The Dartmouth College historian of American religion weighs in on the pronouns debate. Here is a taste of Balmer’s piece at the Santa Fe New Mexican: It’s all the rage these days, especially in academic circles, to specify pronouns — […]
Archives for May 2023
The Author’s Corner with Maury Nicely
Maury Nicely is a lawyer specializing in employment litigation, labor law, and general business litigation at Evans Harrison Hackett, PLLC. This interview is based on his new book, Forging a New South: The Life of General John T. Wilder (University […]
Ideas in Progress: Julie Durbin on vocation, mission, teaching, and the creative life (Part II)
In part I of this interview, you told the fascinating story of the many hats you have worn and currently wear—missionary and traveler, writer and musician, and of course, professor. So, let’s pick up now with this last one, in […]
Paul Simon Finds the Lord
Seven Psalms is his 15th solo studio album
The Author’s Corner with Kevin McQueeney
Kevin McQueeney is Assistant Professor of History at Nicholls State University. This interview is based on his new book, A City without Care: 300 Years of Racism, Health Disparities, and Health Care Activism in New Orleans (University of North Carolina […]
Redemptive Art Meets Redemptive Reading: A Conversation
The good, true, and beautiful are here before us—if we have eyes to see
Ideas in Progress: Julie Durbin on vocation, mission, teaching, and the creative life (Part I)
I have gotten glimpses but would love to hear more about your vocational life so far. You are currently an academic, but you have also spent a significant part of your life on the mission field in Ukraine. What was this like? What […]
Evangelical roundup for May 29, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Will DeSantis win evangelicals? Apparently most Christians don’t like celebrity culture or megachurhes. Dominican evangelicals: Our country is safe. A North Dakota Christian school donates over 1,500 pounds of food. Shane Claiborne spends his […]
Sunday nights odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Nancy Isenberg reviews Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America. The Journal of Controversial Ideas New books on baseball Nelson Lichtenstein reviews Rachel Maddow’s podcast on American Nazis in the 1940s. Is […]
Can a Catholic college maintain its Catholic identity without nuns?
Here is an interesting Inside Higher Ed piece on Notre Dame College in Cleveland, Ohio: Notre Dame College in Ohio is on the brink of losing its formal ties to a religious order that allows the institution to call itself […]
Pope Francis on “consumerist greed” and “selfish hearts”
Here is Claire GiangravĂ© at Religion News Service: Pope Francis condemned “consumerist greed” and “selfish hearts” as responsible for the climate crisis in his yearly message for World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which occurs on Sept. […]
Joe Biden should use Fareed Zakaria’s recent column as the foundation for his 2024 presidential campaign
Here is CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria’s column at The Washington Post: The United States’ debt ceiling crisis is, once again, provoking the usual commentary about the country’s presumed dysfunction. But the truth is that this unprovoked madness, causing self-inflicted wounds, is taking place against […]
Should universities be more like monasteries?
Here is a taste of Molly Worthen’s piece at The New York Times: Colleges should offer a radically low-tech first-year program for students who want to apply: a secular monastery within the modern university, with a curated set of courses […]
What is popular this week at Current?
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: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:
INTERVIEW: Francis Gary Powers, Jr. on the 1960 U-2 Incident
The son of CIA pilot Gary Powers has a story to tell—and a history to preserve
Doug Mastriano will not run for the U.S. Senate
Last week the Pennsylvania state legislator and 2022 gubernatorial candidate teased us with the potential of a U.S. Senate run. Today he announced it is not going to happen. Here is Holly Otterbein at Politico: MAGA firebrand Doug Mastriano said […]
Get full access to CURRENT for less than 17 cents a day!
When I started my career as a professor and historian I never thought I would get into the business of asking for money. After twelve years of blogging at The Way of Improvement Leads Home, I decided it was time […]
Evangelical roundup for May 25, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Molly Worthen on Tim Keller: A Brookings Institution senior fellow reflects on the life of Tim Keller. David Brooks on Tim Keller. Jim Daly (Focus on the Family) on Tim Keller. Jim Wallis on […]
Ideas in progress: Telling stories of hope that defeats death
Early in Sophocles’s tragedy Antigone (ca. 441 BCE), the chorus of Theban elders, men well acquainted with the sorrowful history of the city and its divinely cursed royal house, take a brief breather from talking doom and gloom—this is, after […]
REVIEW: Tangled Webs
The deceptions that followed Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament have raised the level of threat