Peter J. Leithart

How Secularization Happens

Way back in the day, when Elon Musk stalked the halls of the federal bureaucracy swinging his giant,…
Ephraim Radner

Smooth Sailing

I regularly fume as I am caught in the chain of red lights that mark my rides down…
George Weigel

The Casaroli Myth vs. the Historical Record

Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, Vatican secretary of state from 1979 to 1990—and before that, the architect and chief diplomatic…
SUBSCRIBE TO

America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life

How Hipsters Gave Us Trump

Matthew Schmitz
Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was powered by its embrace of the white working class. It also drew energy from its rejection of feminist conceits. While critics charged Trump…

A New Purity Culture

Samuel D. James

I grew up in evangelical purity culture. Well-thumbed copies of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Every Young Man’s…

Smooth Sailing

Ephraim Radner

I regularly fume as I am caught in the chain of red lights that mark my rides…

Where the Dallas Charter Went Wrong

Michael J. Mazza

In Peter Weir’s 1981 film Gallipoli, hundreds of Australian foot soldiers, armed only with bayonets, are sent,…

Madness in Minneapolis

Liel Leibovitz

It’s tempting, given the pace of our news cycle these days, to resist the urge to crown…

More opinions
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

The Twisted Consequences of Chatbots

Ned Desmond
In December last year, the autonomous robotaxi firm Waymo took a notable victory lap. The occasion was an independent analysis of Waymo’s safety record based on data from nearly…

Redemptor Hominis: More Important than Ever

George Weigel

Forty-seven years ago, Pope John Paul II issued his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (The Redeemer of Man).…

James Talarico’s Backward Christianity

Colin Redemer

James Talarico wants to “reclaim Christianity for the left.” That’s the title of the New York Times…

Just War Theory and Epic Fury

R. R. Reno

The machines of war have sprung into action once again in the Middle East. Bombs are falling…

Students for Notre Dame

Jack Krieger

As I walked out of class Thursday morning, the day before the planned student-led “March on the…

MORE ON THE SQUARE
Essays MORE ESSAYS

Lyric as Disclosure

Glenn C. Arbery

Back in 2014, my wife and I bought a house on six acres of land several miles…

Love in the Time of Mass Migration

Matthew B. Crawford

The unknown traveler shows up storm-tossed, naked, and hungry. He is bathed and clothed, the best wine…

Why I’m Done with Notre Dame

Christian Smith

I retired from the University of Notre Dame at the end of 2025. More accurately, I left.…

MORE ESSAYS
Reviews MORE REVIEWS

Indispensable Plato 

Rhys Laverty

Over the past decade, somewhat surprisingly, many people have become born-again defenders of Western civilization…

The Serpent and the Dove

Anthony E. Clark

Late in the evening of Thursday, September 8, 1955, Communist Party officials in Shanghai launched a mass…

A Critique of the New Right Misses Its Target

Robert Bellafiore

American conservatism has produced a bewildering number of factions over the years, and especially over the last…

MORE REVIEWS
Poetry More Poetry

Long Days

Will Toedtman

To my brother John. What happened to long days,the ones whose ends we couldn’tfathom till they came,and…

Caravaggio’s “Conversion of St. Paul”

William Virgil Davis

(in the Cerasi Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo)  Paul lies sprawled beneath his…

Latch Hook

Midge Goldberg

The only rug we had was on the wall—linoleum was what my mother knew—a woodsy scene, green…

More Poetry
Newsletters

Newsletters

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
I would like to receive(Required)

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