R. R. Reno

A Letter from Rusty

Dear Readers, Supporters, and Friends,

There's still time to contribute to the mission of First Things. Continue Reading »

Francis's Improv Theology

Francis reminds us that the Eucharist is not “a prize for the perfect.” But marriage, apparently, is. Continue Reading »

Left or Right, No One Is Happy

An earthquake is coming. Continue Reading »

A Crucial Bulwark

Together, we can become an even stronger voice for religious commitment and moral truth in the public square. Continue Reading »

The Meaning of Ali

Boxer, braggart, trickster, trumper. Continue Reading »

First Things, a Lifeline

Ideas have consequences. They are also vehicles of truth, and of uplift. Continue Reading »

Trump's Identity Politics

Many have described Donald Trump as a bully. His verbal assaults on Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel certainly fit that description. Curiel is overseeing a law suit against the now-defunct Trump University. Things aren't going Trump's way, it seems. And so, instead of calling the judge “stupid” or . . . . Continue Reading »

Why I'm Anti-Anti-Trump

It's time for our political intelligensia to wake up. So argues Walter Russell Mead in a thoughtful piece in The American Interest, “The Meaning of Mr. Trump.” Forget about handicapping the race between Trump and Clinton. Forget about itemizing Trump's liabilities and failings. What's important . . . . Continue Reading »

Capitalism Beyond Caricatures

Free enterprise ain't what it used to be.

Setting the Record Straight on John Stott

Social media is aflame with interest in Barton Swaim's criticism of the heavily revised third edition of John Stott's classic of evangelical theology, Basic Christianity. I'm glad that so many share Swaim's desire that our theological inheritance not be ground into pablum by the relevance mill. But . . . . Continue Reading »