R. R. Reno

In his column in the New York Times , Ross Douthat chronicles the decline of liberal Protestantism . The Episcopal Church and other mainline denominations were once pillars of the WASP establishment, providing religious leadership and inspiration in nation-defining events such as the civil rights . . . . Continue Reading »

Adam Kirsch has a charming essay marking the 100 birthday of literary critic M. H. Abrams over at the Tablet , one well worth reading. I may have read Abrams’ most famous work of criticism, The Mirror and the Lamp (1953), as an undergraduate or graduate student. But it was his other big book, . . . . Continue Reading »

The New York Times styled it a “denunciation.” The National Catholic Reporter saw it as part of the Vatican’s supposed “war on women.” The ever-reliable Paul Lakeland of Fairfield intoned that it was “a black day in the history of the Church.” What triggered this outrage? In early June the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican bureaucracy responsible for weighing in on questions of faith and morals, put out a “Notification” that censured Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, a 2006 book about sexual ethics by Sr. Margaret Farley… . Continue Reading »

Dear Readers, First Things is a non-profit. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now the electronic age presents new challenges. I’ve written to our subscribers, who have responded with generosity. Now I’m writing to you directly on . . . . Continue Reading »

Dear Readers, First Things is a non-profit. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now the electronic age presents new challenges. I’ve written to our subscribers, who have responded with generosity. Now I’m writing to you directly on . . . . Continue Reading »

Dear Readers, First Things is a non-profit. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now the electronic age presents new challenges. I’ve written to our subscribers, who have responded with generosity. Now I’m writing to you directly on . . . . Continue Reading »

Dear Readers, First Things is a non-profit. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now the electronic age presents new challenges. I’ve written to our subscribers, who have responded with generosity. Now I’m writing to you directly on . . . . Continue Reading »

Some decades ago Peter Berger became convinced that secularization theory isn’t true. Science, technology, and modernity do not necessarily lead to the decline of religion. Secularization is the exception—a parochial western and central European phenomenon that is also characteristic of . . . . Continue Reading »

Dear Readers, First Things is a non-profit. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now the electronic age presents new challenges. I’ve written to our subscribers, who have responded with generosity. Now I’m writing to you directly on . . . . Continue Reading »

Dear Readers, First Things is a non-profit. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now the electronic age presents new challenges. I’ve written to our subscribers, who have responded with generosity. Now I’m writing to you directly on . . . . Continue Reading »