Carl R. Trueman

Lessons from the Decline of Protestant Churches

Reports of the financial struggles and decline in membership among large American denominations have become so commonplace that…
George Weigel

The Henry J. Hyde Federal Building, Please

DuPage County is one of the collar counties bordering Chicago. For years, it had the great good sense…
Mark Bauerlein

The Federal Bureaucracy Rollback Continues

On March 14, President Trump signed an executive order that cut funding for seven agencies, including the Institute of…
SUBSCRIBE TO

America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life

In Search of Turkish Delight

Valerie Stivers
In a final scene of ­Dorothy Sayers’s 1930 novel Strong ­Poison, a murderer devours a large quantity of Turkish delight in the parlor of Lord ­Peter Wimsey, Sayers’s amateur-­sleuth…

Elon’s Family Values

Matthew Schmitz

A battle has broken out on the American right. Two visions of what it means to have children…

Goldilocks Protestantism

Brad East

Imagine a world without Protestantism. I don’t mean a world without Christians who are neither Catholic nor…

The Return of Strong Religion

R. R. Reno

The wind has shifted. People want hard religion, not easy religion. They seek out communities that are…

Radical Disembodiment

Liel Leibovitz

Super Bowl ads are a great American art form. Paying eight million dollars or more for a…

More opinions
PODCASTS More Podcasts

Conversations

The End of White Privilege

Host: Mark Bauerlein GUEST: A.J. Rice

The latest installment of an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. A.J. Rice joins in to discuss his recent book, The White Privilege Album: Bringing Racial Harmony to…

Conversations

Fulton Sheen: Master Evangelist

Host: Mark Bauerlein GUEST: Cheryl Hughes

The latest installment of an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. Cheryl Hughes joins in to discuss her recent book, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Convert Maker. The conversation…

Conversations

Woke vs. The Left

Host: Mark Bauerlein GUEST: David Rieff

The latest installment of an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. David Rieff joins in to discuss his recent book, Desire and Fate. The conversation is embedded below….

More Podcasts
SIGN UP FOR THE FIRST THINGS NEWSLETTER

The latest from our writers, editors, and contributors, delivered to your inbox.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We don’t spam. Our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy apply. The site is protected by reCAPTCHA.

On the Square MORE ON THE SQUARE

Is Christianity No Longer in Decline?

Ryan P. Burge
A few weeks ago, the Pew Research Center released the results of its most recent Religious Landscape Survey. The survey is one of the most important data sources for…

Lessons from the Decline of Protestant Churches

Carl R. Trueman

Reports of the financial struggles and decline in membership among large American denominations have become so commonplace…

My Family and Other Gnostics

John Byron Kuhner

A funny story is almost never improved by an assiduous concern for facts. Case in point: Gerald…

It’s Time to Defund Planned Parenthood

John Mize Jeffrey Barrows

What do you call a billion-dollar corporation that annually swallows millions in government funding but fails to deliver comprehensive…

The Henry J. Hyde Federal Building, Please

George Weigel

DuPage County is one of the collar counties bordering Chicago. For years, it had the great good…

MORE ON THE SQUARE
Essays MORE ESSAYS

Who Owns the Embryos?

Ericka Andersen

For Emily Ballou, it seemed like the perfect solution. She had always wanted to adopt a child…

The Pillar and Foundation of Truth: A Statement by Evangelicals 
and Catholics Together

Evangelicals and Catholics Together

As the People of God, the Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s very body…

AI Doesn’t Know What It’s Doing

Thomas Fowler

Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term covering ­many beliefs about the powers possessed by computers, both now…

MORE ESSAYS
Reviews MORE REVIEWS

Confession Eclipsed

James F. Keating

It is often said that the end of Latin as the Church’s liturgical language was the most…

Sex in the Frame

Mary Harrington

I doubt the readers of First Things need persuading that pornography is bad. It might feel invigorating…

No Country for Christendom

Martin Gramling

The Armagnac was low in the bottle when my host erupted on the subject of American empire.…

MORE REVIEWS
Poetry More Poetry

Honeymoon Road Signs on I-10 East in Arizona 

J. C. Scharl

Zero visibility possible,you read aloud. The logic’s water-tight:there’s always a good chance for lack of sight.  We…

The End of Politics

Ben Myers

The living soul will demand life, the living soul won’t listen to mechanics, the living soul is…

The End of March 

Sally Thomas

Stands of bearded iris, purple in mourningSpring up, early, among their cool green speartips,Pale and pointed, palmlike,…

More Poetry