Acton Institute

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Acton Institute
200 px
Motto Connecting good intentions with sound economics
Formation 1990
Type Public policy think tank
Headquarters 98 E. Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Location
Founders
 Robert A. Sirico, Kris Alan Mauren
Budget
 Revenue: $10,802,645
Expenses: $8,367,069
(FYE December 2013)[1]
Website www.acton.org

The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty is an American research and educational institution,[2] or think tank, in Grand Rapids, Michigan (with an office in Rome) whose stated mission is "to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles".[3] Its work supports free market economic policy framed within Judeo-Christian morality.[4][5] It has been alternately described as conservative[6][7][8] and libertarian.[9][10][11]

History

File:Sirico Reagan Mauren.jpg
Acton founders Robert Sirico (left) and Kris Mauren (right) with Ronald Reagan in his library.

The Acton Institute was founded in 1990 in Grand Rapids, Michigan by Robert A. Sirico and Kris Alan Mauren.[12] It is named after the English historian, politician and writer Lord Acton, who is popularly associated with the dictum "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".[13] Sirico and Mauren were concerned that many religious people were ignorant of economic realities, and that many economists and businessmen were insufficiently grounded in religious principles.[14] Sirico explains the essential link between economics and religion with reference to the institute's namesake: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

Acton realized that economic freedom is essential to creating an environment in which religious freedom can flourish. But he also knew that the market can function only when people behave morally. So faith and freedom must go hand in hand. As he put it, "Liberty is the condition which makes it easy for conscience to govern".[15]

The release in 1991 of the papal encyclical Centesimus annus buoyed the institute at a critical time. The document provided, a year after Acton's founding, established support for the institute's economic personalism and defense of capitalism. Robert Sirico said at the time that it constituted a "vindication".[14][16][17]

In 2002, the Institute opened a Rome office, Istituto Acton, to carry out Acton’s mission abroad.[18] In 2004, the Institute was given the Templeton Freedom Award for its "extensive body of work on the moral defense of the free market".[18] In 2012, the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania included Acton in its list of the top 50 think tanks in the United States.[19]

In 2005, Mother Jones published a chart which included the Acton Institute on a list of groups that had reportedly received a donation ($155,000) from ExxonMobil.[20] As of 2007, the Institute had received funding from the Earhart Foundation and the Bradley Foundation.[21][22] The Grand Rapids Press wrote in 2013 that much of the Acton Institute's funding comes from residents of western Michigan, including John Kennedy, president and CEO of Autocam Corp., and Amway co-founder Richard DeVos.[23]

Affiliations

The Acton Institute is a member of the State Policy Network, a network of free-market oriented think tanks in the United States.[24]

The Acton Institute has built a network of international affiliations including Centro Interdisciplinar de Ética e Economia Personalista, Brazil, Europa Institut, Austria, Institute for the Study of Human Dignity and Economic Freedom, Zambia and Instituto Acton Argentina Organization.[25]

Research and publications

From its guiding principles and economic research, the institute publishes books, papers, and periodicals, and maintains a media outreach effort.[2][26]

  • Journal of Markets & Morality:
Peer-reviewed journal that explores the intersection of economics and morality from scientific and theological points of view. Published semi-annually.[2][27][28][21]
  • Monographs:
In-depth treatments of specific policy issues and translations of scholarly works previously unpublished in English.[26][21][29]
  • Abraham Kuyper Translation Project:
In 2011, the institute began a collaboration with Kuyper College to translate into English the three-volume work Common Grace (De Gemene Gratie in Dutch) of politician, journalist and Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper. The work, written from 1901-05 while he was Prime minister of the Netherlands, addresses the advance of both Marxism and libertarianism from an ecumenical Christian viewpoint as part of an effort to build a "constructive public theology" for the Western world.[30][31] The first volume of the translation, Wisdom and Wonder: Common Grace in Science and Art, was unveiled in November, 2011.[32]
  • Religion & Liberty:
Quarterly publication which covers the interworking of liberty and morality: contains interviews, book reviews, scholarly essays, brief biographies of central thinkers, and discussions of important topics.[16][21]
  • The Samaritan Guide:
Through 2008, the institute gave an annual Samaritan Award to a "highly successful, privately funded charity whose work is direct, personal, and accountable".[33] The Samaritan Guide was produced to encourage effective charitable giving by establishing a rating system for charities considered for the Samaritan Award.[34]
  • Acton Notes:
The bimonthly newsletter of the Acton Institute; contains reports of projects and goings on at the institute.[35]
  • The Acton PowerBlog:
Since April 2005 the institute has provided a synthesis of religion and economics on its blog.[36]

Films

Films produced by the Acton Institute include The Call of the Entrepreneur (2007) and Poverty, Inc. (2014), which won a 2014 Templeton Freedom Award from the Atlas Network.[37] Poverty Inc. is part of the Acton Institute's PovertyCure initiative, which seeks to create solutions to poverty by "moving efforts from aid to enterprise and from paternalism to partnerships."[38]

Personnel

Besides Sirico, notable scholars associated with the institute include Anthony Bradley,[39] Jordan Ballor,[40] Stephen Grabill,[41] Michael Matheson Miller,[42] Marvin Olasky,[43] Kevin Schmiesing,[44] and Jonathan Witt.[45] The institute's director of research is Samuel Gregg, author of the prize-winning book The Commercial Society.[46] President of the Atlas Network, Alejandro Chafuen serves on the board and is a senior fellow at the institute.[47] Andreas Widmer is a research fellow in entrepreneurship for the research department.[48]

Notable members of the institute’s board of directors include Gaylen Byker, Sean Fieler, Frank Hanna III, and John C Kennedy III.[49]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Acton Institute. About the Acton Institute. Retrieved 11 July 2011
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Convissor, Kate (August 1999). "The Acton Institute: Of Morality & the Marketplace." Grand Rapids Magazine 36-37
  13. ↑ Sullivan, Elizabeth (February 1993). "Rev. Robert Sirico: Inside Track." Grand Rapids Business Journal: 5-6.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 (13 March 2004). "Acton Institute awarded for work in economics and ethics." The Grand Rapids Press.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Rosmini, Antonio (2007). The Constitution under Social Justice. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. ISBN 0-7391-0725-9.
  28. ↑ HighBeam Research. "Journal of Markets & Morality." [1]. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Couretas, John. "Welcome to the Acton Institute PowerBlog." Acton Institute PowerBlog. 4 April 2005. [2]
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ http://calvinseminary.academia.edu/JordanBallor
  41. ↑ http://www.effectivestewardship.com/stephen-j-grabill
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ http://atlasnetwork.org/blog/2010/01/atlas-staff/
  48. ↑ http://www.sevenfund.org/leadership-biographies/andreas-widmer.php
  49. ↑ Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, Acton Institute

External links

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