Arts & Letters
A selection of recent articles on this topic
Books for Christmas—2025
Surveys indicate that reading books is dropping precipitously across all age groups. This is a tragedy in…
What We’ve Been Reading—Autumn 2025
First Things staff share their most recent autumn reading recommendations.
Walker Percy’s Pilgrimage
People can get used to most anything. Even the abyss may be rendered tolerable—or, for that matter,…
Outgrowing Nostalgia in The Ballad of Wallis Island
No man is an island,” John Donne declares in his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. The Ballad of…
Finest Pieces of Plastic
Writing early in 1810, diplomat and scholar Georg Griesinger gave the most detailed surviving account...
Rosalía’s Restless Heart
In music,” writes the Italian priest Luigi Giussani, “what man pays homage to is something else, something…
Beyond the Immigration Headlines
If you are a regular reader, you will have noticed that the interval between the previous column…
Petrarch: Rime Sparse 81
I am so wearied by the ancient weight Of my own sins, by my bad habits’ load…
Strange Gods
We promised Joshua that we would serve the god who brought us to this land. Of course...
On an Iced Handrail
Sunlight coruscates the ice and glitters, turning the chipped, green handrail to a ray of emerald only…
Sounds of Kyoto
They intensify the courtyard’s evening chill, the dragon flutes, soaring with other woodwinds through variations...
Letters
I regret that Aaron Kheriaty’s very good analysis of the desiccated landscape of bioethics (“Zombie Bioethics,” October…
The Jewish Foundations of the West: New and Notable Books
In the introduction of Jewish Roots of American Liberty, a new collection of essays and documents edited…
Where Is the Antichrist? (ft. Peter Thiel)
In this episode, Peter Thiel joins Rusty Reno on The Editor’s Desk to talk about his recently…
The Inkling Who Fought Abortion
Earlier this autumn, I had the opportunity to visit Oxford the day before I delivered two lectures…
