The February Issue

The February
issue of First Things has been up on our website for a little bit now, but you might have missed it in all the website changes. But since the February issue is very good, that would be a shame!

As is customary, we have three free articles for you to read: David and Amber Lapp’s
“Alone in the New America,” a piece on working-class families and communities (recommended for anybody who reads Pete Spiliakos’ columns); Jonathan Yudelman’s “The Christian Theologian of Zion,” a story of Fr. Marcel-Jacques Dubois’ fraught relationship with Israel; and Cassandra Nelson’s review of Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge.

Behind the paywall, you’ll also find Matthew Milliner’s beautiful piece about baptizing his daughter (we’ve been told it’s made at least one person cry, so read it at your own risk), Ralph C. Wood’s review of Flannery O’Connor’s Prayer Journal, a story by David Bentley Hart, and, of course, Helen Rittelmeyer’s anti-empiricism essay, “Bloodless Moralism,” which, in addition to earning many admiring reads, has already provoked at least one hate-buy. And these are just a few selections from a very strong issue . . . so click over there and read them for yourself.

We don’t allow comments on articles, but you can post any thoughts on these articles that you have over on this post—or, please write us a letter for possible publication in the magazine and send it to ft@firstthings.com. The due date for letters is February 3. They should not be longer than four hundred words. We do edit them (for length, mostly).

Happy reading!