Family
A selection of recent articles on this topic
Arguing for Truth in the Anti-Culture
With the recent Tory triumph in the British parliamentary elections, it is clear that the old, predictable…
Leaders Who Can’t Lead
In my forty years as a student and teacher in higher education, I have seen the humanities,…
The Well-Fought Fight
The incorporation of Anglican hymnody into English-language Catholic worship is one of the great blessings of the…
Two Popes, Too Many Untruths
I felt strangely pulled between two minds as I sat through The Two Popes, the new movie said…
The Cure for Melancholy
I understand the cause of your sickness. You have forgotten what you are.” So says Lady Philosophy…
Affirming the Adventure of Orthodoxy
Dear Readers of First Things, We’re proud to serve as the leading voice for religious people who…
Algorithm Religion
It’s 2032 and you’re heading into town in your self-driving car. You are alone, asleep in the…
Cultural Critic, Cultural Christian
Clive James died on November 24, 2019, nearly a decade after being diagnosed with leukemia. Born in…
Peace In a Plastic World
Western secular culture “is a kind of hothouse growth,” Christopher Dawson wrote—an artificial culture that shelters us…
A Year of Reading: 2019
I’ve been doing this annual list for twenty years, and it has taken on a ritual quality.…
No Unity Without the Cross
This essay was given as a homily on November 16, 2019, at the Mass of the Americas…
The Poets’ Favorite Season
One day in 1956, a poet was sitting at his desk, thinking back eighteen years. On an…
Martin Scorsese’s Damned Men Walking
Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is about bringing the curtain down—in cinematic and other senses—on the mythology of glamor and…
Hope As a Natural Virtue
Dante’s Commedia draws on the tradition of the seven virtues, four “natural” (justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude) and…
Chick-fil-A Chickens Out
For years, Chick-fil-A has been a useful case study for fusionists and libertarian-minded social conservatives. The company…
