Joe Carter

In France, civil unions are becoming more popular than marriage : Some are divorced and disenchanted with marriage; others are young couples ideologically opposed to marriage, but eager to lighten their tax burdens. Many are lovers not quite ready for old-fashioned matrimony. Whatever their . . . . Continue Reading »

Why do we think students should learn French and German, wonders linguist John McWhorter , rather than Arabic and Chinese? Out of the 6000 languages in the world, why is it so vital for smart people to learn the one spoken in one small European country of ever-waning influence and its former . . . . Continue Reading »

Communist Manifesto , U.S. Constitution;  potato, po-tah-to : Can the young people you know tell the difference between James Madison and Karl Marx? Sadly, a new national poll reveals that 42 percent of Americans wrongly attribute Marx’s famous communist slogan, “from each according . . . . Continue Reading »

The period between Christmas and New Year’s Day is often described as a “slow-news week.” We use that phrase without considering that world-historical events seem to take a vacation during the period when journalists are on holiday. Could it be that most of what is considered news is a product created for consumption when we are most likely to be paying attention? … Continue Reading »

In 2010, First Things published over 300 articles for our On the Square section. While I read every single piece, I suspect most readers may have missed one or two of them. In case you missed them the first time around, here’s your chance to catch up on this year’s top twenty-five most . . . . Continue Reading »

An intriguing—and potentially significant— archaeological discovery in Israel : Israeli archaeologists said Monday they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the origin of humans. A Tel Aviv University team . . . . Continue Reading »

Photo: ©Paul M.R. Maeyaert. The Ghent Altarpiece, or Adoration of the Mystic Lamb , by Jan van Eyck is considered the first great painting of the Renaissance—and apparently the most coveted : It’s the size of a barn door, weighs more than an elephant, and is one of the most famous . . . . Continue Reading »

ROFTER Yair Rosenberg sends the following: Google Books has a new feature which allows one to graph the occurrence of particular words or phrases and track how frequently they appear in a given literary corpus over the last century. Using this tool, I have managed to encapsulate our . . . . Continue Reading »

I wonder what Rene Girard would make of this  Smithsonian magazine article on the history of snowmen being treated as scapegoats: Some of these early postcards show snowmen being bludgeoned by two-by-fours and stomped on by tots. There are examples of snowmen being held up by gunpoint by . . . . Continue Reading »

For the first time ever, Britain is a majority non-religious nation : Every year, researchers from the British Social Attitudes survey ask a representative sample of British people whether they regard themselves as belonging to any particular  religion and, if so, to which one?  When the . . . . Continue Reading »