This article is part of our 2023 year-end campaign series, featuring reflections from prominent authors on why First Things matters. To make your year-end campaign gift now, visit firstthings.com/donate.
When the Sturm und Drang of the media spin cycle has wrung you out, First Things is like a tall glass of iced tea on a shady porch. It is the antidote to hot takes on X, a refreshing dose of moral clarity in confused times.
Whether it’s George Weigel’s prophetic warnings about Jew-hatred, or Mary Ann Glendon’s “angry woman” theory about the collapse of sexual taboos, or Carl R. Trueman’s 2023 Erasmus Lecture, “The Desecration of Man,” this is a magazine that does not shy away from affirming moral truth or the dignity of man. It recognizes that, to quote from Trueman’s lecture, “The restoration of personhood and dignity to men and women requires the worshiping community of the church to grasp the greatness of the God in whose image we are made.”
First Things writers and editors sense the shape of things to come in a topsy-turvy world. They offer wisdom grounded in the teachings of Christianity to combat the evil that’s been unleashed. Asking what’s gone wrong in America without confronting the spiritual vacuum in public life, and the celebration of anti-virtues, is an arid quest. And yet, so many of our institutions choose to ignore the spiritual rot in our society.
Fortunately, First Things feeds the soul as well as the mind in a beautifully written, lively, and sometimes provocative package. It is never boring, and always leaves you feeling a little bit smarter. If First Things has nourished you as it has me, please consider making a year-end donation today.
Miranda Devine writes for the New York Post.
Image by Geoffreyrabbit licensed via Creative Commons. Image cropped
