Here is Bob Smietana at Religion News Service: A veteran English professor at a leading evangelical university has lost her job — in part because a school official deemed her writing classes too liberal on the issue of race. Julie […]
Archives for May 2023
Do journalists have more freedom than professors?
Ross Douthat begins his recent New York Times piece by engaging with the recent pushback against “wokeness” on university campuses. If what is happening on the campuses of Stanford, Harvard, Penn State, Cornell, and Vanderbilt is any indication, and Columbia’s […]
Christopher Lasch’s plain style
Christopher Lasch (1932-1994) was one of the 20th-century’s great cultural critics. But did you know he is the author of a writing guide? Here is a taste of Max Ridge’s piece on Lasch’s 2002 book (published posthumously) Plain Style: A […]
Great reads in this week’s Fairer Disputations
In January, a new online journal launched: Fairer Disputations. The brainchild, in large part, of Erika Bachiochi, the journal is (to quote the official description): Fairer Disputations is an international community of scholars, public intellectuals, journalists, and advocates that aims to […]
The Author’s Corner with Travis McDonald
Travis McDonald is Director of Architectural Restoration at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. This interview is based on his new book, Poplar Forest: Thomas Jefferson’s Villa Retreat (University of Virginia Press, 2023). JF: What led you to write Poplar Forest? TM: […]
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:
BOOK MARKS: Actively Creating the Conditions We Most Enjoy
“Dead trees are as important to the forest as living trees. Indeed, they are even more important.”
Springtime meal planning with the Romans
As spring settles in for good and the end of this school year is in sight, I have seen several seasonally updated family meal plans and recommendations for the fastest, easiest, yet also most nutritious ways to feed one’s ever-hungry […]
The Author’s Corner with Nicholas Dagen Bloom
Nicholas Dagen Bloom is Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College. This interview is based on his new book, The Great American Transit Disaster: A Century of Austerity, Auto-Centric Planning, and White Flight (University of Chicago Press, 2023). […]
Ron DeSantis: Tampa suburbanite and Ivy Leaguer
Florida governor Ron DeSantis, a Yale and Harvard graduate, likes to tout his place-based working class roots. Writer Paul Waldman is having none of it. Here is a taste of Waldman’s piece at The Washington Post: Presidential candidates do lots of […]
Evangelical roundup for May 4, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? If you read social media, sociologists, religious studies scholars, and historians today you might think that evangelicals are racists, patriarchs, and Christian nationalists. You might hear about how young people are leaving the church […]
Abortion, slavery, and Lincoln
When Donald Trump recently came out against any kind of federal ban on abortion he was on the receiving end of ire from various pro-life groups. Most notably the Susan B. Anthony List said a position like Trump’s is a […]
God of Destruction
When you see an Antichrist climbing toward heaven, look out. Then look in.
What happened when a black rabbit and a white rabbit got married?
Here is historian Cynthia Greenlee at The New York Times: In May 1959, the former Alabama schoolteacher Dora Haynes Parker mused about the sexual habits and matrimonial customs of rabbits in a letter to her hometown newspaper, The Montgomery Advertiser. […]
Danielle Allen wants to increase the size of the U.S. House of Representatives. Can the Capitol accommodate such an expansion?
If the United States House of Representatives grew to 736 members over the next forty years would we need a new Capitol to hold them all? Here is a taste of Danielle Allen‘s fascinating Washington Post piece: The Capitol has […]
“Is the New York Times becoming a more complex place that is open to the views of, well, half of America?”
Over at “Get Religion,” veteran religion writer Terry Mattingly responds to my recent Current piece “The New York Times’ ‘Come to Jesus’ Moment.” Here is a taste: …This brings us to a rather short John Fea “think piece” essay that […]
Ideas in Progress: Paul Putz on Christian Athletes
What is the focus of your current book project? What are the big questions that you are investigating and the main stories that you hope to tell in this book? I am writing a history of American Protestant engagement with […]
REVIEW: Beginning with Birth
What if natality—rather than mortality—had the last word?
What would early 20th century Tampa cigar workers think about Ron DeSantis’s “working class roots”?
As Shawn Gude writes at Jacobin: “May Day is not a holiday for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, much as he might pose as a working-class champion. For a more robust vision of freedom, we can look to the Florida Socialists […]
MacIntyre vs. Rorty: The two sides of liberalism
Over at The Nation cultural critic George Scialabba reviews a new biography of Catholic moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre (Chris Shannon reviewed it for Current here) and a collection of essays by political philosopher Richard Rorty. Here is a taste: Fifty […]