Arts & Letters
A selection of recent articles on this topic
Address Book
The leather binding, torn and askew, / is barely joined by brittle pieces of Scotch tape. /…
The Ruin
Remorseless sun stunts the dew / Glistening towers of tainted glass / ignite and blister in blood-yellow…
What Does The Practice of the Presence of God Reveal About Leo?
In a recent in-flight interview, Pope Leo mentioned that Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of…
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’…
Strange Gods
We promised Joshua that we would serve / the god who brought us to this land. Of…
On an Iced Handrail
Sunlight coruscates the ice and glitters, / turning the chipped, green handrail to a ray / of…
Sounds of Kyoto
They intensify / the courtyard’s evening chill, / the dragon flutes, / soaring with other woodwinds /…
Letters—December 2025
I regret that Aaron Kheriaty’s very good analysis of the desiccated landscape of bioethics (“Zombie Bioethics,” October…
