Marina Nemat was born in 1965 in Tehran, Iran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, she was arrested at the age of sixteen and spent more than two years in Evin, a political prison in Tehran, where she was tortured and came very close to execution. She came to Canada in 1991 and has called …
When Hong Kong’s basic freedoms come under attack, media tycoon Jimmy Lai finds himself in the crosshairs of the state and must choose between defending Hong Kong’s long-standing liberties or his own freedom. This conversation with the filmmakers and interview subjects in the Acton Institute’s new documentary feature, THE HONG KONGER: JIMMY LAI’S EXTRAORDINARY STRUGGLE …
In 1950s Brooklyn, a young boy’s idyllic childhood is changed after a simple interaction with his Jewish neighbor. *** Volume 1 of The Good Society is a 6-part series that that focuses on the intersection between the human person and economics and explores themes of work and creativity, entrepreneurship, and exchange. Each human person is …
Liberty and the Islamic faith are sometimes alleged to be incompatible, but does history tell a different story? How can Islam play a role in protecting liberty in the modern world? In this panel discussion, Ali Salman, Dr. Abdullah Ali, and Mustafa Akyol consider the interaction of Islam with free markets, entrepreneurship and the history …
Engage the Speaker Session for “International Religious Freedom: Politics and Policies” (AU2021). Original Lecture description below. How and why does the US government promote religious freedom abroad? Is it in America’s interest, or is it just American values? And what are the internal politics of the policy debate? This course will draw not only on …
Engage the Speaker Session for “Culture, Education, and Freedom” (AU2021). Original Lecture description below. Understanding the philosophical and theological underpinnings of many of today’s educational institutions and culture is crucial to building new educational ventures that support human freedom in all its dimensions. Although much has been written about ideological influences in education that undermine …
Join us for Acton University 2021 closing talk and interview with Acton Institute’s President and Co-Founder, Rev. Robert Sirico. Following Rev. Sirico’s reflections, Eric Kohn will moderate a Q&A session with Rev. Sirico and field questions from our live audience.
The innovations of technology companies have benefited billions across the globe and impacted our lives daily. However, as their dominance and influence grows, some have voiced concern about their business model. Internationally, some governments exploit technology to create a surveillance state. This panel examines the threats of Big Tech and Big Government, the implications for …
The First Amendment prohibits the government from making any law which abridges freedom of speech or the press. In the recent past, state-funded universities have disinvited commencement speakers, technology companies have shut down accounts, and entire books have been erased from Amazon. This panel examines freedom of speech and freedom of the press in an …
In this lecture, Dr. Jay Richards connects Aristotle’s account of happiness with modern sociological and psychological surveys of happiness, and explains how they overlap and differ. He then explores how our work, especially in a high tech information economy, can contribute to both our happiness, and the happiness of others.
In this lecture, Dr. Jay Richards connects Aristotle’s account of happiness with modern sociological and psychological surveys of happiness, and explains how they overlap and differ. He then explores how our work, especially in a high tech information economy, can contribute to both our happiness, and the happiness of others.
While political, economic, and intellectual freedom is a precious gift to humans, our long history shows that we are ready to give it away. Why is that? One answer might be given from the Nobel-Prize-winning Russian writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008): when people don’t understand and use the freedom they have, they will throw it away …
While political, economic, and intellectual freedom is a precious gift to humans, our long history shows that we are ready to give it away. Why is that? One answer might be given from the Nobel-Prize-winning Russian writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008): when people don’t understand and use the freedom they have, they will throw it away …
At the age of 13, Jimmy Lai escaped China to experience freedom in Hong Kong and grew to be one of Hong Kong’s highest-profile media moguls. Through his work, Lai founded the anti-Beijing newspaper Apple Daily and became an outspoken critic of the People’s Republic of China, solidifying him as one of Hong Kong’s most …
How and why does the US government promote religious freedom abroad? Is it in America’s interest, or is it just American values? And what are the internal politics of the policy debate? This course will draw not only on the presenter’s experience as a political scientist but also as a former chairman of the US …
How and why does the US government promote religious freedom abroad? Is it in America’s interest, or is it just American values? And what are the internal politics of the policy debate? This course will draw not only on the presenter’s experience as a political scientist but also as a former chairman of the US …
Engage the Speaker session for “Culture, Education, and Freedom” Understanding the philosophical and theological underpinnings of many of today’s educational institutions and culture is crucial to building new educational ventures that support human freedom in all its dimensions. Although much has been written about ideological influences in education that undermine commitments to human freedom grounded …
Understanding the philosophical and theological underpinnings of many of today’s educational institutions and culture is crucial to building new educational ventures that support human freedom in all its dimensions. Although much has been written about ideological influences in education that undermine commitments to human freedom grounded in classical Greek and Judeo-Christian anthropology, less has been …
Imagine if we had captured Adolf Hitler at the end of World War II, a man responsible for spearheading a global war of aggression bent on domination, the slaughter of millions of Jews, with a total death toll nearing 50 million lives. Now imagine he sits in the witness chair at Nuremberg, and says, “Don’t …
You know, we can learn a lot about how important Christian principles are for a culture simply by comparing the French Revolution to another revolution that happened a few years earlier, across the Atlantic—the American Revolution. “Freedom from God.” For many people that sounds pretty good— Freedom from that grumpy old rule maker in the …
Medieval Europe got rid of slavery, but it came back with a vengeance during the age of exploration. Before long, Christians from every sailing nation were rationalizing the practice of seizing non-Europeans, putting them in chains, and placing them on the auction block. Fortunately, though, that’s not the end of the story. The story of …
When Americans think of the Pilgrims, a few things spring to mind: Thanksgiving; the Mayflower; Plymouth Rock. But if you go any deeper than that, things get blurry in a hurry. Were the Pilgrims peace loving Puritans who simply sat down at the table of brotherhood with the pagan Indians? Or, were they fiendish, opportunistic, …
Faith or reason. Religion or science. Tradition or progress. This is how many people in our culture, today, think. They see these things in opposition. But the history of the West is one of faith completing reason. The scientific revolution was ignited not in ancient Greece and Rome, but in Christian Europe. Europe took off …
You may have heard it said that Western democracy is based on ancient Greek democracy. The democracy of ancient Athens did serve as an inspiration for modern democracy. But there’s one important element missing from the Greek model: they had no firm foundation for higher law. Because of this, ancient Greek democracy became mob democracy. …
Did you know that the opponents of Christianity have—for centuries—controlled the very terms by which we understand the history of Christianity, arguing that Christianity hobbled the Roman Empire, snuffed out scientific progress, and threw the world into the Dark Ages? Many people don’t even give Christianity a hearing because they think, “Why would I want …