The Reading Wheel Review

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, CRCD Executive Director Dr. Jordan Ballor interviews Dr. Kirstin Birkhaug. Dr. Birkhaug serves as a research fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy and an assistant professor of political science at Hope College. Her conversation with Dr. Ballor centers around the life and work of the outstanding poet, Phillis Wheatley.

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Matthew Spalding, the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., campus. Their discussion focuses on Dr. Spalding’s book, The Making of...

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Jeff Polet, Director of the Ford Leadership Forum at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. Their discussion focuses on The Federalist Papers, which is the text of the month for April 2026 at the Reading Wheel Review. Their conversat...

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Erik Matson, Gibbons Fellow in Economics at the Catholic University of America and co-director of the Adam Smith Program at George Mason University. March marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s magnum opus, The Wea...

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Jana Novak, co-author of Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country. Continuing the Reading Wheel Review’s year-long celebration of the American semiquincentennial, Jordan and Jana discuss the religious beliefs and exp...

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Daniel L. Dreisbach of American University in Washington, D.C. They discuss Dreisbach’s book, Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers , which examines in detail the different ways that Christian scripture influenced and was used by le...

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Paul Marshall, Wilson Professor of Religious Freedom at Baylor University. They discuss Marshall’s book,  Called to Be Friends, Called to Serve , which documents the long and fruitful friendship of John Perkins and Howard Ahmanson Jr. The...

In this special “addendum” edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Jenna A. Robinson, president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. They discuss Russell Kirk’s book,  Decadence and Renewal in the Higher Learning . Their conversation explores Kirk’s insights into the cha...

In this episode, CRCD Executive Director Dr. Jordan Ballor interviews Dr. Luke C. Sheahan, associate professor of political science at Duquesne University. They discuss Robert Nisbet's classic work The Social Philosophers: Community and Conflict in Western Thought. This wide-ranging conversation reviews Nisbet's significant life and work, and examines his exploration of different types of communit...

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Melissa Moschella, professor of the practice of philosophy at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. They discuss Dr. Moschella’s recent book,  Ethics, Politics, and Natural Law: Principles for Human Flouri...

In this addendum edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Hunter Baker, who serves as provost and dean of the faculty at North Greenville University as well as a senior fellow at the CRCD. They discuss Dr. Baker’s recent book,  Postliberal Protestants: Baptists between Obergefell and Ch...

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review podcast, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, interviews Miles Smith, an assistant professor of history at Hillsdale College and author of  Religion & Republic: Christian America from the Founding to the Civil War . The place of religion in public life in America’s Early Republic was a...

This month marks the 65th anniversary of the original publication of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. On this episode, First Liberty’s Chief Legal Officer Jeff Mateer joins Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of the CRCD, to discuss the book's important themes, lessons, and inspiration, as well as its impact on Jeff personally. Recent Publications: Adam MacLeod,  “A Charity Case,”  Law &...

In this episode, we engage with Dr. Stephen Presley’s  Biblical Theology in the Life of the Early Church: Recovering an Ancient Vision . Dr. Presley is director of education and engagement as well as senior fellow for religion & public life at the CRCD. He is also professor of church history at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and his latest book serves as a kind of prequel to his ea...

In this month’s episode of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. John D. Wilsey, a senior fellow at the CRCD and professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, sits down with the CRCD’s director of research Dr. Jordan Ballor to discuss some of the key features of his recent book,  Religious Freedom: A Conservative Primer . Conservatism is a contested perspective these days, and one that is often...

In this episode, Trey Dimsdale talks with Gerald McDermott about his book, Deep Anglicanism: A Brief Guide.

In this episode, Trey Dimsdale talks with Bryan T. McGraw, Jesse Covington, and Micah J. Watson about their book, Hopeful Realism: Evangelical Natural Law and Democratic Politics.

In this final issue of the inaugural year of the Reading Wheel Review, CRCD executive director Trey Dimsdale interviews Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, a Harvard-trained economist and professor at the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America and a senior fellow at the CRCD. They discuss Pakaluk’s book, Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth, as well as its...

In this episode, Trey Dimsdale talks with Dr. Carl Trueman about his newly released book, To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse.

In this episode, Trey Dimsdale talks with Dr. Ruth Wisse about her book, If I am Not for Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews.

In this episode, Trey Dimsdale talks with Katharine Birbalsingh about her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way.

In this episode, Trey Dimsdale talks with Dr. Daniel Mark about his book, The Nature of Law: Authority, Obligation, and the Common Good.

In this episode, Trey Dimsdale talks with Mark David Hall about his book, Who’s Afraid of Christian Nationalism: Why Christian Nationalism Is Not an Existential Threat to America or the Church.

In this episode, Trey Dimsdale and CRCD’s senior fellow John Arthur Nunes discuss W. E. B. DuBois’s The Gift of Black Folk. Nunes is currently serving as interim president at California Lutheran University.

This episode features a special interview with Michael Wear, the founder of the Center for Christianity in Public Life about his new book, The Spirit of Our Politics. The conversation between Michael and the CRCD’s executive director, Trey Dimsdale, mentions a review of the book published in the Acton Institute’s quarterly magazine, Religion & Liberty. That review can be found at this  link .