“In the same way that a wife shares together in the wealth of her husband, so that what is the husband’s is also the wife’s and, on the other hand, what is the wife’s is the husbands, so also all believers are partakers of all the wealth of God. They have all that He has because we have been Named after Him. The Name gives us a new way of being when we are born anew. Previously, we were bereft of all His kindness as also we received our name from our father, Adam, who is called omnis homo mendax (“all men are liars”) and their names are not acknowledged by God. That is why God had not wanted to give the children their name beforehand, but in their circumcision. So we also do not give a child his name before his baptism, when he is united with Christ as His bridegroom.”
Martin Luther’s Festival Sermons, Circumcision of the Baby Jesus, p. 187.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
