Last fall some friends and I wrote an open letter signed by a variety of prominent evangelicals calling people of faith everywhere to respond to the papal encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. That cycle has taken on a life of its own, including a conference this past weekend at Princeton University on Civilizing the Economy. Last month I helped host a conversation at the Paideia Centre for Public Theology on it. I have just finished marking student essays on Caritas in Veritate in a class I teach on international relations at Redeemer University College, after a stimulating evening discussion on the encyclical. Thursday, I’ll be hosting a conversation in the evening with the Cardus, Senior Fellows on the same topic. Friday and Saturday the Marketplace Institute, Regent College and Cardus have teamed up to co-host a conference on God and the Global Economy: Responses to Caritas in Veritate.

It’s a “C in V” kind of week. In light of which, I’ll happily blog from its conclusion for my contribution to this modest space:

[79] Development needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer, Christians moved by the knowledge that truth-filled love, caritas in veritate, from which authentic development proceeds, is not produced by us, but given to us.