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

Joe Carter is Web Editor of First Things.

RSS Feed

Re-politicizing Christmas

From First Thoughts

Elizabeth Hunter provides a reminder that Christmas was once less familial, more political : At the time the poem was written, disturbance on the lawn on Christmas Eve would have been not magical, but threatening, likely caused by drunken youths roaming the neighborhood, demanding gifts from . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links - 12.21.11

From First Thoughts

Hanukkah and Orthodoxy American Catholic Blog , Nicholas Frankovich The Gospel according to Hitchens Washington Post , Gayle Trotter Kim Jong Il and the danger of deifying leaders CNN , R. Albert Mohler, Jr. The 2011 CT Music Awards Christianity Today Happy Hanukkah, Marines! Wall Street Journal , . . . . Continue Reading »

The Precious Steven Pinker

From First Thoughts

David Bentley Hart on Steven Pinker’s “decline of violence” thesis : In the end, what Pinker calls a “decline of violence” in modernity actually has been, in real body counts, a continual and extravagant increase in violence that has been outstripped by an even more . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links - 12.20.11

From First Thoughts

Christianity goes global as world’s largest religion CNN , Richard Allen Greene Baptists in an age without safe labels Terry Mattingly Obama sends out Hanukkah greetings USA Today , David Jackson There Will Be Rich Always: Finding a New Way to Think About Income Inequality Freakonomics , Ian . . . . Continue Reading »

The Postmodern Pedophile

From First Thoughts

Anne Hendershott on the academics who want to redefine pedophilia as “intergenerational intimacy” : The publication of  Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex   promised readers a “radical, refreshing, and long overdue reassessment of how we think and . . . . Continue Reading »

Disestablishing Our Secular Schools

From First Thoughts

In the latest issue of First Things , Charles L. Glenn argues that religious liberty and educational reform both require the end of the public school monopoly : [T]he rich diversity and energy that has been the glory of American religious life was, by the early twentieth century, largely . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links - 12.19.11

From First Thoughts

The marriage gap presents a real cost Washington Post , Ruth Marcus The Death of Dr. Evil National Journal , Michael Hirsh Czechs’ Dissident Conscience, Turned President New York Times , Dan Bilefsky and Jane Perlez Forgive us our debt World , Warren Cole Smith Animals at the Manger Christian . . . . Continue Reading »