Because I'm on vacation this week and next, I'll be posting more of these "baskets of links" than I normally would.  I hope you find something interesting in each of them.

This is one way that "presidential studies" can be useful.  How is Trump, speaking " structurally," like and unlike the other 44 presidents?

Nice interview with Angie Heo about global Christianity and "global Christianity":

"It is too often the case, unfortunately, that “global” signifies a geopolitical hierarchy in which the originary norms of a given tradition are presumed to lie in the U.S. and Europe, while phenomena like “global religions” or “world literature” lie in the Global South."

Then again, for all her critiquing of essentialism, she does say this, which sounds at least essentializing-proximate: "Considering the high value it places on origins, Orthodoxy may slide into ideologies of nativism, purity and authenticity, especially when allied with xenophobic strands of nationalism.  This is where I think race, racism, and racial hierarchies become important issues to explore alongside Orthodoxy, especially as it is linked to various forms of growth such as assimilation or invasion." 

Dan Drezner on "the new China consensus" (namely, that China and the US are on a collision course of great power rivalry).  This piece is good not only on the direct topic, but on the tension between "elite" and "popular" understandings, and how those categories (understood ideally-typically) can be useful for understanding public opinion.  Also, it's useful for reminding us, once again, that China is not really a peer competitor to the United States, and it will likely not become one.  Finally, for you careerists out there, there's this good forecast: "This is a topic that will require serious debate for at least the next decade."  

Finally, a nice little gem of a piece on "the oldest dated manuscript of a classical greek author" (by which they mean, the oldest one that actually has a date on it):