Artificial intelligence seemed to behave badly this past month. Tesla had to recall 362,000 of its self-driving cars for a software update after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that these AI-controlled vehicles were speeding through yellow lights, failing […]
Archives for 2023
The Poisonwood Bible at 25
Revisiting the Barbara Kingsolver bestseller—in which a person becomes a parable
Jamie Raskin gives his House GOP colleagues a grammar lesson
Earlier this year we shared historian Lawrence Glickman’s piece at Slate on why Republicans insist on calling their political opponents the “Democrat Party.” Read it here. I thought about this piece today after I watched Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin respond […]
Should we expand the House of Representatives?
Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen thinks we can solve some of our partisan differences and “renovate our democracy” by expanding the House of Representatives. She makes her case here. A taste: Why this one renovation above all others? Four reasons: […]
The Author’s Corner with Lerone Martin
Lerone Martin is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Chair and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. This interview is based on his new book, The […]
The Hidden Seasons of Grief
In the face of our social silence, human kindness is an irreplaceable balm
Ideas in progress: William Thomas Okie
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? The book project is called Wayside: The Hidden Histories of […]
The Kings College is still on the ropes
This could be the last semester for the Manhattan-based Christian college. Here is Emily Belz at Christianity Today: The financial crisis in Christian higher education has hit The King’s College, a Christian liberal arts school in New York City, with […]
Jimmy Carter: Evangelical politician
Here is Lori Amber Roessner at The Conversation: Carter continued to share his understanding of the gospel with journalists and their audiences in a plain-spoken manner, even though it was not always advantageous to his political fortunes. For instance, after […]
Why did Fox News lie to its viewers about the 2020 election?
David French offers a theory at his New York Times column: Fox isn’t just the news hub of right-wing America, it’s a cultural cornerstone, and its business model is so successful that it’s more accurate to think of the rest […]
How dangerous is Ron DeSantis?
Not as dangerous as many progressive think he is, according to Damon Linker. Here is a taste of his piece at The New York Times: To judge by several early polls, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has a decent shot of […]
Pitch-clocks, pizza boxes, and infielders playing where they are supposed to be playing. Welcome to the 2023 baseball season!
I’ll let veteran sportswriter Rick Reilly take it from here: I used to love baseball, but I stopped watching when games got slower than sloth races. Last year, the average game was 3 hours and 3 minutes. No, thank you. I […]
The Author’s Corner with Elliott West
Elliott West is History Consultant at the University of Arkansas. This interview is based on his new book, Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion (University of Nebraska Press, 2023). JF: What led you to write Continental […]
REVIEW: “Nana Really Wants Me to Do This”
In Seventy Times Seven, mercy, pain, and justice meet in unanticipated ways
A new series of ancient biographies offers yet another reason to love the genre
In the mid-second century BCE, Cato the Elder, Rome’s most conservative politician of his day, published his Origines, the first Roman history in Latin. Only fragments of the work survive, but we know that Cato’s history featured an unusual approach […]
Florida’s HB 999 is not about free speech or academic freedom, it’s about politics
Last week the Florida House of Representatives introduced House Bill 999: “An act relating to public postsecondary educational institutions.” Read it here. Here are some of the details Here are some of my takeaways:
The Author’s Corner with Samantha Barbas
Samantha Barbas is Professor of Legal History and Director of the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo School of Law. This interview is based on her new book, Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom […]
Evangelical roundup for February 27, 2023
What is going on Evangelical Land?: The Kings College needs $2.6 million to survive. So far it has raised $178,000. Brazilian evangelicals and political patience. Randall Balmer on Jimmy Carter. Mike Cosper on how evangelicals reacted to the Asbury Revival. […]
FORUM: Tending to a Tradition
Book reviewing is a form of commentary upon which many of our greatest goods depend
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Coffee and happiness Putin and God The GOP as the W.W.E. A Black professor in an “anti-racist hell.” And more here. Charles Mathewes reviews Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and Its Discontents […]