Archives for January 2023

Commonplace Book #229

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The ironic elements in American history can be overcome, in short, only if American idealism comes to terms with the limits of all human striving, the fragmentariness of all human wisdom, the precariousness of all historic configurations of power, and […]

The Author’s Corner with Leslie M. Alexander

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Leslie M. Alexander is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of History at Rutgers University. This interview is based on her new book, Fear of a Black Republic: Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States (University […]

Evangelical roundup for January 16, 2022

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What is happening in Evangelical land? Christianity Today‘s Mike Cosper talks to Bono. A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit brought by Christian college students claiming that religious exemptions were incompatible with LGBTQ rights. Southern Baptists on Dreamers. A Southern Baptist […]

Sunday night odds and ends

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A few things online that caught my attention this week: The “new history wars” waged at the recent meeting of the American Historical Association. God and guns in American history James Waddell reviews Simon Garfield, All the Knowledge in the […]

Commonplace Book #228

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If I say to an American that the country he lives in is a fine one, “Ay,” he replies, “there is not its equal in the world.” If I applaud the freedom that its inhabitants enjoy, he answers: “Freedom is […]

What is going on at Belmont University?

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The Nashville based Christian university will be hiring Jewish faculty. Here is Sara Weissman at Insider Higher Ed: Belmont University, a private Christian institution in Nashville, Tenn., plans to break a long-standing tradition of only hiring Christian instructors by opening […]

Why did evangelicals support Trump?

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Someone sent me this video today so I thought I would share it again. This is a book talk I did in 2018 on Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington D.C.

The Author’s Corner with Jacqueline Jones

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Jacqueline Jones is Ellen C. Temple Professor of Women’s History Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin. This interview is based on her new book, No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the […]

What is popular this week at Current?

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Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog:

What is going on at Hamline University?

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An art history professor at Hamline University in Minnesota was fired for showing a 14th-century painting of the prophet Muhammad. I will let writer Jill Filipovic take it from here. Below is a taste of her recent piece at Slate […]

What will they say about us?

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Cultural critic George Scialabba wonders what we might ask our nineteenth-century ancestors. Perhaps we might ask them why they believed it was legitimate for one person to own another? Or we might ask, “Why did women seem to you incapable […]

Two former Republicans search for a political home

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New York Times columnists Bret Stephens and David Brooks, both conservatives, reflect on what has happened to the Republican Party. It’s a fascinating discussion. Here is a taste: David Brooks: My thinking about the G.O.P. goes back to a brunch I […]

Evangelical roundup for January 12, 2023

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What is happening in Evangelical land? Jack Hayford, RIP. Do young evangelicals listen to their pastors? Catholics and evangelicals together? Evangelicals in France oppose euthanasia. Eric Metaxas makes Roger Stone’s “best-dressed” list: Who will evangelicals vote for in the 2024 […]