Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

Elliott Abrams , former deputy National Security advisor, is currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Charlotte Allen is the author of The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus .

Robert Alter is the author of seventeen books and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Brian C. Anderson is editor of City Journal .

Gary A. Anderson is professor of Old Testament at the University of Notre Dame.

Hadley Arkes is the Edward N. Ney Professor at Amherst College and author of the book First Things .

Andrew J. Bacevich teaches international relations at Boston University and is the author of such books as American Empire and The Limits of Power .

Stephen M. Barr is a professor of physics at the University of Delaware and author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith .

Gary Bauer is chairman of the Campaign for Working Families and president of American Values.

Benedict XVI is Vicar of Jesus Christ , Successor of Peter, Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church , Primate of Italy, Archbishop of Rome , Sovereign of the Vatican, and Servant of the Servants of God.

Philippe Bénéton is a professor of law and political science at the University of Rennes in France.

William J. Bennett , former secretary of education, is author of Why We Fight:?Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism .

Peter L. Berger , the well-known sociologist, teaches at Boston University and is the author of A Rumor of Angels .

Matthew Berke was managing editor of First Things from 1990 to 2000.

Walter Berns is resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and professor emeritus at Georgetown University.

David Blankenhorn is founder and president of the Institute for American Values.

Robert H. Bork , a former U.S. solicitor general and circuit judge of the U. S. Court of Appeals, is a distinguished fellow of the Hudson Institute.

Joseph Bottum is editor of First Things .

Carl E. Braaten is a Lutheran theologian and author of History and Hermeneutics and The Whole Counsel of God .

Rémi Brague is a professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne.

Richard Brookhiser is senior editor at National Review .

David Brooks is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times and author of Bobos in Paradise .

James L. Buckley is former senator from New York and U.S. Court of Appeals judge.

William F. Buckley Jr. (1925“2008) was a prolific author and the founder of National Review .

James Tunstead Burtchaell , C.S.C., is author of The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches .

Francis Canavan , S.J., (1918“2009) was a Fordham University professor and author of The Political Reason of Edmund Burke .

Shalom Carmy is chair of Bible and Jewish Philosophy at Yeshiva College and editor of Tradition .

Stephen L. Carter teaches law at Yale University.

Charles J. Chaput , O.F.M. Cap., is archbishop of Denver and author of Render Unto Caesar .

Charles Colson is the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries and the author, most recently, of The Faith .

Harvey G. Cox Jr. is the author of The Secular City . He retired as professor of divinity at Harvard in October 2009.

Candace C. Crandall is a writer-strategist for PCI Communications.

Dinesh D’Souza is the author of Illiberal Education and Letters to a Young Conservative .

Werner J. Dannhauser is emeritus professor of government at Cornell University and author of Nietzsche’s View of Socrates .

Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist at Arizona State University.

Robertson Davies (1913“1995) was a Canadian novelist whose works included Fifth Business and The Rebel Angels .

Midge Decter is the author of The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women’s Liberation .

Thomas Sieger Derr is an adjunct scholar at the Acton Institute and emeritus professor of religion and ethics at Smith College.

John J. DiIulio Jr. , the first director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, is professor of politics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Richard M. Doerflinger is associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.

Timothy M. Dolan is archbishop of New York.

Ross Douthat is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times .

Eamon Duffy is professor of the history of Christianity at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the author of Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor .

Avery Cardinal Dulles , S.J., (1918“2008), the only American made a cardinal in honor of his theological work, was Laurence J. McGinley Professor at Fordham University.

Louis Dupre is professor emeritus of religious studies at Yale University.

Terry Eastland is publisher of the Weekly Standard .

Mary Eberstadt is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and contributing writer to First Things .

Nicholas Eberstadt is the Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute.

Jean Bethke Elshtain teaches social and political ethics at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago .

Emil L. Fackenheim (1916“2003), author of God’s Presence in History , was a philosopher and rabbi.

Andrew Ferguson is senior editor of the Weekly Standard .

Suzanne Fields is a columnist for the Washington Times and syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate .

Molly Finn is the coauthor of several cookbooks, including The Hudson River Valley Cookbook .

Chester E. Finn Jr. , former United States assistant secretary of education, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Stanley Fish teaches law and humanities at Florida International University and is author of Save the World on Your Own Time .

Antony Flew is a British philosopher and author of There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind .

Michael P. Foley teaches patristics in the Honors College at Baylor University.

Theodore Forstmann is the founder of the private equity firm Forstmann, Little, and Company.

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (1941“2007) was a professor at Emory University and author of Feminism is Not the Story of My Life .

Adam Garfinkle is editor of the American Interest and author of Jewcentricity .

Jean Garton is cofounder and president emeritus of Lutherans For Life.

Marc Gellman is cohost of The God Squad television program and rabbi at Temple Beth Torah in Dix Hills, New York.

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University.

Timothy George is dean of Beeson Divinity School.

Michael Gerson , former presidential speechwriter, is a columnist for the Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

René Girard , the French-born literary critic, anthropologist, and theologian, is the author of Deceit, Desire, and the Novel .

Mary Ann Glendon teaches law at Harvard University.

Charles L. Glenn is professor and chairman of educational administration and policy at Boston University.

David P. Goldman is senior editor of First Things .

Edward C. Green is a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Paul J. Griffiths is a professor of Catholic theology at Duke Divinity School.

Benedict Groeschel , C.F.R., teaches pastoral psychology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York.

Lawrence Grossman is director of publications for the American Jewish Committee.

Allen C. Guelzo is the director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College.

Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.

David B. Hart is author of The Beauty of the Infinite and Atheist Delusions .

Stanley Hauerwas teaches at Duke Divinity School.

Vaclav Havel , a playwright and essayist, was the first president of the Czech Republic.

Richard B. Hays is a professor at Duke Divinity School.

Carl F.H. Henry (1913“2003) was an American evangelical theologian and the first editor in chief of Christianity Today .

Nat Hentoff , a longtime columnist for the Village Voice , writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal .

Allen D. Hertzke is Presidential Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma.

Thomas S. Hibbs , professor of ethics at Baylor University, is author of Virtue’s Splendor .

Gertrude Himmelfarb is professor emeritus of history at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.

Sarah E. Hinlicky is a Lutheran pastor in Trenton.

Russell Hittinger is the Warren Professor of Catholic Studies and research professor of law at the University of Tulsa.

Paul Hollander is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Robert Hollander is an emeritus professor in European literature at Princeton and the founding director of both the Dartmouth Dante Project and the Princeton Dante Project.

David Horowitz is founder and president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

James Davison Hunter teaches religion, culture, and social theory at the University of Virginia.

Alan Jacobs is professor of English at Wheaton College.

Philip Jenkins is professor of humanities at Pennsylvania State University and fellow at Baylor University.

John Paul II (1920“2005) was pope from 1978 to 2005.

James Turner Johnson is a professor of religion at Rutgers University.

Paul Johnson , the prominent conservative English journalist, is author of over forty books.

Preston Jones teaches history at John Brown University.

Yale Kamisar is an emeritus professor at the University of Michigan Law School and teaches at the University of San Diego.

Leon R. Kass , former chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics, teaches at the University of Chicago.

Dean M. Kelley (1926“1997) was a legal scholar and executive with the National Council of Churches .

Roger Kimball is coeditor of the New Criterion and publisher of Encounter Books.

Leszek Kolakowski (1927“2009), the Polish philosopher and historian, taught at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

Alan Charles Kors is professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hilton Kramer is coeditor of the New Criterion .

Elizabeth Kristol is a writer and critic.

William Kristol is editor of the Weekly Standard .

Christopher Lasch (1932“1994) was an American historian and social critic and author of The Culture of Narcissism .

Jonathan V. Last is a contributing writer at the Weekly Standard and a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer .

John Leo is contributing editor of the City Journal .

Jon D. Levenson teaches Jewish studies at Harvard.

Yuval Levin edits National Affairs .

Bernard Lewis is an emeritus professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.

Paul H. Liben has written for the Baltimore Sun .

Michael R. Linton is head of the Division of Music Theory and Composition at Middle Tennessee State University.

Herbert London is president of the Hudson Institute.

Glenn C. Loury is a professor of social sciences and economics at Brown University.

Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger (1926“2007) was archbishop of Paris from 1982 to 2005.

David W. Lutz received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame.

Pierre Manent is a professor of political philosophy at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Paul V. Mankowski , S.J., is former professor of biblical studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

Harvey Mansfield teaches political theory at Harvard.

George M. Marsden is professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.

Bruce D. Marshall is professor of historical theology at Perkins School of Theology.

Francis Martin holds the Adam Cardinal Maida Chair in Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

Judith Martin , better known as Miss Manners, is an American journalist, author, and etiquette authority.

Frederica Mathewes-Green is widely published Orthodox author.

Wilfred M. McClay teaches humanities at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Walter A. McDougall is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.

William McGurn is a Wall Street Journal columnist.

Paul McHugh teaches psychiatry at Johns Hopkins.

Ralph McInerny has written over thirty books and has taught for over forty years at the University of Notre Dame.

George McKenna , professor emeritus of political science at City College of New York, is author of The Puritan Origins of American Patriotism .

Gilbert Meilaender holds a chair in Christian ethics at Valparaiso University.

John Milbank is professor of religion, politics, and ethics at the University of Nottingham.

James Andrew Miller was an author in Cleveland, Ohio.

Robert T. Miller teaches law at Villanova University.

Robert Miola teaches English at Loyola University Maryland.

Alan L. Mittleman teaches Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Thomas Molnar is visiting professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Budapest.

Marion Montgomery , a poet and novelist, was professor of English for over thirty years at the University of Georgia.

Joshua Muravchik is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Richard John Neuhaus (1936“2009) founded First Things and served as its editor in chief from 1990 to 2009.

Jacob Neusner is senior fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology.

Mark A. Noll is a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.

David Novak is a professor of Jewish studies at the University of Toronto.

Michael Novak holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute.

James Nuechterlein is a senior editor at large at First Things , which he edited from 1990 to 2004.

Oliver O’Donovan teaches at the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh.

Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain is a judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Edward T. Oakes , S.J., teaches theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake seminary for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Michael Oakeshott (1901“1990) taught at the London School of Economics and was author of Rationalism in Politics .

Henry Luke Orombi is the Anglican archbishop of Uganda.

Wolfhart Pannenberg is professor of systematic theology at the University of Munich and founding director of the Institute of Ecumenical Theology.

Joseph Pearce , professor of literature at Ave Maria University, is coeditor of the St. Austin Review .

George Cardinal Pell is archbishop of Sydney.

Edmund Phelps , the 2006 Nobel Laureate in Economics, is a professor of political economy at Columbia University.

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Alyssa Lyra Pitstick is the author of Light in Darkness: Hans Urs von Balthasar .

Ramesh Ponnuru is senior editor of National Review .

Elizabeth Powers teaches government and public affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ronald Radosh is adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

R.R. Reno is a professor of theology at Creighton University and a senior editor at large of First Things .

Robert Royal is president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C.

Allison Herling Ruark holds an M.S. in Public Health from Oregon State University.

Jeffrey Burton Russell is an emeritus professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

George W. Rutler is pastor of the Church of Our Saviour in New York.

Jonathan Sacks is the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.

Russell E. Saltzman is pastor at Ruskin Heights Lutheran Church in Kansas City.

Antonin Scalia is justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Diana Schaub teaches political science at Loyola University Maryland.

Amity Shlaes is author of The Forgotten Man: A New?History of the Great Depression .

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn is archbishop of Vienna.

Matthew Scully is an author, journalist, speechwriter, and former literary editor of National Review .

Nina Shea is the director of the Center for Religious Freedom and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture and author of Forced Exit .

Meir Y. Soloveichik is associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918“2008), the Russian novelist and historian, was the 1970 Nobel Laureate in Literature.

C. John Sommerville is an emeritus professor of English history at the University of Florida.

Max L. Stackhouse is a professor of theology and public life at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Roger Starr (1918“2001) was an author and editorial writer at the New York Times .

Richard Stith teaches at Valparaiso University School of Law.

Terry Teachout is the drama critic of the Wall Street Journal and author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong .

Mother Teresa (1910“1997), founder of the Missionaries of Charity in India, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Peter Thiel is president of Clarium Capital Management.

Sally Thomas , a contributing writer for First Things , is a poet and homeschooling mother in North Carolina.

Michael M. Uhlmann teaches political science at Claremont Graduate University.

Algis Valiunas is author of Churchill’s Military Histories .

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Amy Welborn is a teacher and writer living in Florida.

W. Bradford Wilcox is a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia and a fellow at the Witherspoon Institute.

Robert Louis Wilken is an emeritus professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Virginia.

James Q. Wilson is senior fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College.

Benjamin Wittes is a fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he is Research Director in Public Law.

Alan Wolfe teaches political science at Boston College.

Gregory Wolfe is the editor of Image and a writer in residence at Seattle Pacific University.

Ralph C. Wood teaches theology and literature at Baylor University.

Kenneth L. Woodward is a contributing editor of Newsweek , where he was religion editor for thirty-eight years.

Michael Wyschogrod is a German-American philosopher of religion and a Jewish theologian.

Robin Darling Young is associate professor of theology at the Medieval Institute of the University of Notre Dame.

Carol Zaleski is a professor of religion at Smith College.

Philip Zaleski edits The Best American Spiritual Writing .

Dear Reader,

You have a decision to make: double or nothing.

For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.

In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.

So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?

Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
GIVE NOW