The Reading Wheel Review

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 conversation covers the motives for publishing the papers, the context of the US Constitution and debates over its ratification, as well as enduring challenges to liberty and union faced by America over the previous two and a half centuries.

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 expression of America’s first president, George Washington, and his understandings of divine providence, civil liberty, and religious freedom.

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. These two men from different backgrounds model friendship based on an authentic Christian faith and vision of social life, offering inspiration for those seeking to promote peace and reconciliation in a world fraught by conflict and injustice.

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 community throughout Western civilization, as well as its relevance for today.

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 Christian Nationalism, the challenges to religious liberty today, and the prospects for a renewed commitment to America’s founding ideals.

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 & Liberty Trey Dimsdale, “Fight for the First Amendment,” Religion & Liberty Online Hunter Baker, “A collision of American lives,” WORLD Opinions Upcoming Events:Shaftesbury Fellowship (May 19-July 25, 2025)FLI Educational Tour: Boston (July 3-7, 2025)Religious Liberty in the States 2025 Launch (July 14, 2025)

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 contrasted with liberalism. But as we will learn throughout the course of this discussion, understanding the right relationship between order and liberty is essential to defending a truly principled conservatism and religious freedom. Dr. John Wilsey’s primer is a worthwhile starting point for this endeavor.

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 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 Katharine Birbalsingh about her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way.

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.

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.

This episode features a discussion with Francis Beckwith regarding his book, Never Doubt Thomas: The Catholic Aquinas as Evangelical and Protestant. This month marks the 750th anniversary of the death of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the Christian faith’s most influential theologians. Trey Dimsdale and Dr. Francis Beckwith dicuss St. Thomas’s influence across Christian traditions and the ways that his thought might be used to find common ground for ecumenical, and even interfaith, cooperation on matters that concern all of us.