R. R. Reno

Most of our elite universities have been rigorous about merit from their inceptions. What’s changed is what counts as merit. Continue Reading »

Our first reaction is a benumbed sadness. Seventeen dead in a Florida school, shot by a disturbed young man. Then we search for explanations. The killer suffers from mental illness. Like so many others, he is from a broken home. Guns are too readily available. The media frenzy makes the shooter into . . . . Continue Reading »

A Catholic politics never seeks to be a sacred politics, never proposes a full and complete integration of statecraft with soulcraft. Continue Reading »

The political winds are shifting, and our elites are increasingly dismayed and disoriented. Voters throughout the West are rejecting establishment parties, often in spite of dire warnings by the mainstream media and the leadership class. The European Union, supposedly a template for a more . . . . Continue Reading »

An atmosphere of crisis envelops us. Political commentary has become hysterical, not just on clickbait Internet platforms, but also in prestige journals and newspapers. Authoritarian, fascist, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, neo-Bolshevik—these terms are being used liberally today. After penning . . . . Continue Reading »

Blood pressure is rising. Folks are worried about “illiberalism.” In a November issue of the Washington Post, Anne Applebaum warned of a rising “neo-Bolshevism” assailing the West: “Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen and Jaroslaw Kacyniski.” Others have more . . . . Continue Reading »

From its very beginning, First Things has been a venture in which Jews and Christians have worked together.  Continue Reading »

We can make a difference in 2018. Let’s work together to renew the voice of faith in the public square. Continue Reading »

The 500th anniversary of the Reformation sent me back to Luther and his debate with Erasmus. The two were among the most widely read authors in sixteenth-century Europe. In the early 1520s, they exchanged dueling treatises on free will. They raised recondite theological questions of biblical . . . . Continue Reading »

For a long time it has felt as though the currents of history were always running against us. But the world is turning.  Continue Reading »