Archive
More than thirty years of First Things articles at your fingertips.
Articles
St. George’s Cross, Flag of the People
In recent weeks, the Flag of St. George (a red cross on a white background) has appeared throughout England, painted (with more or less skill and care) on everything...
Elizabeth Inchbald, Inventor of the Catholic Novel
While the “Catholic novel” is a recognized subgenre—associated above all, in the twentieth century, with Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene—there is no agreement on what exactly makes a novel...
Reality Is Strange
How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Elseby jeffrey j. kripalchicago, 312 pages, $35 In the academic sphere of the history of religion, there are...
History Takes Flight
They Flew:A History of the Impossibleby carlos eire yale, 512 pages, $35 Yes, but did it really happen?” Every historian who works on supernatural phenomena fears being asked this...
The Ancient Royal Magic of the Coronation
Medieval,” “anachronistic,” “outdated,” “a magic hat ceremony.” These are just a few of the uncomplimentary terms that some have chosen to describe tomorrow’s coronation of King Charles III and...
Witchcraft on the World’s Edge
The Ruin of All Witches:Life and Death in the New Worldby malcolm gaskillknopf, 336 pages, $30 Stories of early modern English witchcraft can often give readers a sense of...
The Real History of Paganism
Queens of the Wild:Pagan Goddesses In Christian Europe:An Investigationby ronald huttonyale, 256 pages, $25 The number of people in America and Europe who actively identify themselves as “pagans” is...
The History of Christmas Ghost Stories
The midwinter ghost story is, arguably, the oldest story in the English language. The Old English epic poem Beowulf might not immediately spring to mind as the archetypal festive...
The Making of Christian England
The Anglo-Saxons:A History of the Beginnings of Englandby marc morrispegasus, 528 pages, $32 The art of telling stories will always be closely associated with the Anglo-Saxons. Beowulf, the era’s best-known...
The Woman Who Inspired Wicca
Just under a century ago, in 1921, one of the strangest books ever to be published by Oxford University Press appeared in print: The Witch-Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Alice...
The Myth of Medieval Paganism
They don’t look very Christian—those strange faces made of leaves, and those women displaying cartoonishly enlarged genitals on the walls of medieval churches. Most people who have explored the...
