First Thoughts

First Links — 1.22.16

Conservatives Against Trump
NR Symposium, National Review

Defenders of the Unborn
Kristin Dombak, New York Times

A Truly Liberal Society Would Tolerate the Anglican Church’s Views on Sexuality
James Mumford, Spectator

Is Loyola University Losing Its Catholic Identity?
Christopher Kaczor, Catholic World Report

Is The Monomyth A Myth?
Jonathan McDonald, Dappled Things

Human Rights Law and the Erosion of Politics
Noel Malcolm, New Criterion

I March for Life Because I’m Haunted by Jessica Jones
Jason Scott Jones, Stream

How I Defeated the Tolkein Estate
Austin Gilkeson, Toast

The Wizard's Boy

Another great thing about being an altar boy was getting to the church early, before everyone except the ostentatiously devotional railbirds who actually competed to see who could be there first kneeling at the rail fingering their rosaries and pretending to be lost in meditative reverence but . . . . Continue Reading »

Adam Smith on Society’s Exploitation of the Rich

Donald Trump ascribing responsibility for his first two failed marriages to working “like, twenty-two hours a day” brought to mind Adam Smith’s invocation of the “invisible hand” in his 1759 work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. There, the invisible hand is not quite the same general . . . . Continue Reading »

Newman, Scruton, and the Politics of Mumbo Jumbo

There's more to mumbo jumbo than the fact it does not actually say anything. Continue Reading »

“Of course religion is first and foremost a duty”

The Catholic Martin Mosebach and the Muslim Navid Kermani are fascinated by one another’s faith. A conversation about true and false tolerance – and about how Islam is misunderstood in the West. Continue Reading »

Nikki Haley's Mistake

Today, we live in a time of threats like few others in recent memory. During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.”Those are the controversial sentences in Governor Nikki Haley’s response to the President’s State of . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 1.15.16

BREAKING: Episcopal Church Suspended from Full Participation in Anglican Communion
Deacon Greg Kandra, Aleteia

The Brutalism of Ted Cruz
David Brooks, New York Times

There's Nothing Patriotic About William Blake's Jerusalem
Kate Maltby, Spectator

David Bowie: The Prettiest Star
Noah Millman, American Conservative

Alan Rickman: Even Better as a Romantic Lead
Megan Garber, Atlantic

Baltering
Ellen RM Toner, Dappled Things

Making Poetry Matter
Micah Mattix, City Journal

Life at One of England’s Last Tolstoyan Communes
Kelsey Osgood, New Yorker

Application Information: Religious Freedom Project
Nicholas Fedyk, Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs

“Gender-Sensitive” Catholicism?

The following is a public statement from Dr. Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg, Germany.On October 22nd, 2015, the German Bishops' Conference in a press release called attention to a gender flyer entitled “Geschlechtersensibel. Gender katholisch gelesen” [Gender Sensitive: A Catholic . . . . Continue Reading »

Third Biennial Law & Religion Colloquium

Here's an announcement about a workshop series that may interest some First Things readers.This spring, the Center for Law and Religion at St. John's will host its third biennial Colloquium in Law and Religion. The colloquium invites leading law and religion scholars to make presentations to a small . . . . Continue Reading »

The Right Side of History

One generation's progress may fall victim to the next generation's very different agenda. If there is a lesson to be taken from this, it is that history is not, after all, a singular progressive movement along some grand Hegelian trajectory. Continue Reading »