The Meaning of 1776
On the night he was elected president, in November 2008, Barack Obama addressed a throng in Chicago and declared that America had been made over the course of “221 years—block by block, brick by brick…
Aug/Sept 2026
Print Edition
Aug/Sept 2026 Print Edition
America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life
Anti-Wokeness: An Obituary
Holding Things Together
So many streets around me are ugly. I do a lot of walking and jogging. I notice…
Ban the Books
Walk into a bookstore anywhere in the country. Chances are that, somewhere toward the front, you’ll see…
The Scandal of Jewish Belief
The Gospel of Matthew ends with this promise of Jesus to his disciples: “Behold, I am with…
The Sudden Death of the African Church
Total civilizational collapse is unusual. In the West, continuity exists between the Roman past and our contemporary…
Icarus Descending
Winners of the Third Annual First Things Poetry Prize
We are pleased to announce the winners of the third annual First Things Poetry Prize. Forester McClatchey…
The Meaning of 1776
On the night he was elected president, in November 2008, Barack Obama addressed a throng in Chicago…
William Lane Craig and Evangelicalism’s Trinitarian Deficit
William Lane Craig has recently caused some consternation by saying he does not confess the faith of…
Natalism Will Smash the Gerontocracy
Life expectancy has increased in the U.S., rising a decade since 1950 and three decades since 1900.…
Ignorance and Conviction at Columbia
Darializa Avila Chevalier—upper Manhattan’s new congressional candidate, backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and endorsed…
Left to Our Own Devices
Hiding in most of our pockets is a shiny black mirror with a logo on the back…
The Founders and the Common Good
The dominant public philosophy among American elites is modern liberalism, often referred to merely as “liberalism.” Two…
To Live Fittingly
Why do the humanities face such a hostile climate? In part it’s because academics have excluded ordinary,…
Mad as Hell
In a simpler time, the internet was full of cats. Flooding message boards and YouTube with images…
Breaking the Mind
Philosopher James K. A. Smith suffered through a period of profound depression. He found solace and insight…
Centaur
The Etruscan centaur holds up his right hand,not palm outward as if to stop chariot trafficor solemnly…
A Celtic Skull in the Museum at La Tène
Two-thousand years and more untouched I burnedIn soil’s slow fire. On the beachAbove, ringed by thin, withered…
Asters
The asters bloom amid late-summer heat,Low-lying stars that will not linger longAnd bend their sprays beneath the…
A Nation Under God
Our country has a long tradition of official encouragement of religion on a non-sectarian basis. That tradition…
The Ten Commandments in the Courthouse
Recently, I visited the New York State Courthouse in Jamaica, Queens. For readers who don’t know, Queens…
The Faith of the Founding
My colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, Walter Berns, has written that the philosophy of John Locke…
Taking Religious Freedom Seriously
Passage of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment…
Keeping the Commandments
Given the contentiousness of public life in America today it was inevitable that the bulky stone monument…
Implied Consent
Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act’s “contraception mandate”— the requirement…
