Alexi Sargeant

Our August/September 2016 issue of First Things is out in the world and available on our website. As a special piece of bonus content, I am here to share with you, loyal readers, some of our also-ran titles: headings for pieces that were suggested at our titles meeting but nixed for being too punny, . . . . Continue Reading »

Every popular game has its naysayers, but a doom-and-gloom attitude is harder to justify when a game is pulling players out into the sunlight to discover the places and people around them—and to do some good deeds to strangers in the process. Continue Reading »

A new film, The Innocents, tells a moving story of healing and grace without downplaying the grief and trauma that preceded them. And it does this while addressing a moral blind spot of our popular culture. Continue Reading »

Eggs Benedict Option: Saving Western Civilization over Brunch

Ten Espadrilles That Scream Gender Realism

And Many More! Continue Reading »

Last week I had the honor and pleasure of seeing my production of The Jeweler's Shop by Karol Wojtyla performed at the First Things office. Continue Reading »

Where has all the dark Christian music gone? It doesn’t take much listening to notice how blithe and breezy popular Christian music has become. At the data journalism site FiveThirtyEight, Leah Libresco has run the numbers and found that the lyrics of recent Christian hits skew towards life, . . . . Continue Reading »

Franz Jägerstätter, born in 1907, led a wild youth in Austria, turned to God after fearing he had killed another man in a fight, and settled down with a wife to run a farm and father children. In 1943, he refused the draft out of a conviction that a Catholic could not fight for Nazism. Defying the entreaties of mother, neighbors, priest, and bishop, he went to the guillotine. Even after the war, Jägerstätter’s countrymen called him a traitor and denied his widow, Franziska, and their three daughters any aid. Only in 2007 was Jägerstätter beatified by Benedict XVI. . . . Continue Reading »

Our June/July 2016 issue of First Things is hot off the press and available on our website. As a special piece of bonus content, I am here to share with you, loyal readers, some of our also-ran titles: headings for pieces that were suggested at our titles meeting but nixed for being too punny, too . . . . Continue Reading »

When I was young, my family's favorite hymn was sung on three days of the Church year. We knew it came on Easter and Pentecost, but we scratched our heads when we tried to remember the other festival day hailed in this resounding hymn. Ascension Thursday would catch us each year as a (pleasant) . . . . Continue Reading »

To Trump, or not to Trump, that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the land to suffer
The tweets and twaddles of outrageous baseness
Or to take arms against an orange menace
And, by opposing…do what? . . . . Continue Reading »