Althusius in English

The new issue of the Acton Institute's Journal of Markets & Morality carries selections from Johannes Althusius' Dicaeologicae, translated into English for the first time by Jeffrey J. Veenstra. The text of this work is not yet fully available on the M&M website except to subscribers, but an excellent biographical sketch by Stephen J. Grabill can be read now. Note that Grabill takes on James W. Skillen's interpretation, following Dooyeweerd, of Althusius' relationship to Aristotle.

I have two unsolicited pieces of advice for the good people at Acton.

First, they would do well to change the somewhat off-putting title of their journal to Acton Journal of Political Economy, or simply Acton Journal. To be sure, the alliteration would be gone, but it would less likely be dismissed out of hand by those with a jaundiced view of the market.

Second, they should compile the newly translated 16th- and 17th-century texts appearing in the Scholia section of successive issues into a single volume, comparable to the O'Donovans' political philosophy reader, From Irenaeus to Grotius.