The leaky bucket: Why conservatives need to learn the art of story

In his biography of St. Thomas Aquinas, G. K. Chesterton said that “most men must have a revealed religion, because they have not time to argue.” The same might be true for political philosophy. In the Age of Information, most men do not have time to sift critically through the barrage of information that comes their way.

by David M. Phelps

What is capitalism?

Rev. Robert Sirico It’s not entirely easy to understand why, but the term capitalism is almost universally used derisively, particularly in religious circles. To say something is capitalist is to condemn it without argument, as if the label alone settles the question.

by Rev. Robert A. Sirico

Why is the Acton Institute producing documentaries?

In a word, audience. With this year’s release of The Call of the Entrepreneur, Acton is embarking on one of the most important—and potentially most influential—media programs in its seventeen-year history.

by Kris Alan Mauren

Solzhenitsyn and Russia's Golgotha

In the “Ascent,” one of the autobiographical sections of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, you will find the justly famous assertion that “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political parties—but right through every human heart.” And read just a little further and you come to these words, not so well known but just as true, which describe the evil that roots itself not in the personal, but in the political:

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Walter Eucken

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"The Culture of Charity"

What motivated you to write this book? What questions were you hoping to answer?

by Arthur C. Brooks

Santo Tomás de Aquino

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Rafael Termes

It is true that democracy is the best of the political systems, in that it guarantees, through universal suffrage, a peaceful changeover of power. But democracy and its instrument, majority rule, is not a method to investigate the truth. Truth can be acquired with evidence, conclusive demonstration, or another's trustworthy testimony; but it must not be subject to a vote.

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Edmund A. Opitz

God has laid down rules for us in every walk of life, including the proper organization of our economic affairs. The free economy is a system of voluntary arrangements that brings together people who have work skills, who use tools and machinery to increase their output, thus producing the incredible abundance of goods and services we enjoy as consumers.

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Anders Chydenius

Known as the Adam Smith of the North, Anders Chydenius laid out his economic prescription for mercantilist [Sweden-Finland] in The National Gain in 1765, suggesting a concept of spontaneous order eleven years before Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations: “Every individual spontaneously tries to find the place and the trade in which he can best increase Nationa

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Born on February 4, 1906, in Breslau, then part of Imperial Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer began his theological education in 1923 at the University of Tübingen. He later trained under liberal theologians Adolf von Harnack and Reinhold Seeburg.

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Lord Ralph Harris of Highcross

Born in Tottenham in 1924, Lord Ralph Harris was a foremost champion for free markets in twentieth century Great Britain. After a first in Economics at Cambridge and a subsequent teaching stint at St. Andrew's University, Lord Harris became general director of the Institute for Economic Affairs in 1957 (Lord Harris would hold the post of founding director until 1987).

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