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Matthew Schmitz is a former senior editor of First Things. 

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Douthat on Hart

From First Thoughts

Ross Douthat responds to David Bentley Hart’s essay on Jung: I agree with parts of this diagnosis, but I think it’s slightly incomplete, because I think that much of modern Gnosticism is less disenchanted and post-metaphysical than Hart implies. Having spent a fair amount of time reading . . . . Continue Reading »

Just War

From First Thoughts

Not so long ago, the language of mainline Protestantism supplied our country with its ethical vocabulary. Lutheran minister Reinhold Neibuhr guided his contemporaries’ reflection on war; Episcopal priest Joseph Fletcher promoted the widely adopted idea of “situation ethics.” The . . . . Continue Reading »

A Saint's Advice on Dressing Well

From First Thoughts

On the subject of dressing, I think the final word belongs to St. Louis. The saint-king is quoted in Chesterton’s Saint Thomas Aquinas as saying to his courtiers: “Vanity should be avoided; but every man should dress well, in the manner of his rank, that his wife may the more easily . . . . Continue Reading »

Leaving the Pride Parade

From First Thoughts

Elad Nehorai, a young Jewish writer, describes how he lost his faith in gay rights : It was the summer of 2008 in Chicago. The month before I went to yeshiva for the first time. I was excited. My friends and I had talked about doing this for a while now. We were going to the gay pride parade. . . . . Continue Reading »