Today’s funniest news (except for the parents, whose pain any parent can kind of feel): CNN reports that a toddler managed to get crawl into White House grounds. He was safely apprehended, although it apparently did take two security officers […]
Archives for April 2023
Why don’t more theology students take history courses?
At the school where I teach there are ample opportunities for students to shape their intellectual experience through a double “major” or a “minor” or two. Just the other day, for example, I was talking to one of my academic […]
Bonnie Kristian reviews Guriev and Treisman, Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century for Mere Orthodoxy
We may have thought that the age of dictators (mostly, sort of) ended with the twentieth century, but in this insightful book review of a timely book for Mere Orthodoxy, Bonnie Kristian directs us to the development of twenty-first century’s […]
How to teach the history wars
I think it’s fair to say we are in the midst of another round of history wars. Today’s so-called “activist historians” invoke a usable past to preach political and social agendas, while more traditional historians (of all political persuasions–from Trotskyite […]
Commonplace Book #258
Infante must have had a great propensity to believe in miracles; otherwise Pietro’s reappearance, being in such sharp contrast to the world which he was familiar, would have struck him as utterly fantastic. In fact, however, he was moved, but […]
Your reading and writing life is better with (copy)editors in it
When we read books or shorter essays, such as those published at Current, we generally take certain things for granted. We expect that the book or essay will be free of factual and typographical errors, sentences should read smoothly, the […]
Dropping out of College: A Crisis We Must Address
Amid deep structural challenges, remember the power of a personal response
“Trump is the man”: Did court evangelical Eric Metaxas just endorse Trump’s 2024 candidacy for president?
Evangelical author and radio host Eric Metaxas remains in the tank for Donald Trump. Over the last seven or eight years he has been one of the most vocal court evangelicals. Here is a snippet from a recent conversation on […]
What happened at the NRA leadership forum this weekend?
We have a serious gun violence problem in the United States. While the National Rifle Association was meeting in Indianapolis, there were multiple-death shootings in Dadeville, Alabama; Louisville, Kentucky; Harrisonburg, Virginia; Honolulu, Hawaii; Spring, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Ahoskie, North Carolina; […]
Matthew Loftus in Plough: “Does Abortion Spare the Child Pain?”
Matthew Loftus, a practicing physician in family medicine in both the U.S. and East Africa, has a powerful essay today in Plough. The questions he raises are, needless to say, relevant in the on-going conversations surrounding abortion. His focus is […]
Evangelical roundup for April 17, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Does the Church of England need evangelicals? Sojourners at 50 Asian-American evangelicalism in a new Netflix series. Evangelicals support a postal employee who will not work on Sundays. A Black evangelical moderate: 70% of […]
Maverick, McNulty, and the least favorite best employees Â
One of last year’s biggest hits was Top Gun: Maverick. The story takes place quite a bit later than the 1980s original, but in many ways Maverick is unchanged. He’s still chasing the edge—flying as fast as he can, willing […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: The first and only impeached Supreme Court justice. Monetizing historical footage Michael Fletcher reviews Theresa Runstedtler, Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of […]
Liberty University gives Ron DeSantis an honorary doctorate in the humanities
Ron DeSantis was at Liberty University on Friday morning. Watch: When I first heard that DeSantis was speaking at Liberty University, I thought that he might announce his presidential candidacy there. That didn’t happen, but here’s what did happen. 27:31: […]
How to support our work at Current
There is no better time to support our work than right now! Over the last several months we have been working hard, led by our digital specialist Ben Martin, to bring a more user-friendly experience to Current. If you poke around the […]
Current contributing editor Christina Bieber Lake reviews Cormac McCarthy’s latest novels
Current Contributing Editor Christina Bieber Lake has reviewed Cormac McCarthy’s latest two novels for Comment. Bieber Lake describes McCarthy’s work as a whole as “Tales that make you ache for goodness and beauty… Tales written in prose that begs you […]
A moving meditation from Megan McArdle on the loss of her mother
However old they are when they pass, your parents pass too soon. For you, at least. You are, and always have been, their child, and a child is born to and cared for by these folk who are always somewhere in […]
Commonplace Book #257
You don’t have to agree with the historical interpretations of Leon Trotsky’s old Fourth International to respect and benefit from the institutional stance it has taken–almost alone–against the false statements printed, and sensationalized, by the New York Times in the […]
MAGA prophet Lance Wallnau says that anti-Trumpers in both political parties will start dying “sudden deaths” next month
Some of you will note that I included this story in yesterday’s Evangelical Roundup, but I thought it was worth a separate post. Here is Wallnau, the Charismatic, MAGA, Christian Nationalist, Seven Mountain “prophet”: Watch the entire video here: As […]
The Author’s Corner with Stephen Kantrowitz
Stephen Kantrowitz is Plaenert-Bascom and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This interview is based on his new book, Citizens of a Stolen Land: A Ho-Chunk History of the Nineteenth-Century United States (University of North […]