R.R. Reno is editor of First Things.

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An Aphorism

Against our critical age and its masters of suspicion: It is more precious to love than to know. . . . . Continue Reading »

12 Jan 2011

Murder and Political Rhetoric

There’s been a great deal of commentary about the attempted assassination of Congresswaman Gabrielle Giffords and the deadly rampage that followed, with some eager to pin blame on pugnacious conservative rhetoric, and others denying the link. At The New Republic David Rieff offers a sharply . . . . Continue Reading »

11 Jan 2011

More on Solzhenitsyn

Last week I reflected on the genius of Solzhenitsyn’s great novel, In the First Circle . Some readers weighed in on other aspects of Solzhenitsyn’s thought, especially his famous Harvard Address, given in 1978, four years after arriving in the United States as an exile from Russia. The . . . . Continue Reading »

10 Jan 2011

Graduate Study and Careers

As is often the case, Public Discourse has an interesting article today, this one by Matthew Milliner on the current hand-wringing about the future of humanistic inquiry in American higher education. Milliner, a graduate student in art history at Princeton and a blogger here at First Thoughts, . . . . Continue Reading »

7 Jan 2011

An Aphorism

Our avant-garde cherishes memories of an oppressive past. . . . . Continue Reading »

6 Jan 2011

Moral Awakening

The sun has reached it midday zenith, and I’m still staring at the blank page on my desk. I had promised myself that I would begin writing about Akeksandr Solzhenitsyn’s In The First Circle —a key part of a book project that I’m calling, “The Renewal of the Conservative . . . . Continue Reading »

5 Jan 2011

D’Souza on Obama

Some months ago I expressed my skepticism about Dinesh D’Souza’s thesis that the best way to understand Barack Obama involves seeing him as trying to fulfill his father’s anti-colonialist vision. I argued that mainstream American liberalism, especially its hothouse academic forms, . . . . Continue Reading »

4 Jan 2011

Antinomian Redemption

I’ve been working on a book off and on for the last year or so. The working title is Renewing the Conservative Imagination . My thesis is that our age is defined by an antinomian conviction. If we will but be free from moral norms, then we will be happy. Put differently, our age is Bohemian. . . . . Continue Reading »

3 Jan 2011

The Next Iranian Revolution?

Iran, it seems, is experiencing a textbook case of conflict between the aggressive and absorptive power of the secular state and religious authority. In today’s Financial Times , Najmeh Bozorgmehr reports that Iran’s highest ranking cleric is getting sideways with the officially Islamic . . . . Continue Reading »

30 Dec 2010

Still More on Bible Reading

First Things attracts smart readers. The discussion of how we should present and read the bible in worship has been very interesting, bringing out some interesting differences. For example: chanting scripture vs. studied efforts to read the bible with nuanced emphasis. While a graduate student in . . . . Continue Reading »

29 Dec 2010