Joseph P. Slaughter is Assistant Professor of the Practice in Religion and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut). The Arena caught up with him to pose some questions… What...
Today is book launch day for Current Contributing Editor, Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt. Redeeming Vision: A Christian Guide to Looking at and Learning from Art, is now out from Baker Academic. Below, Dr. Weichbrodt tells us about her aims in writing...
These days, there are a lot of people pursuing “financial independence.” They want to retire at 40, they want to build “generational wealth,” they want to “never work another day in my life.” The spirit is everywhere, with inspiration from...
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...
This week I traveled to Wheaton College to deliver a lecture titled “The Fragmentation of Evangelical Politics: What Happened – and How Can We Pick up the Pieces?” Here’s a brief excerpt from my presentation. Evangelicals are divided in their...
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...
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....
It can be incredible what a difference vantage points can make in our views of certain subjects. Consider differing opinions on the extent and significance of structural inequity versus the impact of individual choices. Some people believe that we generally...
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...
Amidst all of the commentary on Josh Butler’s now-withdrawn article on “God’s Vision for Sex” for The Gospel Coalition (TGC), one question has received little attention: What did the leaders of TGC hope to accomplish by promoting Butler’s book? Clearly,...
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...
Elizabeth Stice, whose blog posts you can read every Monday here, has two essays elsewhere this week that highlight two separate crises in higher education. The first piece ran at History News Network on Sunday. A few excerpts as a...
What is the focus of your current book project? What are the big questions that you are investigating and the main stories that you hope to tell in this book? My book’s working title is “A Strange and Abiding Hope:...
College is an interesting time. You get constant social approval for Chili’s and Taco Bell. Staying up all night to read Beowulf isn’t all that weird. You worry about “printer money” and parking and what you’re doing for spring break....
My first year of parenting was terrifically hard. It was not just because I had had a difficult pregnancy (though I had) and a colicky, sleepless dear little baby (though I did), but because I thought that the hard parts...
Artificial intelligence seemed to behave badly this past month. Tesla had to recall 362,000 of its self-driving cars for a software update after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that these AI-controlled vehicles were speeding through yellow lights, failing...
What is the focus of your current book project? What are the big questions that you are investigating and the main stories that you hope to tell in this book? The book project is called Wayside: The Hidden Histories of...
In the mid-second century BCE, Cato the Elder, Rome’s most conservative politician of his day, published his Origines, the first Roman history in Latin. Only fragments of the work survive, but we know that Cato’s history featured an unusual approach...
The Kansas City Chiefs just won the 2023 Super Bowl earlier this month. This is a moment in the sun for Kansas City. But it’s also a good opportunity for me to bring up a pet theory I have. I...
How did I become a quirky reader? In large part, I blame it on the World Book Encyclopedia. I can only imagine how many hours I joyfully wasted on my guilty pleasure. This probably tells you something about the social...
