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First Links — 5.13.2016

From First Thoughts

Captain America: Civil War Puts Humanity Before Spectacle
Alexi Sargeant, Acculturated

What Is the Benedict Option, and Why Might It Be Coming to Your Neighborhood?
John Burger, Aleteia

A Confession of Liberal Intolerance
Nicholas Kristoff, New York Times

The Seven Deadly Social Networks
Robinson Meyer, Atlantic

Pope to Set Up Commission to Study Possibility of Women Deacons
Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register

What the Book Really Means
Melanie Bettinelli, Wine Dark Sea

Would the World be a Better Place Without People like my Daughter?
Dominic Lawson, Daily Mail

Shakespeare as All-Too-Modern Nightmare
Sohrab Ahmari, Wall Street Journal

Gene Editing: New Technology, Old Moral Questions
Brendan P. Foht, New Atlantis

First Links — 5.6.16

From First Thoughts

Ascension Day Couldn't Be More Timely
Peter M. Burfeind, Federalist

The Spark of Life Meets IVF (and Uncle Andrew)
Simcha Fisher, Aleteia

That Thing You Think Is an Allegory Isn't an Allegory!
Laura Miller, Slate

Poland: Europe's Forgotten Democratic Ancestor
Adriel Kasonta, National Interest

Why Aren't Other Dioceses Looking to Lincoln?
Brian Williams, Liturgy Guy

Demoncracies End When They Are Too Democratic
Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine

Reclaiming “Redneck” Urbanism: What Urban Planners Can Learn From Trailer Parks
Nolan Gray, Market Urbanism

In Defense of BYU's Honor Code
Damon Linker, The Week

All that’s Gehrish
Bruce Cole, New Criterion

What We've Been Reading—4.29.16

From First Thoughts

In anticipation of a film adaptation by Martin Scorsese (due this fall), I read Shusaku Endo’s Silence. It’s the story of a Jesuit priest, the most polished product of the counter-reformation Church, sailing to Japan and there encountering brutal persecution.

First Links — 4.29.16

From First Thoughts

Give Us This Day Our Daily Hedgehog
Leah Libresco, Aleteia

The Librarian Who Saved Timbuktu's Treasures from Al-Quaeda
Joshua Hammer, Wall Street Journal

Corporeality Bites
Rachel Lu, National Review

China may be Readying New Crackdown on Religion
Associated Press, Crux

A Conversation with Camile Paglia
Tyler Cowen, Medium

Shakespeare Not Our Contemporary
James Bowman, New Criterion

The Smug Style in American Liberalism
Emmett Rensin, Vox

How I Discovered True Masculinity
Matt Moore, Gospel Coalition

My Unexpected Pregnancy Turned Out Better Than Everyone Expected
Heather Scott, Verily

First Links — 4.22.16

From First Thoughts

What They Didn’t Teach You in School about Harriet Tubman
Eli Lehrer, National Review

The Medal of St. Benedict: Bracelet Edition
Richard Beck, Experimental Theology

Shakespeare, Cervantes, and the Romance of the Real
R. V. Young, Modern Age

The Baptism of Poland
Andrzej Duda, Rorate Caeli

Trump's Putin Fantasy
Timothy Snyder, New York Review of Books

Why Our Evangelism Doesn't Work
Elliot Milco, Paraphasic

The Imaginary Suicide of Mrs. Darling
Elyse Byrnes, Lingua Barbara

Midnight Special's Supernatural Faith
Tim Markatos, Acculturated

400 Years After Shakespeare’s Death, He’s Still Required Reading (Even For Econ Majors)
Leah Libresco, FiveThirtyEight

What We've Been Reading—4.15.16

From First Thoughts

Mark BauerleinTwo nights ago, I found The Bonfire of the Vanities on the shelf and began reading. It was the blockbuster book of the 1980s, catching the spirit of the age in all its glittery egotism (“Masters of the Universe”) and cheap urban politics (the opening scene is an 80s version . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 4.15.16

From First Thoughts

The Defense of Catholic Marriage
Ross Douthat, New York Times

Distributism is the Future
Gene Callahan, American Conservative

Catholic Astronauts Keeping the Faith in Space
Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service

Conservative Movement Overturns 800-Year-Old Passover Ban on Rice and Legumes
Liza Schoenfein, Forward

What it Feels Like to be Hunted by Drones
Malik Jalal, Independent

Christopher Hitchens and the Hound of Heaven
Brian Mattson, Gospel Coalition

How Shakespeare Lives Now
Stephen Greenblatt, New York Review of Books

Every Biblical Reference in Hamilton
Alissa Wilkinson, Christianity Today

Can an Outsider Truly Become Amish?
Kelsey Osgood, Atlas Obscura

First Links — 4.8.16

From First Thoughts

Liturgical Time Travel
Br. Humbert Kilanowski, O. P., Dominicana

Batman V. Superman: Battle Without Honor or Humanity
Alexi Sargeant, Acculturated

Restrictions on Women's Religious Attire
Staff, Pew Research Center

How Covenants Make Us
David Brooks, New York Times

A Happy Marriage Across Party Lines
Jeanne Safer, Wall Street Journal

The Mighty and the Almighty: George W. Bush
Hannah Malcolm, Theos

The Literary Magazine of the Dark Web
Nathan Smith, Atlantic

Give Sorrow Words: On the Many Stagings of Macbeth
Kevin D. WIlliamson, New Criterion

What I've Learned Reciting Poems in the Street
Gary Dexter, Spectator

First Links — 4.1.16

From First Thoughts

Risen and Not Undead (or, Why Jesus is Not a Zombie)
Rebecca Bratten Weiss, Patheos

Monks And At-Risk Teens Run School Together With 98% Graduation Rate
Sarah Grossman, Huffington Post

I'm A Christian and I Hate Christian Movies
Alissa Wilkinson, Thrillist

Will a Silent Majority Overthrow Architecture's Elite?
David Brussat, American Conservative

The Return of Eugenics
Fraser Nelson, Spectator

The Law of Benedict
Samuel Gregg, Public Discourse

Superman and the Damage Done
Devin Faraci, Birth.Movies.Death

Chivalry and the Millenial Guy
Cerith Gardiner, Aleteia