University of Texas historian Steven Mintz writes: “Imagine a public discourse where intellectuals don’t just take sides but challenge the assumptions underlying each perspective. He asks “what would it take for public intellectuals to serve as beacons of understanding rather […]
intellectual life
Reviving intellectual life in the university is “more than simply promoting the humanities or encouraging interdisciplinary study”
Earlier today I posted on Steven Mintz’s categorization of university professors. Read it here and figure out where you fall in Mintz’s taxonomy. Mintz’s categorized professors as part of his larger thoughts on how to make universities less anti-intellectual. Here […]
Current editor Eric Miller on “The Instructed Imagination”
Listen to Eric Miller‘s address at the recent Front Porch Republic conference. His tour-de-force engages with Wendell Berry, Mark Heard, St. Augustine, Walker Percy, and Flannery O’Connor. Listen: Or watch it here:
Historians and other intellectuals remember J.G.A. Pocock
One of the greatest intellectual historians of the post-war area, J.G.A. Pocock, died this week at the age of 99. During graduate school I devoured Pocock’s work. His commitment to reading texts in their historical contexts continues to shape me […]
The Author’s Corner with Adam R. Nelson
Adam R. Nelson is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This interview is based on his new book, Exchange of Ideas: The Economy of Higher Education in Early America (University of Chicago […]
“I began to feel like there’s a lot that not’s being said and a lot that’s not being written”
The one thing that I did start doing that year (2020) was talk on the phone. I’ve never been a phone talker, but, of course, that’s all you had for a while. And I would have long conversations on the […]
A Prayer before Study
Creator of all things,true Source of light and wisdom,lofty origin of all being,graciously let a ray of Your brilliancepenetrate into the darkness of my understandingand take from me the double darknessin which I have been born,an obscurity of both sin […]
Teaching John Henry Newman’s “What is a University”
Once again I am teaching “Created and Called for Community,” Messiah University’s first-year core course. Today I taught an excerpt from John Henry Newman‘s 1852 book The Idea of a University. If you are a longtime reader of this blog, […]
Is Kristin Kobes Du Mez illiberal?
I am not going to rehash the controversy over Jay Green’s article on Christian political discourse. I wrote a little more about it today at Current. I agree with Jay–the piece shouldn’t have categorized people without evidence. Jay has apologized […]
The Author’s Corner with Claire Arcenas
Claire Arcenas is Associate Professor of History at the University of Montana. This interview is based on her new book, America’s Philosopher: John Locke in American Intellectual Life (University of Chicago Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write America’s […]
The point of college is “transforming one’s mind.” Most college students never get this message.
Here is a taste of Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner‘s piece at The Chronicle of Higher Education: In our 1,000 hour-long conversations with students, we found that nearly half of them miss the point of college. They don’t see value […]
The intellectual as “truth’s servant” vs. the intellectual as “truth’s representative”
Should intellectuals speak truth to power? What are the limits to such an understanding of the intellectual life? Check out Mark Lilla‘s timely piece, “Treason of the Intellectuals.” Here are a few excerpts: The political prophet’s kingdom is still not […]