We wrote about Matzko’s review of Wolfe yesterday. Get up to speed here. But there’s more! Matzko turned to Twitter to finish the review: Nice work, Paul!
Way of Improvement
What is going on in the Texas State Historical Association?
If you examine its website, the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) looks like any other state historical society. It is led by historians with Ph.Ds from reputable institutions. President Nancy Baker Jones is an accomplished public historian with a Ph.D […]
The D.E.I. debate
Florida governor Ron DeSantis just signed a bill banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at public universities. Here are two pieces I read today about the state of DEI on campuses and in the corporate world. Here is a taste […]
Where are all these Christian nationalists?
Christian nationalists certainly exist. But, as veteran religion reporter Ken Woodward writes today at The Washington Post, they are sometimes hard to find in everyday life. Here is a taste of Woodward’s piece: A year ago, after Rep. Marjorie Taylor […]
Stephen Wolfe’s book on Christian nationalism “is worth a read only in the same sense that rubbernecking at a car crash counts as sightseeing”
Recently the Christian nationalist historian Stephen Wolfe tweeted several passages from my book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction. Here is the tweet: Here is the entire tweet: I don’t have the time or inclination to […]
Capitalist waste
Here is The George Washington University historian Trevor Jackson at The Baffler: EVERYONE RECALLS THE SHORTAGES of toilet paper and pasta, but the early period of the pandemic was also a time of gluts. With restaurants and school cafeterias shuttered, farmers […]
“The kind of education God’s people need today is too important to be left to academics and other non-ecclesial thinkers”
Over at The Gospel Coalition, Doug Sweeney, the Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, let’s it rip: Our churches need pastors who will lead theologically. “For though by this time [our laypeople] ought to be teachers, [they] need […]
Michael Flynn’s anti-vaxxer dating site
Former Trump National Security Director Michael Flynn is one of the stars of the Christian nationalist “ReAwaken America” tour. He is also the a “founding member” and president of the advisory board for “4thPURE” a dating and community site for […]
Evangelical roundup for May 15, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? What is happening in evangelical higher education? On the decline of Southern Baptist church membership. The latest on The Kings College. Russell Moore on evangelical congregations and Trump. Michael Wear liked it: Great line: […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Fareed Zakaria: “There’s no mystery about why the U.S. has so many gun deaths.” Families and the monitoring of screen time. How to find the best image for your project. […]
Did Martin Luther King Jr. really criticize Malcolm X?
Here is Gillian Brockell at The Washington Post: Jonathan Eig was deep in the Duke University archives researching his new biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he made an alarming discovery: King’s harshest and most famous criticism of Malcolm X, in which […]
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: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:
The court evangelicals are getting the old band back together
Readers of this blog know what a court evangelical is. But for the uninitiated, I encourage you to read this piece or this book. After last night’s CNN town hall, it appears that Donald Trump just might be the GOP […]
Zenger House announces its 2023 prize winners.
Zenger House is: a Christian foundation that exists to help journalistic start-ups and honor writers who do street-level reporting and write excellent stories that show biblical truth, even if that’s not a writer’s goal. The foundation awards annual prizes to encourage outstanding writers […]
Franklin Graham on the verdict in the Trump sexual assault case
I suffered through most of last night’s CNN New Hampshire townhall meeting with Donald Trump. Here is what we “learned”: You can learn more here. During the interview Collins, who often fact-checked Trump in real time, asked the former president […]
The Author’s Corner with Adrian Chastain Weimer
Adrian Chastain Weimer is Professor of History at Providence College. This interview is based on her new book, A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). JF: What […]
Evangelical roundup for May 11, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? In case you haven’t heard, a prominent historian and scholar of American evangelicalism converted to Christianity last year through the ministry of J.D. Greaar, the pastor of a large Southern Baptist Church in North […]
Is Colonial Williamsburg going “woke”?
Some on the right believe that Colonial Williamsburg’s commitment to telling the full story of the 18th-century city means that the world’s largest living history museum is going “woke.” I would argue that Colonial Williamsburg is trying to tell a […]
Nadya Williams on leaving academia
Readers of Current will know Nadya Williams as our book review editor and lead blogger at The Arena. But she also spent the last fifteen years (following her Ph.D at Princeton) teaching ancient history at the University of West Georgia. […]
Bruce Springsteen and Flannery O’Connor
We are gearing-up for the new season of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. If I can find the funding, I would like to try to do weekly episodes through the rest of 2023. One of the guests I […]