Archive
More than thirty years of First Things articles at your fingertips.
Articles
The End of Magic
Of a fair evening in the mythical but true world of Middle Earth, towards the end of the Third Age, a young hobbit named Frodo is holding private counsel...
Seminary Sanity
When you start out at seminary with an eye toward entering the ministry, the first thing they want to know about you is not whether you believe in God,...
Don’t Write About Race
The cardinal rule of writing about race is: don’t. There are several reasons why. First, it is impossible to say anything new. Second, it axiomatically follows that it is...
The Sexual Counterrevolution
A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue.By Wendy Shalit.Free Press. 304 pp. $24. Despite its modest title, this book is a bombshell. In a manner both courageous and...
Talking to Generation X
We’ve never been proud to be Americans—our political memory stretches back only as far as Vietnam, Watergate, and Reaganomics. Our parents left religion and, perhaps not coincidentally, each other...
Subversive Virginity
Okay, I’ll admit it: I am twenty-two years old and still a virgin. Not for lack of opportunity, my vanity hastens to add. Had I ever felt unduly burdened...
