• Skip to main content
  • Current
  • Home
  • About
    • About Current
    • Masthead
  • Podcasts
  • Blogs
    • The Way of Improvement Leads Home
    • The Arena
  • Reviews
  • 🔎

John Fea

John Fea is Executive Editor of CURRENT and the author of The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog.

Jimmy Carter: “Niebuhrian Southern Baptist”

John Fea   |  February 22, 2023

As Carter moves into hospice care, biographer Kai Bird reflects on his presidency. Here is a taste of his New York Times piece, “Jimmy Carter’s Presidency Was Not What You Think“: Mr. Carter remains the most misunderstood president of the […]

Southern Baptists give Saddleback the boot. What are people saying?

John Fea   |  February 21, 2023

Here is the Associated Press: The Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday ousted its second-largest congregation — Saddleback Church, the renowned California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren â€” for having a woman pastor. The vote by the convention’s Executive Committee […]

Randall Balmer on the closing of his alma mater

John Fea   |  February 21, 2023

On Monday we called your attention to the closing of Trinity College, the undergraduate college of Trinity International University. In that piece I noted that Randall Balmer, a religion professor at Dartmouth College and one of our best chroniclers of […]

Asbury University revival roundup: February 21, 2023 (7:55PM)

John Fea   |  February 21, 2023

Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. Asbury’s director of strategic communication: A reminder that Asbury University is an institution of higher education: The president of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary […]

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”: An annotation

John Fea   |  February 21, 2023

Over at JSTOR Daily, Ed Simons offers an annotation of the famous 1741 sermon. A taste: Often remembered as the prototypical “fire and brimstone” sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” reflects the complicated religious background of eighteenth-century […]

Abraham Lincoln: Working class hero?

John Fea   |  February 21, 2023

Everyone wants to claim Lincoln. Even socialists. Here is University of Arkansas history professor Matthew Stanley at Jacobin: Would Lincoln’s sincere hatred of the Slave Power have translated after the war to a critique of the Money Power and other […]

We now know that Fox News lied to its viewers about the 2020 election

John Fea   |  February 21, 2023

I included this story in Sunday night’s odds and ends, but I wanted to call attention to it again. Here is Brian Stelter at The Atlantic; The other crucial metric Fox leaders were watching, of course, was the Nielsen ratings […]

Asbury University revival roundup: February 20, 2023 at 11:05PM

John Fea   |  February 20, 2023

Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. Christian influencer Alisa Childers: More from Samford University. And here: Krystle, a Pennsylvania resident, with a testimony: I hesitate to try and encapsulate […]

Trinity College in Deerfield, IL ends residential, in-person undergraduate education.

John Fea   |  February 20, 2023

My first teaching job at a four-year college was at Trinity College in Deerfield, IL (now the undergraduate college of Trinity International University). Then history department chair Rick Pointer invited me to teach a course on European history from 1945 […]

Asbury University revival roundup: February 20, 2023 at 11:58AM

John Fea   |  February 20, 2023

Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. Asbury University president Kevin Brown announces the new schedule change: Asbury University’s director of communication: The local NBC affiliate in Lexington, Kentucky published […]

What is going on at Marymount University?

John Fea   |  February 20, 2023

Marymount, a Catholic university in Arlington, Virginia, is eliminating degrees in theology and religious studies, philosophy, mathematics, art, history, sociology, English, economics, secondary education, and M.A. programs in English and the humanities. Ouch. Marymount University should now be considered a […]

Is Nikki Haley a Christian?

John Fea   |  February 20, 2023

If she is not, she certainly wants to appeal to conservatives Christians. We’ve already discussed her decision to have John Hagee pray at her announcement rally. And we included these videos in today’s evangelical roundup. They are part of an […]

Evangelical roundup for February 20, 2023

John Fea   |  February 20, 2023

What is happening in Evangelical Land?: For those interested in the Asbury Revival, we are covering it extensively here. More on Latino evangelicals in Florida who are trying to get Ron DeSantis to take a man off death row. Charlie […]

Asbury University revival roundup: February 19, 2023 (9:30pm)

John Fea   |  February 19, 2023

Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. Asbury President Kevin Brown. Live streaming will begin. He also addresses claims that Asbury is trying to end the revival. Here is the […]

Sunday night odds and ends

John Fea   |  February 19, 2023

A few things online that caught my attention this week: African American historian Henry Louis Gates has a word for Ron DeSantis. Mary Wollstonecraft on marriage. Inside Fox News on the night of the 2020 presidential election. And here. And […]

Asbury University revival roundup: February 19, 2023 (4:00pm)

John Fea   |  February 19, 2023

Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. The latest: Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Facebook: Here’s a story that’s getting little attention from the mainstream media, […]

Asbury revival roundup: February 18 at 9:07pm

John Fea   |  February 18, 2023

Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. Credible insiders tell me that there is a 2.5 hour wait to get into the overflow rooms. There is a 10 hour wait […]

The Asbury revival has “spread” to Cedarville University. According to one report, Cedarville needs it.

John Fea   |  February 18, 2023

On February 12, 2023, Thomas White, the president of Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio, tweeted this: Lo and behold, Cedarville is now having a revival. Read this story in the campus newspaper. White announced the revival in a chapel service […]

Asbury revival roundup: February 17 at 9:10PM. The meetings will move off the Asbury University campus.

John Fea   |  February 17, 2023

Read all of these posts , including the original post (covering Day 1 to Day 3 of the revival), here. There is now a Wikipedia page. The latest message from the Asbury University president. The revival meetings will no longer take place at […]

The MAGA evangelical revivalists are no longer silent about the Asbury Revival

John Fea   |  February 17, 2023

Last week I wondered why the pro-Trump, Make America Great Again, Christian nationalist revivalists were not noticing the spiritual revival going on at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. These people believe that the United States was founded as a Christian […]

« Previous Page
Next Page »