Regular readers of firstthings.com will recognize these popular articles from last year. However, in case you missed any of the most-read pieces from 2014, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10:
10. “What Mozilla Means,” Robert P. George
“Mozilla has now made its employment policy clear. No Catholics need apply. Or Evangelical Christians. Or Eastern Orthodox. Or Orthodox Jews. Or Mormons. Or Muslims.”
9. “Why Can’t My Son Receive the Eucharist?,” Anna Nussbaum Keating
“Perhaps now is the time to rediscover the practice of infant communion.”
8. “Children Who Never Play,” Michael Lewis
“The process of producing the well-socialized, well-tempered contemporary child has inadvertently blunted some of those qualities that can only be acquired, as it were, when no one is looking.”
7. “The Princess Bride Syndrome,” Ryan Shinkel
“Like many Americans, I have changed my mind on gay marriage—though my change of mind has gone the opposite way of most.”
6. “Mark Driscoll’s Problems and Ours,” Carl Trueman
“The recent revelation that Mars Hill Church in Seattle paid an outside company to boost sales of its pastor’s books has raised questions not simply about personal integrity but also about the very culture of American Evangelicalism.”
5. “An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins,” J. D. Flynn
“Dr. Dawkins, I’d like to invite you to dinner. Come spend time with my children. Share a meal with them. Before you advocate their deaths, come find out what’s worthwhile in their lives.”
4. “The Foolishness of an Ebola Doctor,” Collin Garbarino
“Maybe Ann Coulter’s right. Maybe Dr. Brantly wasn’t ‘wise by worldly standards.’ Maybe he was on a fool’s errand in his mission to demonstrate Christ’s love in Liberia. Christ crucified is folly to the Gentiles.”
3. “N. T. Wright on Gay Marriage,” Matthew Schmitz
“N. T. Wright frames the Christian story precisely as a story, a grand narrative, the greatest epic, and all the greater for being true. In an interview with J. John of the Philo Trust, Wright explains why he views the complementarity of the sexes as essential to that story, and to marriage itself.”
2. “Against Heterosexuality,” Michael Hannon
“The idea of sexual orientation is artificial and inhibits Christian witness.”
1. “A Church in Exile,” Andrew Walker
“What I see is a church exchanging compassion for cowardliness before culture’s consistory.” (See Walker’s followup article for the full story.)
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…
