According to California writer Joe Mathews, the Rose Bowl football game is dead. It died from “two chronic diseases–greed and our winner-take-all culture.” Here is a taste of Mathews’s piece at Zocalo: But the Rose Bowl itself—a post-season football game […]
Way of Improvement
Commonplace Book #227
The partiality of perspective: this is the great teaching of the contemporary tumult. The problem is that we have not only begun to acknowledge our partiality, and the partiality of others, we have also begun to revere it, and this […]
Commonplace Book #226
Objectivity…is the sturdiest ground of justice, and the despisers of objectivity are playing with fire. Feelings are a reedy basis for reform. After all, the other side also has feelings–which is how we wound up with the revolting solipsist in […]
Alasdair MacIntyre, Christianity, and Karl Marx
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 […]
There was apparently no room in Greg Abbott’s inn this Christmas eve.
It’s Christmas. That means it’s time for evangelical politicians to use aslyum-seeking migrants for their political stunts. Here is CNN: Several busloads of migrants were dropped off in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, DC, on Christmas […]
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 […]
The Author’s Corner with John Rodrigue
John Rodrigue is Lawrence and Theresa Salameno Professor in the Department of History at Stonehill College. This interview is based on his new book, Freedom’s Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Cambridge […]
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 […]