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The Mission of the Acton
Institute is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized
by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty is named
after the great English historian, Lord John Acton (1834-1902).
He is best known for his famous remark: "Power tends to corrupt,
and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Inspired by his work
on the relation between liberty and morality, the Acton Institute
seeks to articulate a vision of society that is both free and virtuous,
the end of which is human flourishing. To clarify this relationship,
the Institute holds seminars and publishes various books, monographs,
periodicals, and articles.
The Acton Institute organizes seminars aimed at educating religious
leaders of all denominations, business executives, entrepreneurs,
university professors, and academic researchers in economics principles,
and in the connection that can exist between virtue and economic
thinking. We exhort religious leaders to embrace the principles
of economics as analytic tools in the consideration of economic
issues that arise in their ministry, on the one hand, and, on the
other, we exhort business executives and entrepreneurs, to integrate
their faith more fully into their professional lives, to give of
themselves more unselfishly in their communities, and to strive
after higher standards of ethical conduct in their work. Our conferences
are held primarily in the United States, but we also conduct some
conferences in Europe and Latin America. More information on these
seminars can be obtained at from Acton programs.
The Acton Institute's publications range
widely from those directed at the general public to those that are
rigorous academic essays. We publish monthly current affairs and
public policy opinions both in hard print
and on-line. We also print a journal called Religion
& Liberty that engages the intellectual reader on issues
in the areas of religion, politics, economics, literature, and culture.
We also publish the Journal of Markets
& Morality, which is a refereed academic journal dedicated
to examining ideas in the unique interdisciplinary niche that brings
together economics, theology, and philosophy. In addition, we publish
monographs on economic issues that have direct impact on Christian
theology as part of a collection called the Christian
Social Thought Series. There are also occasional
papers that we print as part of an on-going collection of academic
inquiry. As part of the Acton Institute's information outreach program,
we also publish transcripts and tapes of prominent guest speakers
we have invited to our special events, and of TV and radio discussions
in which we have participated. These are available through the Acton
Bookshoppe.
The Acton Institute’s academic investigations are conducted
at the center for academic research, called
the Center for Economic Personalism.
The work produced at the Center includes the disciplines of philosophy,
economics, theology, and history, among others, and it includes
the contributions of both in-house research fellows and of invited
scholars. The principal goal of the Center's investigations is to
seek truth by means of the examination and clarification of ideas.
The investigations produced at the Acton Institute are delivered
widely at conferences with the goal of reaching the academy at large.
The papers and monographs produced by the Center's fellows take
final form as books published by mainstream academic publishers
and as articles accepted in refereed academic journals.
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