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In
order to fulfill its
mission, the
Institute has
undertaken several
important projects.
The
Sane Economy Project
The
aim of the project
is to examine key
social and economic
issues in the light
of principles of
solidarity and
subsidiary,
integrity, justice,
wisdom and holiness,
with the assistance
of social
scientists,
theologians and
philosophers from a
broad range of
traditions. The
project is unusual
in taking equally
seriously the
experiences of
economic life, the
insights of
economists and the
tradition of
Catholic social
teaching as a
framework for
understanding the
purpose of economic
activity. The
director of the
project is Russell
Sparkes, a
London-based
economist, writer
and fund manager,
author of The
Ethical Investor (Harper
Collins).
Christian
Reunion and
Jewish-Christian
Dialogue
In
conjunction with the
Department of
Judaeo-Christian
Studies at Seton
Hall University, the
Institute has begun
to explore
Chesterton's insight
that the deepest
truths are those
expressed through
fable,
story-telling,
religious
imagination.
Education
and Liberty
With
help from the Donner
Foundation in
Canada, the
Institute has
launched an
initiative to alert
home-schooling
parents to their
legal rights. This
is a project that
the Institute hopes
to develop and
expand.
Chesterton
and the Far East
Although
Chesterton never
visited Japan his
works are well known
there, thanks in
large part to a
translation project
directed by Peter
Milward, SJ. The
Institute is
sponsoring a
continuing
conversation between
Christian and
Confucian ideas with
special reference to
Vietnam and Japan.
Chesterton
and Bio-Ethics
Chesterton
anticipated many of
the assaults on
human life which
Pope John Paul II
has characterized as
our modern
"culture of
death". In his
own lifetime he led
the opposition to
eugenics legislation
and (as Rabbi
Stephen Wise
noticed) was one of
the first to speak
out against
Hitlerian
anti-Semitism. The
Institute wishes to
add its voice to
those calling for a
renewed respect for
human life from
conception to
natural death.
Human
Resources and Tax
Reform
In
his great
distributist
manifesto The
Outline of Sanity
Chesterton proposed
some principles to
bring about a humane
and morally decent
economic order. The
economist John
Mueller, treasurer
of the Chesterton
Institute and member
of its Board of
Directors, is
engaged in a project
that examines tax
reform as one means
to achieve such a
property-promoting,
family-friendly
economy.
Chesterton
and Ireland
Chesterton
visited Ireland
twice and considered
it a model Christian
nation. In
association with the
St. Patrick's
College, Maynooth,
the Chesterton
Institute explores
the means of
recovering a
Christian tradition
now under threat
there and elsewhere
in the world.
Chesterton
and Poland
Chesterton's
visit to Poland in
1927 convinced him
of the importance of
that country's long
and valiant
Christian history.
With Ewa Thompson of
Rice University, the
Institute will be
exploring the
recovery of the
Polish Christian
tradition. This work
will initiate an
ongoing study:
Catholic Europe's
debt to Poland and
of the ties between
Poland and its
diaspora. |
