught that more naturally aligns itself with the basic principles of economic liberalism.

The Commercial Society
$20.00 [ purchase ]

Once relatively confined to parts of Europe and North America, commercial societies are now found in many other cultures and continents. Yet despite the international spread and growth of commercial order, the moral, economic, and legal foundations of commercial society remain poorly understood - especially in those countries where it first took root. Guided by the thoughts of Alexis de Tocqueville, Samuel Gregg's The Commercial Society identifies and explores the key foundational elements that must exist within a society for commercial order to take root and flourish. Gregg studies the challenges that have consistently impeded and occasionally undermined commercial order, including the persistence of "corporatist" values and political movements seeking to equalize social conditions. This book offers a historically grounded analysis for modern audiences interested in philosophy or the history of economics.

Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics
$20.00 [ purchase ]

Is knowledge of right and wrong written on the human heart? Do people know God from the world around them? Does natural knowledge contribute to Christian doctrine? While these questions of natural theology and natural law have historically been part of theological reflection, the radical reliance of twentieth-century Protestant theologians on revelation has eclipsed this historic connection. Stephen Grabill attempts the treacherous task of reintegrating Reformed Protestant theology with natural law by appealing to Reformation-era theologians such as John Calvin, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Johannes Althusius, and Francis Turretin, who carried over and refined the traditional understanding of this key doctrine. Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics calls Christian ethicists, theologians, and laypersons to take another look at this vital element in the history of Christian ethical thought. Regular Price $24.00 Sale Price $20.00

The Entrepreneurial Vocation (2 Disc Set)
$15.00 [ purchase ]

The Acton Institute is proud to highlight a new recording of Rev. Robert A. Sirico speaking on the topic of "The Entrepreneurial Vocation," recorded on June 18, 2005 on the final evening of the Acton Symposium. In his address, Sirico speaks passionately about the need to view business not simply as a moneymaking enterprise, but as a distinct calling from God.

And Why Not? Morality and Business
$8.50 [ purchase ]

This book-length extended interview provides fascinating insights into the mind of François Michelin, the former managing partner of Group Michelin. In one of the few interviews he has ever given, Michelin sat down with two journalists and discussed his management philosophy and his deeply felt Christian faith. Apart from offering subtle theological reflections into the nature of business, Michelin speaks eloquently about the creative dimension of free enterprise and the human aspect of life in the commercial world. "The main thing is to live, but in order to do this, one has to feed on the reality that is hidden behind facts, one has to seek out root causes," Michelin says in And Why Not?. Michelin is also outspoken about the French government's penchant for central planning and collectivist economic systems. France, he maintains, has been governed by the spiritual sons of Marx. The same technocrats who are so fond of Marxist theories are also frightened by open markets and globalization. Michelin observes that,"In our country, there is a marked preference for hitting people with all kinds of duties and taxes rather than giving them the means to invent, to make progress, and to compete."

Christian Social Thought Series Set
$45.00 [ purchase ]

It is in the spirit and vision of economic personalism that the Christian Social Thought Series is offered. These books attempt a personalist synthesis of significant issues at the nexus of economic activity and the moral life, and provide in-depth analyses of key issues facing the Christian Church as it attempts to preach the Word of God in a culture, and indeed, a marketplace that longs to hear the Good News. Series currently includes: Doing Justice to Justice: Competing Frameworks of Interpretation in Christian Social Ethics (published in 2002); Liberating Labor: A Christian Economist's Case for Voluntary Unionism (published in 2002); A Theory of Corruption: The Theology and Economics of Sin (published in 2003); Inhabiting The Land: The Case for the Right to Migrate (published in 2003); Trial by Fury: Restoring the Common Good in Tort Litigation (published in 2004); The Good that Business Does (published in 2006); Pensions, Populations and Prosperity (published in 2007); The Social Mortgage of Intellectual Property (published in 2007)Reg Price $40.00; Sale Price $35.00

Transforming Welfare
$7.50 [ purchase ]

By offering private alternatives to the failed welfare state, this collection of essays hopes to contribute to the restoration of an ethic that can be the foundation of a truly free and humane system of social assistance.