The special section on the Protestant Reformation we’re planning for our Oct. 28 issue will include reviews of books about the world-shaking changes that began on Oct. 31, 1517. The best new book on Luther I’ve found is Luther on the Christian Life, by Westminster Theological Seminary professor Carl Trueman—so I interviewed Trueman in front of students at Patrick Henry College. Here are edited excerpts.

In the large arena that was the world of Michael Cromartie, sitting next to him on his living room sofa in soft morning light, the front door letting in enough quiet to hear the birds sing, was more than rare. It was wrong.

WASHINGTON—Christian intellectual Michael Cromartie passed away Monday. He was 67. Cromartie spent more than 30 years at the intersection of faith and politics, helping give credence to evangelicals in the nation’s capital. Born in Charlotte, N.C., Cromartie first came to Washington in 1978 working as a research assistant for Chuck Colson’s then-new ministry, Prison Fellowship. Cromartie went on to edit 15 books on faith and politics and served as the vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

BETHONCOURT, France—Rows of gray, concrete apartment buildings in various states of graffiti and neglect loom over grass where 85 children dart from booth to booth at a neighborhood Safari Festival.

Five-year-old Yanis has a face painted like a tiger: “My favorite stand is the one with the gummy bears.” He points across the lawn to a booth where children use straws to blow marbles through a miniature obstacle course. He’s at the festival with big sister Segda, 11, younger brother Mohamed, 3, and older brother Mehdi, 10.

David Misner’s classroom at VFW Post 2618 in Brookhaven, Miss., looks like a typical homeschool co-op. An American flag hangs in the corner, and tidy rows of metal folding chairs line up four to a table. Moms stand along the back wall. A seventh-grader digs through a dazzling backpack in search of a pencil.

Author and pastor George Grant has helped to found educational institutions in Tennessee, Iraq, and Indonesia. Here are edited excerpts of an interview in front of students at Patrick Henry College.

What political lessons emerge from the successes and failures of what’s called the religious right?

The culture is in the mess it’s in because the church is in the mess it’s in. The solution, therefore, is not first and foremost politics. We’re not going to get the politics we want: We’ll have the politics we deserve. Right now we’ve got a mess.

The 1950s was a religious decade, especially if you grew up in the South, as I did. In many ways that was a blessing: low crime, friendly neighborhoods, stable homes. In other ways, not so much—at least in certain denominations where the Word was weaponized and flaming darts of doctrine hurled from one True Church at another. Religion, among the faithful, seemed to be a matter of following the rules—after getting the rules right, of course. Imagine, after a childhood of dueling dogma, how refreshing it was to discover Jesus Himself under all the strictures. And what was He holding out?