Don Denkinger, the umpire who blew a call at first base in game six of the 1985 World Series, died on May 12, 2023. Watch: Here is Cardinals fan Will Leitch at The Washington Post: The reason the Cardinals lost […]
Archives for May 2023
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:
Can Anything Good Come from a Southern Baptist Megachurch?
On Molly Worthen’s evangelical conversion
What I am reading: Kyle Harper on climate and deadly germs that made (and continue to make) history, Part II
“There have been about ten thousand generations of humans so far. For all but the last three or four generations, life was short, lasting on average around thirty years. Yet this average is deceptive, because life in a world ruled […]
Timothy Keller enters hospice care
Today I picked-up two Timothy Keller books at a garage sale: The Reason for God and Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. When I came home I learned that Keller has entered hospice care. Here is his son Michael […]
Local history: Corey Brennan’s review of Paul W. Jacobs, The Lives of a Roman Neighborhood
Few cities have as richly multi-layered a history as Rome. Today, Corey Brennan reviews Paul W. Jacobs’s The Lives of a Roman Neighborhood in TLS. The neighborhood in question is “Known today as the Sant’Angelo rione, it is the smallest […]
The “thought criminals” gather
Here is Emma Green at The New Yorker: Every month, more than two hundred people from the media, academia, and other intellectual circles are invited to a private hangout in New York City, which is known as the Gathering of […]
Evangelical roundup for May 18, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical Land? A growing number of evangelicals do not want to vaccinate their kids. Mike Pence wants to appeal to “Reagan evangelicals.” Rick Warren is the honorary chancellor at Spurgeon’s College. Iowa evangelical Bob Vander Plaats […]
REVIEW: Purity Culture and Toxic Masculinity
It’s time to rethink the virtue of chastity
What I am reading: Kyle Harper on climate and deadly germs that made (and continue to make) history, Part I
As historians, we display the same love of searching for agency as any mom who enters a really messy room with trepidation yet determination—every toy box has been emptied, and the Legos strewn across the floor dare you to walk […]
Current’s editor Eric Miller today on Doomer Optimism podcast
Doomer Optimism‘s Ashley Colby recently interviewed Current editor Eric Miller, and this podcast episode is live today. It really is a fascinating conversation about a wide range of topics, well worth a listen. And you should read Eric’s “Ideas in […]
Daniel Williams on evangelical religious conversion in Christianity Today
I would have posted this earlier, but the author doesn’t always tell me about these things when they appear in print (although I assure you I did get to read a draft). But I highly recommend Dan’s latest in Christianity […]
Paul Matzko completes his critical review of Stephen Wolfe’s book on Christian nationalism
We wrote about Matzko’s review of Wolfe yesterday. Get up to speed here. But there’s more! Matzko turned to Twitter to finish the review: Nice work, Paul!
What is going on in the Texas State Historical Association?
If you examine its website, the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) looks like any other state historical society. It is led by historians with Ph.Ds from reputable institutions. President Nancy Baker Jones is an accomplished public historian with a Ph.D […]
The D.E.I. debate
Florida governor Ron DeSantis just signed a bill banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at public universities. Here are two pieces I read today about the state of DEI on campuses and in the corporate world. Here is a taste […]
Teaching AIDS History in the Wake of COVID
Rethinking the politics of freedom, health, and fear
Ideas in progress: Andrew Jones on Scottish Presbyterians
Andrew Michael Jones completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2018 and is an incoming Assistant Professor of History at Reinhardt University near Atlanta, Georgia. His research focuses on religion, identity and race in modern Scotland and the […]
Where are all these Christian nationalists?
Christian nationalists certainly exist. But, as veteran religion reporter Ken Woodward writes today at The Washington Post, they are sometimes hard to find in everyday life. Here is a taste of Woodward’s piece: A year ago, after Rep. Marjorie Taylor […]
Stephen Wolfe’s book on Christian nationalism “is worth a read only in the same sense that rubbernecking at a car crash counts as sightseeing”
Recently the Christian nationalist historian Stephen Wolfe tweeted several passages from my book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction. Here is the tweet: Here is the entire tweet: I don’t have the time or inclination to […]
Endangered Species Alert: An Evangelical in the News Media
Fairness and accuracy are possible, despite diverging worldviews