First Thoughts

First Links — 3.4.16

What Wouldn't Jesus Do?
Peter Wehner, New York Times

Character, Flourishing, and the Good Life
David Brooks and Miroslav Volf, Yale Center for Faith and Culture

A Paleocon, an Otherkin, and a Saint Walk Into a Bar
Kate Havard, Washington Free Beacon

The Lost Hope of Self-Help
Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, Aeon

Out in the Fields with God
Eve Tushnet, American Conservative

Academic Freedom in Conformist Times
Roger Scruton, Spiked

Embracing Our Pagan Heritage
Chase Padusniak, Patheos

No Longer Calm, But Alive: Robert Royal's Catholic Humanism
R. J. Snell, Public Discourse

Canadian Culture of Death: An Open Letter

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The Man From Kempis

As a matter of fact, he was actually the man from Kempen, but the author of the world’s most cherished Christian devotional would not have cared whether we knew the details of his life. Instead, Thomas à Kempis made it his chief endeavor to direct all attention to Christ. The constant theme of . . . . Continue Reading »

Hurrah for Baronius!

As someone raised in the scripture-centered precincts of Evangelical Protestantism who later found his way to Rome, I am particularly susceptible to frustration and shame at the state of the Catholic bible. It's not just the use of terrible translations like the NAB that grates, but also the low . . . . Continue Reading »

Brush with Greatness

Many Beautiful Things lives up to its title. With lush visuals from the English countryside, the deserts of North Africa, and the watercolors of its subject Lilias Trotter, the latest from filmmaker Laura Waters Hinson pleases the eye while asking questions of the heart. If Trotter’s name sounds . . . . Continue Reading »

Statement on Genocide Against Christians in Iraq and Syria

In the name of decency, humanity, and truth, we call on President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and all members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives to recognize and give public expression to the fact that Christians in Iraq and Syria—along with Yazidis, Turkmen, . . . . Continue Reading »

The Icon Painter

What is the role of the icon painter? We can only begin to answer this question by turning to the fact of the Incarnation—“And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Christ is the “icon of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). It is because the second person of the Trinity . . . . Continue Reading »

Why Trumpkins Ignore Their Betters

Last week in the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens had a column entitled “The Trumpkins’ Lament.” Here is the opening of the commentary: In the 1980s, Eddie Murphy had a hilarious skit in which he explained how it was that Jesse Jackson, then running for president, had a plausible shot at . . . . Continue Reading »

Know Nothings and the Republican Coalition

The nativist Know Nothing movement—officially known as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, and as the American Party when it entered formally into electoral politics—flashed across American public life in the mid-1850s. It heralded the demise of the Whig Party, and the Second Party System . . . . Continue Reading »