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

David Brooks Goes Wobbly on Suburbs

“Whatever the reason,” writes Prof. Deneen , clearly sporting for another round of epic battle, “it’s good news indeed. Score 1 for FPR, zero for the PoMoCons.” But Brooks’ defense of the suburbs was wrongly grounded. Here’s why we know better and . . . . Continue Reading »

A Coarser Discourse

On July 2, on her blog on the National Public Radio website, NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard posted a piece with the title “ Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain .” In it she describes the complaints NPR received when, on June 23, the network broadcast a story about Tom Cruise that included . . . . Continue Reading »

Education Facts—Part Two (Darwin)

Again, these are very rough and meant to provoke. Carl is right that there are limitations to the point-by-point method, although I think it fits the blog well. 1. So the American understanding of science as technology—the modern understanding that flows from Bacon, Descartes, and that . . . . Continue Reading »

Who Said That?

First Things assistant editor Kevin Staley-Joyce has pointed out that blogger Marcel LeJeune at Aggie Catholics has posted a list of the “ Top 15 Phrases Not Found in the Bible .” Here’s a sample: 3.  “The Lord (or God) works in mysterious ways” Comes from a hymn . . . . Continue Reading »

Virtue and Intelligence

A friend recently expresses chastened sentiment. “Great books and good philosophy,” he sighed, “don’t really help us become virtuous, do they?’ Well, mostly no, they don’t. In my youth I hitch-hiked across America many times, worked all sorts of jobs, and spent a great . . . . Continue Reading »

Rich v. Blankenhorn

Suggesting that the New York Times’ columnist Frank Rich has failed to “respect ordinary standards of decency, reasonableness, and fair play” in writing about David Blankenhorn, he and two of  his colleagues at the Institute for American Values  have written the Times . . . . Continue Reading »

Real Sex Education

In A Sexual Education , today’s “On the Square” article, Joe Carter argues that the comprehensive sex education/just use a condom/safe sex and the abstinence education/just say no ideas “are equally flawed and flawed in the same way. Each indoctrinates the children in a . . . . Continue Reading »

Age of Accountability

I think I’ve hit on one of the things that’s been lurking in the background in my resistance to the idea of an age of accountability. Now this post will largely be assuming some things many here will not grant, e.g. exclusivism about who gets saved, Christian particularism about how they . . . . Continue Reading »

From Adoption to the French Work Week

Some articles to commend: Russell Moore explains the connection between our adoption in Christ and our adopting children in this world, in Abba Changes Everything , published in Christianity Today . Adoption is, on one hand, gospel. Our identity and inheritance are grounded in our adoption in . . . . Continue Reading »

Tags

Loading...

Filter First Thoughts Posts