Today on Kresta - June 15, 2011

Talking about the "things that matter most" on June 15

4:00 – Challenging the Modern World
Samuel Gregg provides an insightful, cogent, and thorough analysis of the issues surrounding developments in Catholic social teaching during the pontificate of John Paul II. He compares the treatment in John Paul's social encyclicals of three topics-industrial relations, capitalism, and the relations between developed and developing countries-with the handling of these matters in the social teachings of the Second Vatican Council and Paul VI. He is here with us at Acton U.

4:40 – The Ruth Institute: Making Marriage Cool
Jennifer Roback Morse founded the Ruth Institute with a vision of making marriage cool in modern society. She joins us with her director of programming, Nicole Kay, to look at Marriage as the proper context for sex and childrearing; Respect for the contributions of men to the family marriage as a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman; lifelong spousal cooperation as a solution to women’s aspirations for career and family and cooperation, not competition, between men and women

5:00 – A Portrait of the Newly-Discovered Ayn Rand
Fr. Robert Sirico recently examined the current debate over the legacy of Ayn Rand in conservative circles, and the attempt by liberal/progressives to tarnish prominent figures like Rep. Paul Ryan with “hyperbolic and personal critiques of the woman and her thought.” It has now developed into a bit of a controversy involving Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter and the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue. Fr. Sirico joins us.

5:30 – The Social and Economic Context of the New Testament
New research on the economic context of Jesus’ teaching on wealth and exchange points to the need to take into account the nature and extent of market arrangements in first-century Roman Palestine. Stephen Grabill shows that in the Gospels we find Jesus recognizing a growing role for market exchange and a legitimate pursuit of economic gain through risk-taking alongside of the need for the practice of general reciprocity. He is with us.