Retrospect on a Pontificate
During the March 2013 interregnum following the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI, and in the conclave itself, proponents of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., as Benedict’s successor described him…
May 2025
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May 2025 Print Edition
America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life
How Abortion Lost Its Cool
How I Kicked My Phone Habit
About eighteen months ago, I decided I wanted a healthier relationship with my smartphone. My phone had…
Pure Episcopalianism
It was in June 2022 that my wife and I started looking for a home in Washington,…
Battle for Young Minds
If you happened to tune in to America’s most popular podcasts these last few months, you might’ve…
Leave Joy Alone
C S. Lewis has never been my favorite Christian writer. I admit this sheepishly, given his stature.…
The First Things Podcast
Snow What?
Conversations
The Bible’s Forgotten Women
The Editor’s Desk
The Problem of Embryo Ownership
The Other IVF
Retrospect on a Pontificate
During the March 2013 interregnum following the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI, and in the conclave itself,…
Francis, Pope of Ambiguity
One of the constants of the Franciscan pontificate was the favor with which he was treated by…
The World’s Spiritual Director
Pope Francis died early Easter Monday, less than twelve hours after the last evening Masses had been…
Pope Francis, My Worst Protestant Nightmare
The era of Francis is over, and it is time to start the postmortems on his tenure.…
The Right Has Forgotten Feeling
I’m not sure how I got here, into these pages. Lately I’ve found myself in a lot…
Feminism Against Fertility
When Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, the boys crowed and the girls cried. At least…
How to Commemorate 1776
Next year is America’s 250th anniversary, and President Trump has promised us a “spectacular birthday party.” The…
Song of Thanksgiving
The Catholic Beethovenby nicholas chongoxford university, 336 pages, $99 On the cover of Nicholas Chong’s new book,…
Immaterial World
Light of the Mind, Light of the World:Illuminating Science Through Faithby spencer a. klavanskyhorse, 272 pages, $29.99…
Liberal Integralists
The Church Against the State:On Subsidiarity and Sovereigntyby andrew willard jonesnew polity, 321 pages, $34.95 Eight years…
Lift My Chin, Lord
Lift my chin, Lord,Say to me,“You are not whoYou feared to be,Not Hecate, quite,With howling sound,Torch held…
Spring Twilight After Penance
Let’s say you’ve just comeFrom confession. Late sunPours through the budding treesThat mark the brown creek washing Itself…
For an English Teacher
You died, but it was not your words that faltered. You’d husbanded the language all your life, And when…
Jurassic Lark
How Fast Did T. rex Run?: Unsolved Questions from the Frontiers of Dinosaur Science by david hone…
Fighting the Noonday Devil
For most of the modern era, Christian apologists have emphasized the role of pride as the primary…
Jesus the Muslim Hippie
Many Christians and other non-Muslims who want to understand the Christ of Islam turn to the Qur’an,…
The Cross and the Machine
“Europeans didn’t only disinherit Aztecs and Incas. Continuously, since the sixteenth century, we have been disinheriting ourselves.”—John…
My Madness
My brother Peter was a wondrous boy, the youngest, brightest, and bounciest of three kids: IQ 165,…
Modernity’s Self-Destruct Button
All politics is local, as they say. And so, before we proceed to the big question of…
