Talk:Acton Institute

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"Acton states that religious liberty, "virtuous behavior," an invigorous commitment to property rights, and entrepreneurial initiative as the keys to a culturally and economically prosperous world."

Frankly, the above quote from the article is simply incomprehensible. There *has* to be a better way to phrase the underlying message that sentence is trying to convey. --Cimon avaro; on a pogostick. 21:55, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

The quote has been replaced. One user has inserted and later re-inserted the characterization "conservative Christian" into the description of the Acton Institute. I don't see any documentation for this claim; and the link to the Christian Right describes a movement which does not seem to include the kind of thing the Acton Institute does. If noone objects I will remove the categorization.TheDean 17:11, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

I apologize for not responding sooner. The distinction that the article must make is between Christianity generally and conservative Christianity. Describing the worldview as merely "Christian" is too broad, as "Christian" can denote the Christian right, Christian left, or a number of other worldviews that are somewhat incompatible with one another. Perhaps associating Acton with the Christian right is inaccurate. How about "traditional Christian worldview"? I think it's much more precise. · j e r s y k o talk · 18:38, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I certainly see your point about trying to be more accurate. I see that you tried "traditional Christian" at an earlier point, and that this characterization was edited out by someone else. I have two concerns. One is that I don't see any documentation (links, etc.) that would support the more precise characterization. The other concern was the link within Wikipedia to the "Christan right" article, which I think was really not relevant. How about leaving the characterization "Christian worldview," but linking to "Conservative Christianity," which is not exactly on target either for the Acton Institute, but not as far off as "Christian right"? Otherwise, we could do more research into the philosophy of the organization. But as a think tank, I doubt that they want to nail down their worldview too tightly in advance.TheDean 21:30, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I think the clearest indicator of the ideology of the Institute can be found by reading a paper by Robert Sirico himself entitled "The Late-Scholastic and Austrian Link to Modern Catholic Economic Thought" and available on the Acton Institute website. Since Sirico is the president of the Institute, it is very likely that the approach of this paper is indicative of the orientation of the Institute itself. It is not particularly traditional as the phrase "traditional Christian" is widely understood. The Christian theological tradition is being mined for insights into human nature, ethics, the nature of economic activity in general, and for a view of human institutions that will prevent both the Marxist and the capitalist over-simplifications of the role of government. Theological sources are used sensitively, flexibly, and in some cases, innovatively. There is none of the feeling of party-line insistence that is felt by outsiders to the traditionalist movement when they listen in on traditionalist conversations. Rather, there is a clear sense that intellectual lines should be followed where they lead, even if they lead in new directions, as long as the deep insights of the best contributors to the discussion are not ignored or subverted. I wouldn't call this traditionalist, scholastic, conservative, liberal, rationalist, radical, or relativist; such labels are too flat. The term used most often by the materials of the Acton Institute itself is "personalist." I would be open to using this, if it were understandable by Wikipedia readers, but it seems somewhat arcane, almost a technical term. How about "a Christian worldview influenced by Catholic social teaching," with a link to the Wikipedia article Catholic social teaching? My goal is to lead readers to discover more about the Acton Institute, and not to quickly pigeonhole it. I think this is in keeping with the goals of an encyclopedia and with the NPOV approach.TheDean 14:19, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your well-reasoned response. I believe the source supports your conclusion, thus, I do as well. · j e r s y k o talk · 14:34, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

OK, I have updated the text of the article accordingly.TheDean 16:39, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Now the most recent edit indicates that some Catholics say the institute is overly capitalistic. Can the editor who added this please provide some documentation?TheDean 21:50, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

In the absence of documentation, I suspect that what is really happening has to do with critics of the Acton Institute who don't like their libertarian outlook. Most non-libertarians do believe (think, feel) that libertarians are too capitalistic. If there is a critique of the Acton Institute and its overall contribution that is based in personalism, or based in Catholic social thought, or based in something other than the standard objections to libertarianism, that would be worth noting in the article (with documentation). The general objections some people have to libertarianism should be discussed elsewhere. If no relevant documentation shows up either on the page or here in the discussion, I will delete the paragraph that claims some Catholics object to the capitalistic tendencies of the Acton Institute.TheDean 14:46, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

So deleted.TheDean 14:10, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Acton Society Trust

Is this anything to do with the Acton Society Trust in the UK. There seem to be similarities in outlook but that could be because of the shared inspiration.Cutler (talk) 23:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)