The Reading Wheel Review

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, CRCD Executive Director Dr. Jordan Ballor interviews Dr. Thomas Kidd, who serves as Research Professor of Church History and the John and Sharon Yeats Endowed Chair of Baptist Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In this conversation, they discuss Dr. Kidd’s book: Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh, and explore Jefferson’s perspective on Christianity, championing of religious freedom, and flawed character. We hope you’ll enjoy this conversation about one of America’s most legendary yet tragic founding fathers.

In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, CRCD Executive Director Jordan Ballor interviews Mark David Hall, who serves as a professor in Regent University’s Robertson School of Government, director of the CRCD’s Religious Liberty in the States project, and a senior research fellow at CRCD. This conversation centers around Dr. Hall’s book Did America Have a Christian Founding? Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth. Dr. Ballor and Dr. Hall explore the influence of Christian ideas on the founding, the founders’ views on the separation of Church and state, and the nature of religious freedom.

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 the American Mind: The Story of Our Declaration of Independence. Their conversation examines the formation, argument, and significance of that revolutionary text from 1776, whose 250th anniversary we celebrate this year.

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.