Why, hello there, 2025!

Something must have been in the air or in the water in 1925. In Russia, Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of Master and Margarita, published my personal favorite of his works–The Heart of a Dog. In America, F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby. And in the UK, Virginia Woolf published Mrs. Dalloway while G. K. Chesterton published The Everlasting Man.

Through all these works, questions about the nature of mankind are under debate. Who are people–men and women? (And who are women, as opposed to men?) And what is the place of God and the transcendent in this modern world of ours, each of these works asked in its own way–and answered, also each in its own way. But it is not only in literature alone that this question came up that same year. In July 1925, the Scopes Monkey Trial attracted significant attention as it took to court the question of the legality of teaching evolution. Are people really descended from monkeys, and if they are, what does this say about God? The outcome of this trial was a ban on teaching evolution in Tennessee schools until 1967.

But this big picture question that concerned so many in 1925 was nothing new, even if modernity brought it up in new forms. A related question, of course, had been decided in AD 325 at the Council of Nicaea, which discussed the nature of God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The council resulted in the Nicene Creed, which millions of Christians worldwide now recite every Sunday. In moments like those, history is somehow 1,700 years ago and today all at once.

And this brings us to this new year, 2025. As we sing “For Auld Lang Syne” in bidding farewell to one year and welcoming the next, we look back to the past, including significant centenaries and other anniversaries. And we look ahead to this new year and wonder: What will it bring? There is a certain excitement in this moment, a false sense of power–might we choose our own adventure, just as in that children’s book series my children love so? But then, maybe not. The closest I could ever get to becoming a ninja really is in reading that choose-your-own-adventure book. And I am fine with that. Being a ninja no longer seems like an adventure I’d like to go on anymore, at my age.

Still, there are adventures we are choosing in this new year, and as a reader of Current we invite you to come along on those. We can promise you beautiful writing in the daily features, including about a few of the books and events from 1925; book reviews and extensive book coverage of other sorts; and Current‘s trademark commentary, reflection, judgment on matters of politics, culture, and more. And on this blog in particular, there will be more reflections, interviews, and (mostly) weekly roundups of Unicorns–unusual essays and articles elsewhere that are worth spending time with.

This is a place for ideas–ideas that matter, that are worth talking about, mulling over, and returning to later, after more reflection. Some of these ideas are very old. In fact, those tend to be the best ones among them. Pour a cup of coffee and spend some time lost in thought.