The full title is Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama. Historian David Waldstreicher read it. Here is a taste of his piece at The Atlantic: History works for Ron Desantis as an argument. It would […]
Archives for February 2023
The Author’s Corner with W. Dale Weeks
W. Dale Weeks is Instructor of History at Blinn College. This interview is based on his new book, Cherokee Civil Warrior: Chief John Ross and the Struggle for Tribal Sovereignty (University of Oklahoma Press, 2023). JF: What led you to […]
Evangelical roundup for February 23, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical Land? For those interested in the Asbury Revival, we are covering it extensively here. Russell Moore talks to Yahoo News reporter Jon Ward about the latter’s new book. The New York Times on the Southern Baptist […]
East Palestine, Asbury, and some notes on my mom
My mother hails from East Palestine, Ohio. Her roots there run deep. Around 1908, her grandfather left his Tyler, West Virginia home with his young family—including their toddler son, George, my grandfather—in search of steady work. They traveled north up […]
He Gets Us. Do We Get Each Other?
An advertising campaign of this magnitude invites—and requires—missional scrutiny
Asbury University revival roundup: February 22, 2023 (10:30PM)
Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. A photo essay from Asbury University sociologist Lisa Weaver Swartz: Jennifer posts a pic from Texas A&M: Cayla’s son: Saturday at Asbury’s Revival, […]
Asbury University revival roundup: February 22, 2023 (12:20PM)
Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. Today: On Tuesday and Wednesday, February 21-22, the Outpouring services in Hughes Auditorium are reserved for participants 16-25 years old. However, a public live […]
In defense of physical books
Here is Ben Sixsmith, editor of The Critic: A couple of years ago, I had almost my entire collection of books shipped from England to Poland. They had been lurking in my dad’s attic but he understandably decided that he […]
Two divergent explanations of Southern inequality
Over at Dissent, political scientist Jared Loggins reviews Adolph Reed’s The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives and Imani Perry’s South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon Line to Understand the Soul of a Nation. (See my review of […]
Ed Stetzer leaves Wheaton College for Talbot School of Theology
Some news from the world of American evangelicalism: Biola University is announcing that Dr. Ed Stetzer will assume the role of Dean of Talbot School of Theology beginning July 2, 2023. “For decades, Dr. Ed Stetzer’s visionary presence — most […]
Jimmy Carter: “Niebuhrian Southern Baptist”
As Carter moves into hospice care, biographer Kai Bird reflects on his presidency. Here is a taste of his New York Times piece, “Jimmy Carter’s Presidency Was Not What You Think“: Mr. Carter remains the most misunderstood president of the […]
Unfry Your Brain: Go to the Fronton
We aren’t everywhere. We’re somewhere.Â
Ideas in progress: Amanda McCrina
What is the focus of your current book project? What are the main stories that you hope to tell in this book? My current project is a historical spy thriller set in postwar London, in the run-up to the Victory […]
Southern Baptists give Saddleback the boot. What are people saying?
Here is the Associated Press: The Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday ousted its second-largest congregation — Saddleback Church, the renowned California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren — for having a woman pastor. The vote by the convention’s Executive Committee […]
Randall Balmer on the closing of his alma mater
On Monday we called your attention to the closing of Trinity College, the undergraduate college of Trinity International University. In that piece I noted that Randall Balmer, a religion professor at Dartmouth College and one of our best chroniclers of […]
Asbury University revival roundup: February 21, 2023 (7:55PM)
Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. Asbury’s director of strategic communication: A reminder that Asbury University is an institution of higher education: The president of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary […]
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”: An annotation
Over at JSTOR Daily, Ed Simons offers an annotation of the famous 1741 sermon. A taste: Often remembered as the prototypical “fire and brimstone” sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” reflects the complicated religious background of eighteenth-century […]
Abraham Lincoln: Working class hero?
Everyone wants to claim Lincoln. Even socialists. Here is University of Arkansas history professor Matthew Stanley at Jacobin: Would Lincoln’s sincere hatred of the Slave Power have translated after the war to a critique of the Money Power and other […]
We now know that Fox News lied to its viewers about the 2020 election
I included this story in Sunday night’s odds and ends, but I wanted to call attention to it again. Here is Brian Stelter at The Atlantic; The other crucial metric Fox leaders were watching, of course, was the Nielsen ratings […]
The Author’s Corner with Kathleen M. Brown
Kathleen M. Brown is David Boies Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. This interview is based on her new book, Undoing Slavery: Bodies, Race, and Rights in the Age of Abolition (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). JF: What […]