Congratulations! Learn more here. Midtown Scholars Bookstores co-owners and founders Catherine Lawrence and Eric Papenfuse talk about the origins of the store. Here is our coverage of the finalists. In the video above, Lawrence and Papenfuse discuss their move to […]
Archives for May 2023
A Florida professor responds to the history wars in his state
On April 22, 2022, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 7. The “Individual Freedom” bill: Provides that subjecting individuals to specified concepts under certain circumstances constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin; revising requirements for […]
The American Association of University Professors on academic freedom in Florida
Today the American Association of University Professors released the “Preliminary Report of the Special Committee on Academic Freedom and Florida.” You can read it here. Here is the opening paragraph: In January 2023, the AAUP announced the establishment of a […]
Burge: “People are picking their religion based on their politics, not their politics based on their religion.”
Political scientist Ryan Burge writes: “There is no doubt in my mind that politics is one of the main culprits for the emptying out of American religion.” After laying out his statistical case, Burge adds: Social behavior doesn’t just change […]
The Author’s Corner with Giuliana Perrone
Giuliana Perrone is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This interview is based on her new book, Nothing More than Freedom: The Failure of Abolition in American Law (Cambridge University Press, 2023). JF: What led […]
Cultivating humility: reflections after the death of Tim Keller
When Benjamin Franklin was a young man, he decided to make a checklist of virtues to practice in order to complete the “bold and arduous task of moral perfection.” As an eighteenth-century deist, this seemed to be an imminently sensible […]
Reconsidering Homeschooling, Part I: Growth and Benefits
Post-pandemic, educating children at home is suddenly mainstream
Academically Adrift: thirteen years later
As we just finished another academic year (congrats!), what did we learn? For some college students around the country, the answer may be… nothing. But, as it happens, this problem is nothing new. Thirteen years ago, a provocative book was […]
The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog will be off for a few days
No Evangelical roundup today. We’ll be back later this week.
What’s New about AI? A Historian’s Perspective
The hope that technology will serve human purposes has gotten a little more desperate
Chick-Fil-A and Waffle House: two halves of the same whole
Atlanta has given much to the world, including both Waffle House and Chick-Fil-A. You can visit the original Waffle House, which is now a museum, over at 2719 East College Avenue in Decatur. It dates back to 1955. You can […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Jim Brown Making money and stoking fear at the Mexican border Balancing individualism and community in Sweden. Ted Widmer reviews Joshua Seitz, Lincoln’s God: How Faith Transformed a President and […]
Stanley Hauerwas on the Christian church: “My sense is that God is making us leaner.”
Longtime readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of John Inazu’s work, especially his book Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference. Until I read this interview at Inazu’s Substack, I did not realize […]
Will the Nuggets be the last old ABA team to make it to an NBA final?
It sure looks like it. In 1976, four teams from the American Basketball Association joined the National Basketball Association. Learn more about the ABA and the merger here or you can listen to our forthcoming podcast interview with Theresa Runstedtler, […]
Doug Mastriano will announce next week if he is going to run for Senate
Here is Gilliam McGoldrick at The Philadelphia Inquirer: State Sen. Doug Mastriano plans to make an announcement next week about the decision he has made on whether he will run for U.S. Senate, in what he teased as “crazy good […]
What are people saying about the death of Tim Keller?
When someone like Tim Keller passes away we get a glimpse into the current state of public discourse and the way social media reveals our country’s deep differences. Here are some representative tweets and links. George W. Bush Christian music […]
Statement by George W. Bush on the death of Timothy Keller
The former president weighs in: Tim Keller was one of America’s foremost Christian thinkers and preachers. He was a great church builder, a prolific author, and a profound philosopher. I’m fortunate to have gotten to know him. And I’m one of […]
The New York Times remembers Tim Keller
Keller’s hometown paper: The Rev. Timothy J. Keller, a best-selling author and theorist of Christianity who performed a modern miracle of his own — establishing a theologically orthodox church in Manhattan that attracted thousands of young professional followers — died on Friday […]
Timothy Keller (1950-2023)
Here is his son Michael: Here is Bob Smietana at Religion News Service: He was 72. Known for his brainy and winsome approach to evangelism, Keller founded Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan in 1989, and grew the congregation into a […]
“I remember Dad whispering, just before the last verse began, ‘Here’s the kicker, listen.'”
When I saw Bruce Springsteen at Penn State University earlier this year he opened the concert with “No Surrender“; Well we busted out of classHad to get away from those foolsWe learned more from a three-minute recordBaby, than we ever […]