Archive


More than thirty years of First Things articles at your fingertips.

Articles

Filter

Articles

Finding Faith in the Fragments

Peter Tonguette

When your parents were married for seventeen years before you were born, as mine were, you spend an awful lot of time scrutinizing scrapbooks, absorbing family lore, and trying...

On Getting Old

John Wilson

Two years plus a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column that began thus: “I am and always have been a creature of routine.” And that was very...

The USCCB Should Reject Federal Funds

Kevin D. Roberts

On Monday, Pope Francis sent a letter to the bishops of the United States. Criticizing the Trump administration’s plan to deport illegal immigrants, he wrote: “The true ordo amoris...

God and Man at Wheaton

Daniel Davis

Wheaton College once produced some of the boldest Christian voices in America. With graduates like Billy Graham, Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, John Piper, and William Lane Craig, and with...

Super Bowls and Bad Samaritans

The Editors

The editors discuss Super Bowl 59—why we watched, who tried to rig the outcome, and what Taylor Swift will do next. Then we talk JD Vance, Pope Francis, and...

Eliminating DEI from Higher Education

Mark Bauerlein

President Trump’s executive order “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” puts colleges and universities on notice. If you judge people by race and sex when making hiring decisions, awarding...

America’s Cross-Border Abortion War

Jonathon Van Maren

The United States has been deeply divided on abortion for decades, but since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, those divides have deepened as differing legal regimes emerge across...

Dostoevsky’s Credo

Gary Saul Morson

What does it mean to believe something? Is it possible for a person to profess an idea sincerely, yet discover that he never really believed it? If a man’s...

Merkelʼs Country

Christopher Caldwell

Freedom: Memoirs 1954–2021by angela merkelst. martinʼs, 720 pages, $40 German readers have a powerful appetite for doorstop political autobiographies, gossip-filled 600- and 700-page apologias by major statesman and even...

Russia’s Sacrilegious War on Ukraine 

George Weigel

Today’s Russian Orthodox leadership is a theological, moral, and pastoral train wreck. U.S. foreign policy can’t fix that. Nonetheless, those responsible for devising U.S. foreign policy should recognize how...

The Age of De-Globalization

R. R. Reno

Annex Greenland! Take back the Panama Canal! Canada as the fifty-first state! Speaking at an early January press conference, Donald Trump put the world in a tizzy. German chancellor...

The End of March 

Sally Thomas

Stands of bearded iris, purple in mourningSpring up, early, among their cool green speartips,Pale and pointed, palmlike, though no one’s picked them,Criss-crossed the fronds, blessed, behind a crucifix.Still two...

Large Language Poetry

Nikolas Prassas

In my ideal undergraduate course in literary criticism, the first semester would include a brisk introduction to large language models. This is less absurd than it sounds. Recall that...

Letter to a Young Bishop

Scott Hahn

Your Excellency, I’m writing only because you asked. I have so far successfully avoided the role of elder statesman, and I suffer from a mild allergy to the genre...

Mind the Gap

Kit Wilson

Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religiousby ross douthatzondervan, 240 pages, $29.99 I grew up in a religiously sympathetic, if not always actively practicing, household. During my toddler years, my family...