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

Letters

From the November 2020 Print Edition

In “Why I Am a Baptist” (August/September), Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. inadvertently gives the impression that Southern Baptists came together in 1845 in order to “establish mission boards and organize evangelism.” To those not intimate with the details of Baptist history, this could be . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

From the October 2020 Print Edition

I much appreciated Nathaniel Peters’s discussion of spiritual communion through the lens of William of Saint-Thierry (“Spiritual Communion,” June/July). The focus on the fact that the Eucharist does its work, after all, through God’s action (that is, the Holy Spirit) and not our own is a . . . . Continue Reading »

Briefly Noted

From the October 2020 Print Edition

A Time to Die:Monks on the Threshold of Eternal Lifeby nicolas diat ignatius, 174 pages, $17.95 Nicolas Diat is a French journalist most famous for his interviews with Cardinal Robert Sarah. In this book, he visits flourishing monasteries in France to talk with monks about death. A Time to Die, . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

From the Aug/Sept 2020 Print Edition

After reading Douglas Farrow’s “The Secret of the Saeculum” (May), I found myself unsure of how to understand it. Take, for instance, the following striking passage: Our age is a very definite age, a very well-defined age, precisely because it is bracketed by the first and second comings of . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

From the June/July 2020 Print Edition

In “Professors as Propagandists” (April), Alexander Riley systematically misrepresents my 2018 book, How Fascism Works. If this were my only objection, I would not be writing this letter. There is a substantial moral and political disagreement brought out by his piece. I would be remiss to . . . . Continue Reading »

Briefly Noted

From the June/July 2020 Print Edition

Tyll: A Novel by daniel kehlmann, translated by ross benjamin pantheon, 352 pages, $26.95 Daniel Kehlmann’s novel Tyll, like its title character, is full of dark surprises. Tyll ­Ulenspiegel, a legendary figure from German folklore, is a prankster, magician, and traveling performer. Throughout . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

From the May 2020 Print Edition

Religious Freedom Matthew Schmitz is right that we should focus less on the need for a universal tolerance and more on what sort of vision of the good life ought to be pursued among the tolerated (“Limits of Religious Freedom,” March). But my reason for believing this is near opposite to . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

From the April 2020 Print Edition

Theodore Dalrymple (“Identity as Ideology,” February) is certainly correct to point to the yearning for transcendence that was not—and likely cannot be—obliterated in people like André Hébert when they lose the will to enter into communion with the traditional means of attaining . . . . Continue Reading »