Jay D. Green, Professor of History at Covenant, is the managing editor for an online journal called Current. It provides commentary and reflection on culture, politics, and contemporary ideas. According to their “about” page, “we seek to ground ourselves in the broad tradition of American democracy — a tradition whose practices and institutions we believe are moving through a period of great stress and testing. We confess that we once took for granted many of the basic assumptions of our democracy, including a shared core of American values. We no longer do.” The goal of this platform is to aspire to civil free thought and discussion.
Current consists of high-level articles from every end of the political and ideological spectrum. Despite the editors, Green, John Fea, and Eric Miller all being professing Christians, the journal itself is not a religious platform. It aims towards diverse audiences as well as diverse writers. They seek to gage civil and productive conversations, and welcome ideas from believers as well as secular writers who also have a passion for culture.
Miller, Fea, and Green met in seminary and have been friends for almost thirty years. Miller teaches history at Geneva College and Fea teaches history at Messiah University. The site was built on Fea's popular and widely read blog, "The Way of Improvement Leads Home."
The journal has published dozens of articles by academics, journalists, and other professional writers. They have published essays by Dr. Green, and other Covenant professors such as Dr. Barham, and Dr. Weichbrodt. They have also published pieces by a couple of Covenant alumni: Henry Overos and William Thomas Okie.
According to editor Eric Miller, “Current is a playground. Sometimes it will feel like chess. Other times kickball. The playground does have fencing. But that only exists to ensure one thing: that the play becomes the thing.”
Students who are interested in Current may subscribe, or even pitch ideas on the website: currentpub.com/pitch-us. There, the student will provide their name, contact information, a brief bio, then provide a pitch less than 150 words for an essay, review, or an opinion article. Students across campus have many ideas they would like to share with the world, and Current is happy to consider them.
“We hope readers will find in Current loose and lively exchange among dedicated writers—players aiming for a prize, even as they realize that the game is prize enough,” Miller states. “There’s a lot at stake in our world, as our writers will day by day make clear. And the clock is ticking. That’s all the more reason to go at it in the spirit of play. Let the games begin.”