John Fea

What would the Founding Fathers think about the Olympics? According to historian Liz Covart, they would have been "ambivalent." Here is a taste ofCovart's newsletter: While the Founding Fathers debated the morality of organized sports, ordinary early Americans were building a tradition of winter recreation that connects to the events unfolding in the Winter Olympics. Dutch and Swedish settlers brought ice skating and sleigh racing to North America in the seventeenth century. In New Netherland, skating and sleighing were ubiquitous. During the Little Ice Age (1300-1850), hard, cold winters froze major North American rivers. In 1659, Jeremias van Rensselaer wrote to his Dutch brother Jan Baptist van Rensselaer from his home near present-day Albany, New York.

What would the Founding Fathers think about the Olympics?

According to historian Liz Covart, they would have been "ambivalent." Here is a taste ofCovart's newsletter: While the Founding Fathers debated the morality of organized sports, ordinary early Americans were building a tradition of winter…

Remembering Martha Washington In a fitting piece for Presidents' Day, Brown University history professor Karin Wulf explores the life of Martha Washington. Here is a taste of her piece at In Pursuit: Did she encourage her husband’s better angels? In one respect we know she emphatically did not. She was casually cruel about slavery and her expectations of enslaved people. Confounded when seventeen fled with the British, who were promising freedom during the revolution, she was infuriated when one of her maids fled from Philadelphia decades later and wanted her tracked down and then brought back (she never was).

Remembering Martha Washington

In a fitting piece for Presidents' Day, Brown University history professor Karin Wulf explores the life of Martha Washington. Here is a taste of her piece at In Pursuit: Did she encourage her husband’s better angels? In one respect we know she emphatically did not.…

Sunday night odds and ends A few things online that caught my attention this week: Trump and the death of shared morality What’s the deal with luge? Is the Mellon Foundation hurting the humanities? Ellen Fitzpatrick re…

In case you missed them last night. Click. Read. Learn. thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/15/s...

Evangelical roundup for February 16, 2026 What is happening today at the intersection of Evangelicalism and politics? World Relief's Matt Soerens and conservative evangelical Wayne Grudem found some common ground on immigration policy: Watch the entire conversation: *** Today, in his New York Times column, David French addressed the controversy over antisemitism and Carrie Prejean Boller's removal from Trump's Religious Liberty Commission. Here is a taste: I’m sharing this sad background not because Boller is particularly influential or powerful, but because she perfectly encapsulates the rising tide of antisemitism in the United States. Gross bigotry isn’t ending her career; it’s the rocket fuel that’s propelling her to stardom.

Evangelical roundup for February 16, 2026

What is happening today at the intersection of Evangelicalism and politics? World Relief's Matt Soerens and conservative evangelical Wayne Grudem found some common ground on immigration policy: Watch the entire conversation: *** Today, in his New York…

Sunday night odds and ends A few things online that caught my attention this week: Trump and the death of shared morality What's the deal with luge? Is the Mellon Foundation hurting the humanities? Ellen Fitzpatrick reviews Paul Starr's American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now An excerpt from David Silverman's The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States Was the Enlightenment a mistake? Rod Dreher thinks so. Stone walls Why are so many public figures boring The testimonies of the enslaved…

Sunday night odds and ends

A few things online that caught my attention this week: Trump and the death of shared morality What's the deal with luge? Is the Mellon Foundation hurting the humanities? Ellen Fitzpatrick reviews Paul Starr's American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s…

The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog is moving to a subscriber model For the foreseeable future, nearly all the content on The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog (with the exception of our Author’s Corner series) will be available only to subscribers. But don&…

Attention readers of Sunday Night Odds and Ends, the Evangelical Roundup, and most other posts at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. Here is an important message about a change in how we are delivering content at the site: thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/14/t...

Gabor Boritt, RIP Civil War historian Gabor Boritt has died. Here is Clay Risen at The New York Times: Gabor S. Boritt, who survived the Holocaust and Communist rule in his native Hungary, then arrived in New York as a penniless refugee in 1957 and remade himself into one of the world’s pre-eminent scholars on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, died on Feb. 2 in Chambersburg, Pa., not far from Gettysburg College, where he taught for decades. He was 86. His son Jake said the death, in a hospice facility, was from complications of dementia.

Gabor Boritt, RIP

Civil War historian Gabor Boritt has died. Here is Clay Risen at The New York Times: Gabor S. Boritt, who survived the Holocaust and Communist rule in his native Hungary, then arrived in New York as a penniless refugee in 1957 and remade himself into one of the world’s…

The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog is moving to a subscriber model For the foreseeable future, nearly all the content on The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog (with the exception of our Author's Corner series) will be available only to subscribers. But don't fret! You can subscribe with no future monetary strings attached! In other words, it's free! Don't miss a single post. Here is how to subscribe: Scroll down to the bottom of this page to the area shaded in red Type your email in the “Subscribe for free” box Click the black “Subscribe” button Now go back to the “Subscribe for free” box and click the link under the box that says: “After subscribing, click here to manage the frequency of your emails.

The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog is moving to a subscriber model

For the foreseeable future, nearly all the content on The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog (with the exception of our Author's Corner series) will be available only to subscribers. But don't fret! You can subscribe with no…

Why is sociologist Christian Smith leaving Notre Dame? If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may be familiar with Christian Smith. He was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He is perhaps best known …

Updated with social media responses to Smith's essay: thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/14/w...

Why is sociologist Christian Smith leaving Notre Dame? If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may be familiar with Christian Smith. He was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He is perhaps best known for coining the phrase "moralistic therapeutic deism" to describe millennial teenagers in his 2005 book The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Smith is the author of nearly two dozen books, including: Why Religion Went Obsolete (2025) Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation…

Why is sociologist Christian Smith leaving Notre Dame?

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may be familiar with Christian Smith. He was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He is perhaps best known for coining the phrase "moralistic therapeutic…

The Midtown Scholar on 19th-century book reviews

I love the work of Eric Papenfuse, Catherine Lawrence, and the Midtown Scholar Bookstore, and I miss my regular visits to the shop in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Evangelical roundup for February 14, 2026 What is happening today at the intersection of Evangelicalism and politics? Justin Giboney of the AND campaign talked to Sojourners about how Christians can overcome the "Left-Right culture wars." Here is a taste of Mitchell Atencio's interview: What lessons have you learned from studying Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth about relating to people who are partially but not fully aligned with your vision? What’s going on with King and what I call the Civil Rights generation, is they’re getting pressured. They’re getting pressured from the older generation saying, “You’re doing too much.” They’re getting pressured from the Left and some of the younger generations saying, “You’re not doing enough.” I do think, if you look at King’s writings and what he said, they were aware of that.

Evangelical roundup for February 14, 2026

What is happening today at the intersection of Evangelicalism and politics? Justin Giboney of the AND campaign talked to Sojourners about how Christians can overcome the "Left-Right culture wars." Here is a taste of Mitchell Atencio's interview: What…

“The truest understanding of slavery doesn’t serve any political faction.” Here is Thomas Chatterton Williams at The Atlantic: Matt Walsh would like you to know you’ve been lied to.Last month, the right-wing provocateur appeared on Megyn Kelly’s show to discuss his new video series, Real History With Matt Walsh. “When you really start getting into it,” Walsh told Kelly, “you realize that, wow, they really lied about everything.” He begins the series by examining the practice of chattel slavery, he said to Kelly, “because this is, we’re told, the original sin” of the United States. In Walsh’s account, the left believes that “America was built on slavery, and it has no right to exist, and every white American carries, somehow, that legacy, that guilt in their blood”; therefore progressives feel they have the “moral justification to just do whatever they want” to white people.

“The truest understanding of slavery doesn’t serve any political faction.”

Here is Thomas Chatterton Williams at The Atlantic: Matt Walsh would like you to know you’ve been lied to.Last month, the right-wing provocateur appeared on Megyn Kelly’s show to discuss his new video series, Real History…

Most popular posts of the last week The Way of Improvement Leads Home highlighted several popular posts last week, including Trump's controversial image of the Obamas, responses to his anniversary message on the Mexican-American War, and various evangelical roundups. Additional topics included Don Lemon's arrest and discussions surrounding evangelicals' beliefs and critiques on mocking as a form of discourse.

Most popular posts of the last week

The Way of Improvement Leads Home highlighted several popular posts last week, including Trump's controversial image of the Obamas, responses to his anniversary message on the Mexican-American War, and various evangelical roundups. Additional topics included Don…

Evangelical roundup for February 13, 2026 Italian evangelicals are responding to Sicilians affected by Cyclone Harry. *** Nearly 90% of evangelical pastors would not perform a same-sex wedding. (Nearly 84% of “Black Protestant”…

Evangelical roundup for February 13, 2026: thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/13/e...

Providence Christian College will close I visited The Way of Improvement Leads Home archives to see whether we have posted anything about Providence Christian College, a Reformed liberal arts school in Southern California. I found this a…

"The Department of Education recognized PCC as a Hispanic-serving institution in 2023, providing it with $3 million...But last year the Trump administration deemed such programs unconstitutional..." thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/12/p...

Evangelical roundup for February 12, 2026 What is happening today at the intersection of Evangelicals and politics? Christianity Today breaks down New York’s new assisted suicide bill with Dr. Lydia Dugdale of Columbia University&#82…

In today's roundup (Feb 12, 2026), we have: Sandi Patti vs. Trump, division on Trump's "Religious Liberty Commission, still more Bad Bunny commentary, "anti-white racism," New York's assisted suicide bill, and much more: thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/12/e...

Episode 133: “Thinking as Pilgrimage What is the difference between “fortress thinking” and “pilgrimage thinking”? How do these modes of thinking shape the academy today? In this episode, Rhonda and Douglas Jac…

As Jake & Rhonda Jacobsen argue in *Christianity and Intellectual Inquiry*, "fortress thinking" takes place on both the left & the right. The Jacobsens offer a better way. They call it "pilgrimage thinking." Episode 133 is here! thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/10/e... @oxfordunipress.bsky.social

Becca Rothfield on the closing of the Washington Post’s book section Becca Rothfield was a book critic at The Washington Post. She recently lost her job after the Post cut its books section. We posted about that here. In a recent piece at The New Yorker, Rothfield w…

Becca Rothfield on the closing of the Washington Post’s book section: thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/11/b...

Evangelical roundup for February 11, 2026 What is happening today at the intersection of Evangelicalism and politics? Megachurch pastor and court evangelical Jentezen Franklin is the latest conservative evangelical to denounce Donald Trump…

In today's roundup (Feb. 11, 2026), we have: More responses to Bad Bunny and the racist Trump Truth Social post about the Obamas, defenses of Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, Trump as a "prophetic disrupter," and more:
thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/11/e...

Can democracy survive a “permanently, systematically deluded” electorate? Over at Commonweal, one of my favorite culture critics, George Scialabba, reflects on the state of American democracy under Trump. He writes, “Democracy can survive an ignorant and inflamed e…

"When 51 percent of Republicans still believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, solely because he has said so thousands of times, the republic is in peril." thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/11/c...

Can democracy survive a “permanently, systematically deluded” electorate? Over at Commonweal, one of my favorite culture critics, George Scialabba, reflects on the state of American democracy under Trump. He writes, “Democracy can survive an ignorant and inflamed e…

"When 51 percent of Republicans still believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, solely because he has said so thousands of times, the republic is in peril." thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/11/c...

On evangelicals and their beliefs as ‘white trash, magical thinking, dumb people bullshit.’ I wrote about Jennifer Welch’s claims about evangelicalism last month, but I thought I would revisit this topic after reading Christianity Today’s Bonnie Kristian at The Free Press. Her…

Most scholars hope that their views will trickle down and influence public opinion. It looks like some scholars of evangelicals may be getting their wish in the form of Jennifer Welch. thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/10/o...

The Author’s Corner with Kenneth W. Noe Kenneth W. Noe is Draughon Professor of Southern History Emeritus at Auburn University. This interview is based on his new book, Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend: Reconsidering Lincoln as Comm…

"Americans today consider Lincoln to be the nation’s finest commander in chief, a self-taught military genius whose ideas were more modern and much wiser than those of his own generals. I argue that this “heroic legend” is in fact a literary construction..." thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/10/t...

The Author’s Corner with Noah Eber-Schmid Noah Eber-Schmid is Assistant Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. This interview is based on his new book, Founding Fanatics: Ex…

Author's Corner with Noah Eber-Schmid, *Founding Fanatics: Extremism and the Formation of American Democracy*: thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/09/t... @oxfordunipress.bsky.social

“Turning Point USA’s halftime show had some surprising overlap with the performance it was meant to protest.” The quote in the title of this post comes from The Atlantic writer David Graham. Here is a taste of his piece, “When the Two Sides of the Culture War Meet”: Last night, during Super Bow…

"Kid Rock extolled marriage, singing, 'You can always put a diamond on her hand / ’til you can’t,' and Charlie Kirk, the assassinated founder of Turning Point, was heard encouraging marriage in an old audio clip; Bad Bunny hosted an actual wedding..." thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/10/t...

Catholicism vs. Neoliberals Is Catholicism, or, more generally, Christianity, compatible with capitalism? Some thinkers try to harmonize the two systems. But some classical, free-market, pro-individualism liberals, such as Lu…

"Mises warned that 'Christianity cannot exist side by side with, and within, Capitalism.' Jesus was too much of a socialist. 'No art of interpretation...can find a single passage in the New Testament that could be read as upholding private property...”

thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/10/c...

When mocking becomes a “substitute for thinking.” Musbah Shaheen, a professor of higher education who was teaching a college class at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst titled “Embracing Diversity,” decided to show a clip of conse…

While the moment was lighthearted on the surface, it revealed something deeper: how quickly humor can become a substitute for thinking. thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/10/w...

What happened to Multnomah University? In 2023, Multnomah University, a well-respected Bible college in the evangelical world, merged with Jessup University, an evangelical Christian college in Rocklin, California. Then, as Bob Smietana…

In 2023, Multnomah University, a well-respected Bible college in the evangelical world, merged with Jessup University, an evangelical Christian college in Rocklin, California. Then, as Bob Smietana of Religion News Service writes, “things fell apart.” thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/02/10/w...

Stephen & Laurel Brown Foundation on Instagram: "If you’re in the Fox Valley on Feb 25, don’t miss our very own @johnfeahistory. He will be speaking on faith and the founders of our nation. 🇺🇸 This ... 1 likes, 0 comments - slbrownfoundation on February 10, 2026: "If you’re in the Fox Valley on Feb 25, don’t miss our very own @johnfeahistory. He will be speaking on faith and the founders of our nati...

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