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

The Old Evangelization

From the November 2021 Print Edition

As a historian who studies missionaries, I am sometimes asked by my fellow Catholics: How did the Church think about evangelization in the past compared to the present? Typically it is clear that they regard one age as wiser than the other. The more progressively inclined assume that . . . . Continue Reading »

When Rome Policed Art

From the Aug/Sept 2021 Print Edition

A century ago, a little-known Belgian artist named Albert Servaes became famous when cardinals at the Holy Office in Rome censured him for depicting Jesus Christ in a way they considered unsuitable for Catholics. The story made the front page of American Art News in New York. In this . . . . Continue Reading »

Bishops Unbound

From the January 2019 Print Edition

In Before Church and State, Andrew Willard Jones describes a time when Christendom’s lay rulers were leaders in building the City of God. They “wielded the secular, temporal sword . . . bestowed on the Christian people by Christ himself.” In the medieval era, before sharp categorical . . . . Continue Reading »