Current editor Eric Miller’s team is expanding. We are happy to announce two new changes to our masthead. Robert Erle Barham, formerly an Associate Editor at Current, is now our Deputy Editor. He will work directly with Eric in the […]
Former First Things editor Damon Linker on the “Know Your Enemy” podcast
The guys at Know Your Enemy Podcast talk with former First Things editor Damon Linker. It’s a really interesting interview. He talks about his Straussian influences, his intellectual debt to Mark Lilla, and his work as a speechwriter for Rudy […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Marvin Olasky, “LONG FORM: A Wrinkle in Journalism History“ John Fea, “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?“ Nadya Williams, “‘Joshua Was Here’“ John Fea, “Seeing New Things, Asking New […]
Steven Mintz on popular history
A thoughtful piece from a veteran American historian. Here is the University of Houston’s Steven Mintz at Inside Higher Ed: No one owns history. The key question in evaluating any historical work, whether by a professional or a nonspecialist, is quality and […]
Dreaming about school
I have three recurring dreams about school and academic life. In the first dream, I am a college student taking a literature class. After the first few days of lectures I stop attending the class and do not return until […]
Episode 48: The Christian Right Against Arlen Specter
Evangelical Bush supporters are angry at the new chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Episode 48: “The Christian Right Against Arlen Specter’” dropped today. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here […]
David Barton manipulates the past for political ends. The latest.
At a recent Family Research Council event, David Barton, the GOP political activist who uses the past to promote his politics, confused an early 19th-century Sunday School for a “public school.” For some, this might be an honest mistake. But […]
Old state anti-abortion laws are becoming relevant again
Current contributing editor Daniel K. Williams explains in a recent piece at The Atlantic: Abortion opponents seem not to have expected some of the more draconian consequences of the Dobbs decision—that anti-abortion laws would prevent pregnant women who were not seeking abortions […]
Evangelical roundup for September 22, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? 60% of evangelicals want America to be declared a Christian nation. Theological heresies evangelicals believe. Evangelicals and Catholicism. A forum on evangelicals and voting in Brazil. Tim Tebow auctions-off his Heisman Trophy. When the […]
Seeing New Things, Asking New Questions
What I learned about the evangelical embrace of Trump from watching old news clips
The seven deadly sins of writing
Thomas C. Foster teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Michigan-Flint. In a recent piece at LitHub he offers his seven deadly sins. They are: worry, self-doubt, overconfidence, muddiness, vagueness, poor structure, and dishonesty. Here’s a taste: Dishonesty in […]
Trump’s desperate appeal to QAnon
Here is Juliette Kayyem at The Atlantic: For a man who believes in nothing, has no coherent ideology or value system except his own continuing relevance, obsesses over conspiracies, and subsists on grievance and anger, Donald Trump took a long […]
Gen Z can’t read cursive
Historian and former Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust wonders how they will interpret the past. Here is a taste of her piece at The Atlantic: Given a current generation of students in which so few can read or write cursive, one […]
Remembering Rich Mullins
Back in 1988 I won a college talent show with my roommates singing Rich Mullins‘s “Screen Door.” We dedicated our performance to all the non-music/vocal majors at our small Christian college. We were a bunch of jocks who thought we […]
The global Catholic church
Notre Dame historian John McGreevy: Quick: Name the countries with the most baptized Catholics. You might guess Brazil (172.2 million) or the United States (72.3 million). You might miss Mexico (110.9 million) and the Philippines (83.6 million). You might be […]
Eric Foner: “We can’t accept the principle that the way to judge a course of study is by how much money you will make.”
Eric Foner reflects on his life as a historian in this interview with Nawal Arjini at New York Review of Books. A taste: Nawal Arjini: How did you come to specialize in Civil War history? Eric Foner: When I was in college in […]
Evangelical roundup for September 19, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Philip Yancey tells his story. Bolsonaro rallies Brazilian evangelicals. The Olasky-less World magazine take on the matter. As evangelicals continue to prop-up the MAGA movement, people are exiting the pews. Shane remembers the 1963 […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Queen Elizabeth II and white evangelicals John McWhorter makes clear his views on race in America What do National Conservatives want? Michael Bobelian reviews Nicole Hemmer’s Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries […]
Where’s the praying Bremerton football coach?
Back in June the U.S. Supreme Court said Joseph Kennedy, an assistant football coach at Bremerton High School in the state of Washington, could pray with his team on the field. Kennedy was on paid leave until, I presume, the […]
When “Heil Hitler!” meets a Christian worship service and the preacher is Jim Jones
Watch this from last night’s Trump rally in Youngstown, Ohio. From what I understand the music you hear was played in the arena as Trump spoke. Sociologist Sam Perry gets it right: