From readers:

“I have been reading First Things since 2010, and my wife and I started reading when we got married in 2017. There are very few publications where the content is of such high quality on such a diverse variety of topics. It is rare to find excellent essays on theology, literature, history, and politics, plus good poetry, in the same volume, month after month. First Things articles are regularly, almost daily, the basis for great discussions in our household on the most important issues in life. The Readers of First Things group for our area takes place in our living room. It is truly a blessing to meet with other readers, to bring such brilliant and talented people together to discuss First Things each month. Rebuilding society means rebuilding local community. Having this group out of our home has been an excellent way to bring together like-minded folks, share good ideas, good food, and good drink, and to build a little community.”

“Each issue is both a challenge and a treat.” 

“I read a number of publications, but First Things is by far the one I most look forward to receiving.”

“My subscription began with August/September 1996—with that same issue this summer, I will have been a subscriber longer than I have not been! First Things is the only print magazine to which I choose to subscribe and I consider it an important part of keeping myself informed. The ideas within each issue support, challenge, and help develop my own perspectives, even while entertaining me. Being able to find a quiet place to read the latest issue is something to which I always look forward.”

“My earliest copy of First Things is from 1998. How I discovered the magazine is lost to the mists of time, but of all the magazines I have subscribed to since then, it is the only one I still get because it is the only one that didn’t amble away from the first things. I am saving my stacks here for my granddaughter, but having gotten them out for the picture, I find myself wanting to dive back in and reread the treasures that are stored there. I might be finished by the time she can appreciate them! First Things has enriched my thought, my vocabulary, and my conversation and exposed me to so many intriguing writers from both sides of the Tiber. I can’t do without this connection to news of what is currently being hatched in the lairs of secular thinkers and the cogent critiques of my wiser fellow believers.”

“First Things represents an approach to life and the world that I live and believe in. The material world is but a shadow of spiritual reality and faith in Christ is fundamental. While not all the First Things contributors agree with that, it is the magazine’s focus, which is explored with contributors from a very wide spectrum of views and intriguing thoughts. I will always subscribe.”

“I’m not sure exactly how First Things first came to my attention—nor exactly when—but I have been a reader for something close to thirty years now (and have written for it a handful of times). Like any magazine worth reading, First Things will sometimes publish points of view with which I sharply disagree. But for its entire history it has stood out for its civilized and civilizing contributions to our conversations about first things, last things, and many things in between. The magazine has contributed greatly to my own education—in religion, philosophy, history, and literature—and it has reliably kept the faith that there are permanent moral norms governing our social and political life together that cannot be traduced without great costs. For all this I remain a grateful reader.”

“To be sure, I am a devoted reader of First Things since issue no. 1. But more than that, I am a grateful reader. No other periodical has so enriched my understanding of religion and politics. Every issue delivers timely and timeless insights. As for the editor, if R. R. Reno has an amen corner, I’m in it.”

External:

“We need organizations like First Things in the culture to showcase the good, the true, and the beautiful and to fight against the errors of our society. . . . It gives me great confidence in the future of our society when I see so many men and women who aren’t afraid to step into the arena and make their voices heard.”—Harrison Butker, placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs

“. . . the most important vehicle for exploring the tangled web of religion and society in the English-speaking world.” —Newsweek

“. . . stately, staid, scholarly . . .” —National Public Radio

“Every young writer, I imagine, has their first intellectual magazine, whose essays and articles are devoured all the more greedily for being slightly over one’s head. Mine was First Things.” —Ross Douthat, New York Times

“Everyone talks about the proper role of religion in public affairs, but First Things is the only place in which a serious and illuminating exploration of that question can consistently be pursued. For that alone—not to mention its lively and provocative editorial comments—First Things is indispensable.” —Norman Podhoretz, Commentary

“The debate about public policy is increasingly calling upon such formerly unfashionable notions as character and virtue and citizenship. The indispensable contribution of First Things is to remind America’s intellectuals that serious debate on these topics must confront the life of the spirit.” —Charles Murray, Emeritus Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

“I am amazed by the number of people who tell me they are reading First Things cover to cover. There seems to be a hunger for informed, intelligent, and sprightly discussion of the vast range of issues related to religion and public life issues central to the lives of Americans, but frequently relegated to the back pages, if at all, in other journals.” —Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard University

“First Things is the premier journal of Christian thought in America today—provocative, stimulating, and elegantly written. Reading First Things is essential to being well informed about major theological, philosophical, and political questions. I find it indispensable.” —The late Charles W. Colson, Prison Fellowship Ministries

“The most serious and best religious publication in the entire English-speaking world and perhaps without rival in any language.”
—The late Michael Novak, Scholar and Author

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