The moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre wrote Marxism and Christianity (1968) when he was twenty-three years old. Here is a taste of Matt McManus’s piece at Jacobin: “This Christmas, Radical Christianity and Marxism Can Inspire Us to Build a Better World“: […]
Evangelical roundup for December 26, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical Land: Russell Moore talks with Nicholas Kristoff about the meaning of Christmas. Tim Alberta talks to The Bulwark about evangelical political activity. An evangelical congregation in Canada is still dealing with a 2019 fire.. Texas […]
Do you believe in miracles?
No, this is not an Olympic hockey post. Check out Molly Worthen‘s piece at The New York Times, “How Would You Prove That God Performed a Miracle.” The essay features Indiana University professors Josh Brown (neuroscience) and Candy Gunther Brown […]
Merry Christmas!
I’ve pointed this out before, but I will point it out again. Notice that Linus drops his security blanket when he says “fear not.”
Mark Lilla on “beautiful souls” and democracy
What is a beautiful soul? In 2020 essay at Liberties, cultural critic and humanities professor Mark Lilla defines it this way: What is a beautiful soul? For Schiller, who coined the term, it was a person in whom the age-old […]
Journey tells Jonathan Cain, husband of court evangelical Paula White, to stop playing “Don’t Stop Believing” at Trump events
Some of you know that Jonathan Cain of the rock-band Journey is married to Trump court evangelical Paula White-Cain. I’ll let Roy Trakin of Variety take it from here: The members of long-running rock band Journey have long had fractious relations, […]
Another link between 7 Mountain Dominionism and the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol
Last year I called your attention to Tyler Ethridge, a disciple of 7 Mountain Dominionists Andrew Wommack, Lance Wallnau, William G. Boykin, and David Barton, who lost his job as a pastor after he tweeted a video of himself inside […]
Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis under investigation for misconduct related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election
The January 6th Report is out. The House January 6th Committee has released dozens of interview transcripts and more are on the way. One of the transcripts released was an interview with Jenna Ellis, a member of the Colorado bar […]
Why do some on the right-wing hate Volodymyr Zelensky?
Here is David French at The Atlantic: “I just want to punch him.” That’s what Candace Owens told her 3.3 million Twitter followers in response to a video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanking Americans for their support in his […]
Commonplace Book #225
The difficulty, for us modern Americans anyhow, comes with the need to honor rightly both the “all” and the distinct persons and lives within the “all.” It is easy to issue a general approval of “all humans” or of all […]
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:
What happens to the students of leftists who couldn’t find jobs in academia?
I’ve read a lot of Russell Jacoby over the years. I imagine his recent piece at Tablet is going to anger a lot of people. I also don’t think he cares. Whatever the case, his ideas are worth considering. Here […]
Evangelical roundup for December 22, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical Land (our last roundup of the year!) Will conservative evangelicals stick with Trump in 2024? Eurasian evangelicals and Christmas. Evangelicals are fans of a Jesuit prayer app. Shirley Hoogstra, the president of the Council for […]
Sports video of the day
RIP Franco Harris.
David Blight: “Dred Scott was the point of no return”
I hope you get some time this week to read Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight’s piece at The New York Times Magazine, “Was the Civil War Inevitable?” Blight reflects on the 1850s, particularly the Dred Scott case, and wonders if […]
“The idea that we can enjoy the benefits of society while owing nothing in return is literally infantile. Only children owe nothing.”
Last night I read author and television script-writer Noah Hawley‘s piece about what he saw, experienced, and thought as he took a family road trip between Austin, Texas and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Here are a few snippets: As we drove, […]
Amy Bass: “We witnessed the greatest sports championship game in history”
Earlier today I wrote a few words about the World Cup in a blog post on Pope Francis. But I would be remiss if I did not share sports historian Amy Bass‘s piece published today at CNN.COM. Here is a […]
The Vatican defrocks Frank Pavone
The pro-life election denier and MAGA priest is no longer a Roman Catholic priest. Here is the Los Angeles Times: The Vatican has defrocked an anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” […]
Trumpism and American pragmatism
I just finished University of Virginia English professor Mark Edmundson‘s piece on Richard Rorty, pragmatism, and Donald Trump. Is it published in the January 2023 issue of Harper’s. I highly recommend it. Here is a taste: It has been said […]
Episode 107: “The Politics of Smallpox in Revolutionary America”
The American Revolution happened in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. In one of the timeliest history books of the publishing season, historian Andrew Wehrman visits the podcast to talk about what the patriots of the American Revolution and the […]