Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

Saint Ted Kennedy?

Has Ted Kennedy been canonized? “I knew that when he left us he would go to heaven and help pass the bill,” Nancy Pelosi proclaimed recently, going on to assure us, “And now he can rest in peace. His dream for America’s families has become a reality.” There is a problem here, which has more to do with theology than politics, and it provides a good opportunity to think about last things: four of them, to be precise… . Continue Reading »

Recommended Summer Reading

New York isn’t quite as extreme as Paris, but the city gets noticeably emptier at the end of July and into August. It’s almost quiet and peaceful. OK, not almost, but certainly less crowded and frenetic. And therefore friendlier to the idea of settling down to read a book, which is no doubt why last night a friend asked me for some recommendations… . Continue Reading »

Songs of the Church Militant

Christian worship is inherently political. As Bernd Wannenwetsch points out, this isn’t because worship is a tool for ginning up enthusiasm for a candidate or for stirring the fires of patriotism. On the contrary, “It is just because Christian worship is not a means to an end that it is political.” Worship is political because it “opens out into” the kingdom of God, and because in her worship the Church “anticipates the city of God” with its eternal liturgical assembly… . Continue Reading »

Bachelorettes and Humanae Vitae

I am rethinking Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical condemning artificial birth control. Well, actually not rethinking since I cannot remember ever thinking about it much at all, ever, except dismissively. So best to say, I am considering it seriously for the first time. I actually sat down to read it. This, I admit, is a bit unusual for a Lutheran pastor, or for any Protestant, pastor or not… . Continue Reading »

The War on (Little) Women and Other Insanities

The Supreme Court’s minor mistakes have few systemic consequences. But when the Supremes make a big mistake, the error tends to seep throughout the entire political process, poisoning everything in its path. That was what happened with the Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision, which intensified the passions and accelerated the dynamics that led to the Civil War”and to 600,000 Americans killing each other… . Continue Reading »

Learning How to See Again

My title for this post is borrowed from a short essay first published in 1952 by the Thomist philosopher, Josef Pieper. “Man’s ability to see is in decline,” argues Pieper in that essay, meaning not, of course, the physiological sensitivity of the human eye, but “the spiritual capacity to perceive the visible reality as it truly is.” … Continue Reading »

Love of Beauty and the Birth of the Artist

Beauty in art has been the source of countless philosophies, treatises, and debates for thousands of years. It is a discussion I typically try to avoid, as the definition of Beauty (with a capital ‘B’) is based almost entirely on individual taste and each rule seems to have twenty exceptions leading down a never-ending rabbit hole from which there is no return… . Continue Reading »

Culture Before Politics

In his recent book Bad Religion, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat argues that, while political engagement is an essential part of the Christian presence in the world, American Christians have perhaps put too much emphasis on political engagement and party politics to the exclusion of other aspects of Christian witness… . Continue Reading »

The True Stardom of Fulton Sheen

The name of Fulton J. Sheen brings to mind many things: “the Golden Age of Catholicism” … the stirring sermons … the amusing stories and dramatic conversions… the black cassock and red cape … the glistening pectoral cross … the angel cleaning the blackboard … and the signature sign-off to his Life is Worth Living television shows: “God love you!” And now, a new description can be added to the list: a saint-in-waiting… . Continue Reading »

Tags

Loading...

Filter Web Exclusive Articles