Matthew Loftus, a practicing physician in family medicine in both the U.S. and East Africa, has a powerful essay today in Plough. The questions he raises are, needless to say, relevant in the on-going conversations surrounding abortion. His focus is […]
Current contributing editor Christina Bieber Lake reviews Cormac McCarthy’s latest novels
Current Contributing Editor Christina Bieber Lake has reviewed Cormac McCarthy’s latest two novels for Comment. Bieber Lake describes McCarthy’s work as a whole as “Tales that make you ache for goodness and beauty… Tales written in prose that begs you […]
Is it bad for you and others to respond to emails asap?
During the pandemic, email quantity has escalated in many workplaces. For some/many of us, this new and higher volume of digital correspondence is now the new(ish) normal). In today’s NYT Opinion piece, psychologist Adam Grant argues that some of us […]
On turning yet another year older
For two of my college years at the University of Virginia, I got to live in the French House, a beautiful historic mansion on the edge of campus. There were clear rules involved: all conversations in the house had to […]
Ukrainian mothers who traveled into Russian-occupied Ukraine to get their children back
The war in Ukraine has largely faded from the news of late, but this does not mean that the suffering there is any less profound. An emotional piece in the New York Times this weekend highlights the impact of war […]
What if students WANT the humanities in their college curriculum?
Most of the time, the well-merited jeremiads about the state of the humanities in American universities come from scholars. At the same time, most of the attacks themselves come from university administrators or system-level administrators (for state universities). But last […]
More than meets the eye: Emma Green’s profile of Hillsdale College this week in the New Yorker
Earlier this week, Emma Green had an in-depth profile of Hillsdale College in the New Yorker. Intriguingly titled “The Christian Liberal Arts School at the Heart of the Culture Wars,” the profile emphasized Hillsdale’s connections to the Republic Party. But […]
What is the purpose of college? Recent articles and a book in progress
Yesterday at The Way of Improvement, John Fea had posted about Bret Devereaux’s New York Times Opinion article from this weekend. Devereaux’s article is in today’s print version of the New York Times, continuing this important conversation. But what is […]
Earthly injustice in light of the Resurrection
‘Christ is risen!’ – they sing at church. But I am saddened, my soul is silent. The world is filled with blood and tears, And the sound of this hymn before the altar seems an insult. If He were here […]
What I am reading: a review of Rick Kennedy’s Winds of Santa Ana
Winds of Santa Ana: Pilgrim Stories of the California Bight by Rick Kennedy. Wipf and Stock, 2022. 206 pp., $25.00. It is a time-tested truism of the academic profession that the best adventuring is of the armchair variety. But every […]
Lab Leaks and Accident Denials
It’s right out of the totalitarian playbook: Deny, suppress, erase
Addendum to roundup of coverage on guns and gun control: Timothy Larsen’s essay from 2021
Earlier today, I ran a roundup of all Current, Arena, and Way of Improvement Leads Home coverage on guns and gun control since May 2022. But I want to add here one more resource. In August 2021, Current Contributing Editor […]
Guns and mass shootings coverage roundup since May 2022: Current, Arena, and Way of Improvement Leads Home
In late May 2022, less than a year ago, John Fea posted this roundup of coverage on guns and gun control on his blog. This week unfortunately seems to be an appropriate time to add to this list. Below are […]
The religion of antinatalism: something old, something new, something borrowed…
Last week, information about a curious organization—with its exceedingly curious website— briefly circulated on Twitter: Stop Having Kids.Org As the website name so clearly articulates already, this is an organization devoted to the cause of antinatalism, “a philosophical and ethical […]
What I am reading: binge-reading Vodolazkin on the fly
It has been an unusually excitement-packed couple of weeks for the Williams household. Last week, Dan traveled to Wheaton College to give a lecture on the fragmentation of American evangelicalism (and you can read his blog post about it). This […]
The best mid-semester email you aren’t sending
The flowering pear tree in my driveway is in bloom, and the back deck of the house has turned yellow overnight from the pollen. This means that we have just passed the mid-semester point, and this week was time for […]
Ideas in progress, Ides of March edition: featuring the work of four cutting-edge women ancient historians
So far, these “Ideas in progress” posts have been interviews. Today, however, in honor of both the Ides of March and Women’s History Month, I would like to do something different and highlight the exciting work of four different women […]
The unspoken vows of friendship
As the Roman Republic was facing its death throes and he himself was only months away from ignominious death, the legendary Roman politician and orator Cicero wrote what would become one of his most influential essays since antiquity: On Friendship. […]
What I am reading: reflections on Vodolazkin and the joys of communal reading
Perhaps the first sensation you experience as you walk in is the smell. One way to describe it is musty, but that is not entirely it. It is not entirely unpleasant. The wooden walls of the old cabin have absorbed […]
How we talk about human life matters
What is a human life worth? And whose life is important? The news are filled with stories that reveal a callous and utilitarian worldview, one that instead of engaging with suffering and pain, judges the lives of the sufferers worth […]