Arts & Letters
A selection of recent articles on this topic
Harvard Loses a Giant
Two weeks ago, Prof. James Hankins gave his last lecture at Harvard before his departure to University…
When Life Ends Mid-Sentence
It was Gerstäcker’s mother. She held out her trembling hand to K. and had him sit down…
In Praise of Translation
The circumstances of my life have been such that I have moved, since adolescence, in a borderland…
Artful Faith (ft. Stephen Auth)
In the latest installment of the ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein, Stephen Auth joins…
Letters
As a Protestant, I began Valerie Stivers’s “How I Learned to Love Confession” (November 2025) mentally recalling…
Canticle of All Creatures
This poem was written by St. Francis of Assisi, and translated by Dana Gioia. Most high, all…
Address Book
The leather binding, torn and askew,is barely joined by brittle pieces of Scotch tape. And the names…
The Ruin
Remorseless sun stunts the dew Glistening towers of tainted glassignite and blister …
Union with Christ, Medieval Horses, and Japanese Rain Words
I just came across a 3×5 card (yes, I still routinely use that primitive technology) on which…
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...
