I Hate the Chiefs
In real life, I’m a gentle soul—easygoing, tolerant, deferential, emotionally steady with a tilt toward whimsical joviality. There are exceptions. Behind the wheel of a car, I turn into…
February 2025
Print Edition
February 2025 Print Edition
America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life
Farewell to Liberal-Imperial Diplomacy
AI and the Unhappy Society
Recently I had an experience that I suppose is becoming increasingly common. The large, publicly traded energy…
No Method but Christ
When I try to explain to people why we need to recover patristic interpretation, the biggest obstacle…
Wickedness
Though they probably don’t realize it, many Americans spent the tail end of 2024 engaged in a…
A New Fusionism
Elon Musk cannonballed into electoral politics in 2024. Other tech bros joined him to support Donald Trump.…
Conversations
From Science to God
The latest installment of an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. Spencer A. Klavan joins in to discuss his recent book, Light of the Mind, Light of the…
The First Things Podcast
The Reboot
The editors discuss the new Trump administration and how it came to be. What are the vibes, and why did they shift? What are the prospects for the pro-life…
Conversations
The Bible Throughout the Ages
The latest installment of an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. Bruce Gordon joins in to discuss his recent book, The Bible: A Global History. The conversation is…
Medal of Freedom Recommendations for Trump
Trump for Women
On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” It requires…
I Hate the Chiefs
In real life, I’m a gentle soul—easygoing, tolerant, deferential, emotionally steady with a tilt toward whimsical joviality.…
Purity Culture Isn’t the Problem
The last decade witnessed a sharp turn against the so-called purity culture that emerged in the 1990s…
Give the National Endowment for the Arts Back to the Public
For decades, Americans have become increasingly alienated from the American arts establishment. The main source for their…
How Happiness Studies Lets Us Down
Demand elicits supply. The demand I have in mind is the demand for happiness: Suicide rates are…
The Lessons of Fr. Paul Mankowski
Paul Mankowski, S.J., who died unexpectedly four years ago this past fall, was the kind of priest…
Orthodoxy at War
St. Sophia Cathedral is quiet and almost empty when I step inside on a wintry morning. Saints…
Paleofuturism
Dawn’s Early Light:Taking Back Washington to Save Americaby kevin d. robertsbroadside, 304 pages, $32 When Kevin Roberts…
Declaring Independence
American Heretics:Religious Adversaries of Liberal Orderby jerome e. copulskyyale, 384 pages, $40 In the summer of 1775,…
The Church of Empathy
Circle of Hope:A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Churchby eliza griswoldfarrar, straus and…
Exemplary
A vagabond, seduced by impish godsTo jaywalk the downtown interstate, is dead.Addled with booze, he managed against…
Epistle to a Former Friend
When I say a prayerfor the wicked I despairand think, of course, of youand how your late-night…
Saint Gobnait of the Honeybees
She’d have naught of silvery turnings like fish,The Celtic knot of wedded, bedded love.She stole away to…
A Theology of Fiction
A spirited debate has been going on for nearly a decade now, much of it in these pages,…
Death in Naples
The taxi driver shouted, “Tell us! Tell us!” when his other passenger, a local journalist, announced that…
Immigration Idealism
For much of my life, I believed in open borders. Aside from violent criminals, I could think…
Harry Potter’s Magic
By now most readers in this country are aware of what has come to be called the…
A Jewish Theology of Resurrection
Does Judaism need a theology of Christianity? The usual answer is no: Whereas without Jews and Judaism…
Alexander Dugin Explained
Many sense that the West needs to reconsider its philosophical foundations. Reflexive appeals to old pieties no…
