I first discovered First Things in my college library’s collection of back issues (below FEMS Microbes, above Foreign Affairs). Now, as a junior fellow, one of my many tasks is to promote articles on social media. I choose one article each day from the back issues. Through this, I have discovered what so many of our readers must already know: First Things really is “America’s most influential journal of religion and public life.”
I cherish our archives, and so should you. First Things writers have been prophetic. Every old essay on progressive anti-Catholicism, the death of liberal Christianity, population collapse—the list goes on—gives me confidence that First Things is, and will continue to be, making the correct calls on the concerns of tomorrow. For a great example of First Things’ predictive power, read “Polytechnic Utiliversity” (2013), where Reinhard Hütter diagnosed the spiritual problem of the university’s capitulation to servile arts—a capitulation that has grown more total in the decade since.
Other “conservative” publications have stowed their lamps under bushel baskets, playing defense in the culture war and conforming to yesterday’s standards. But First Things remains unafraid to provoke response. From “The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics” (1996) to Paul Kingsnorth’s Erasmus Lecture, “Against Christian Civilization” (2024), First Things pushes the conversation forward.
But it is only because of the generosity of our readers that the magazine was, is, and will remain the best in the business. The potential donor would profit from checking our record. And as someone who reads the ledger of our past every day, I can tell you that our magazine’s past signals a prescient, provocative future. Please donate today.
Jacob Akey is a junior fellow at First Things.
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