Richard John Neuhaus

As with most academic traditions, and especially those that are viewed as soft, there are orthodoxies and fashions, and sometimes sudden turns, that are conventionally described”following Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions of almost half a century ago”as paradigm . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public SquareWhen I was a young Lutheran seminarian, I was struck by a professor’s forceful declaration that the phrase growth in grace is a contradiction in terms. The grace of the gospel of forgiveness is absolute, unqualified, perfect. It allows for no growth or improvement. The law of . . . . Continue Reading »

This essay by Richard John Neuhaus, who passed away January 8, 2009 , was originally printed in the October 2002 issue of First Things .I know it is a fact, but it is nonetheless hard to picture: Had he lived, Martin Luther King, Jr. would now be seventy-three years old. Everybody of a certain age . . . . Continue Reading »

This essay by Richard John Neuhaus, who passed away January 8, 2009 , was originally printed in the February 2003 issue of First Things .In 1987, while I was still a Lutheran, I published a book titled The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the Church in the Postmodern World . There I argued that the . . . . Continue Reading »

Richard John Neuhaus, who passed away January 8, 2009 , published this editorial in the first issue of First Things . “When in the course of human events . . . ” Thus Jefferson and his associates, evincing a “decent respect to the opinions of mankind,” began their explanation of what they . . . . Continue Reading »

The first word from the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Christians call them the Triduum Sacrum, the three most sacred days of the year, the three most sacred days of all time when time is truly told. Maundy Thursday, so called because that night before he was betrayed . . . . Continue Reading »

This essay by Richard John Neuhaus was originally printed in the December 2005 issue of First Things .Once upon a time¯it was the 1976 bicentennial of the American founding, to be precise¯I wrote a book on the American experiment and the idea of covenant. Time magazine picked up on it and . . . . Continue Reading »

Whatever else it is, the pro-life movement of the last thirty-plus years is one of the most massive and sustained expressions of citizen participation in the history of the United States. Since the 1960s, citizen participation and the remoralizing of politics have been central goals of the left. Is . . . . Continue Reading »

While We’re At It • Here’s an interesting statement by Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News , who also runs the “Crunchy Con” blog on beliefnet.com. Some years ago he was giving major attention to the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, and a priest warned him that . . . . Continue Reading »

Dear First Things Reader,“God loves a cheerful giver,” St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Over almost twenty years, the readers of First Things have demonstrated that they are generous givers, and I would like to think that you are cheerful givers as well.To be sure, this year is not like . . . . Continue Reading »