R. R. Reno

The Rise of Nationalism

It’s a global phenomenon. Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi won in India. Shinzo Abe in Japan hits nationalist notes. Svoboda, an ultra-nationalist party in Ukraine, has become an important player. The Golden Dawn in Greece is another ultra-nationalist party. Great Britain’s anti-EU party is on the rise, as are nationalists in France and the Netherlands. Continue Reading »

Piketty and the New Economy

Larry Summers has a fine review in Democracy of the hot new book by Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. He points out that the publication of this book in English corresponds with a political/cultural moment in which we’re anxious, concerned, and to some degree confused by a growing economic inequality. Continue Reading »

Spring Web Campaign

Friends and readers, yesterday we launched a campaign to raise money from you, our web readers. Every spring and Christmastide we send out letters to our subscribers, asking them for support. The changes in publishing mean that you’re now an important part of the First Things community. And we need your support too. 

Putting out a first rate magazine and running a vital website with fresh content every day requires significant resources. We have $2.3 million budget. Less than half comes from subscriptions. The rest comes from donations.

First Things is an important institution. We’re a forceful voice for moral sanity, cultural depth, and religious orthodoxy. That’s unique, and I hope worthy of your support. Please donate today.

A Sacred Guide to Coffee

Theology is the Queen of the Sciences. Sometimes that’s not obvious. But a recent posting by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick demonstrates that when it comes to coffee, theology provides profound metaphysical insights into that most necessary of refreshments.Brilliant exposition of the inner meaning . . . . Continue Reading »

Do Christians Threaten Religious Liberty?

Jews ought to back away from any alliance with Christians when it comes to the contraceptive mandate, argues Yishai Schwartz in Tablet. His main reason: Catholics and Evangelicals and legal advocates like the Becket Fund are undermining religious liberty, not promoting it. “Although . . . . Continue Reading »

Goodbye, Friend

Fr. Ed Oakes died this morning.  Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last spring, his friends knew that they’d have to face this day. Still, it’s hard. Death always is. Ed is best known for his work on Hans Urs von Balthasar. He wrote one of the first comprehensive studies published . . . . Continue Reading »

Elite Politics

Christopher Lasch, where are we when we need you? Today’s Wall Street Journal has a good column by William Galston that lays out in clear terms what we all feel in our bones: The great middle-class consensus that once dominated our society is dissolving. The middle class is eroding down . . . . Continue Reading »

The Ugliness of Gambling

I’m on the Council on Casinos. a group sponsored by the Institute for American Values. Our purpose is to fight the spread of gambling in America. See our report, Why Casinos Matter .  As David Mills noted earlier,  the Institute’s director, David Blankenhorn, has penned a . . . . Continue Reading »

Pope Francis’ New Balance

Commentators speak of Pope Francis as “pastoral,” and some juxtapose his approach to the previous two pontificates. I find this unpersuasive because it is too vague. To my mind a key difference between John Paul II and Benedict on the one hand and Francis on the other is their attitudes . . . . Continue Reading »

Does Syria Matter?

I’ve been weighing in against what seems to be a wide consensus that America must bomb Syria in order to “punish” or “send a message” or in some way tell the world that using chemical weapons “won’t be tolerated.” It’s a morally suspect way of . . . . Continue Reading »