A Personal Reflection on First Things

I’m grateful to my parents for many reasons. But one thing I’m especially grateful about these days is that they left issues of First Things lying around our house. Even when I was a wee bit younger than the target audience, I loved reading Father Neuhaus’s warm or trenchant reflections in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters from Santa

It was the Christmas of 2013, and my 10-year-old twin sons were having a crisis of faith.Their elder brother had already settled into a comfortable skepticism about flying reindeer, toy-making elves, and Santa Claus. To their younger sister, the existence of such things was a matter of uncomplicated . . . . Continue Reading »

Disagreement, charity, and Islam

It was about animosity to Muslims, not theology. That’s what Miroslav Volf claimed in a Washington Post editorial condemning Wheaton College administrators, who are currently investigating a professor who said that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Ironically, in making this accusation, . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 12.22.15

The Little Way of Terry Pratchett
Leah Libresco, Aleteia

Michael Wyschogrod, Dean of Orthodox Jewish Theologians, Dies at 87
David P. Goldman, Tablet

Crisis of Character
Brendan O’Neill, spiked

A Medieval Antidote to ISIS
Mustafa Akyol, New York Times

A Preacher Without a Congregation
Peter Blair, The American Interest

Poetry of Propaganda: Act One, Guerilla Marketing
Ira Glass, This American Life
(transcript here)

A Design of Eternal Salvation
James V. Schall, S. J., The Catholic Thing

Holiday Despair and the Meaning of Christmas
Jennifer Fitz, Patheos

Application Information: Religious Freedom Project
Nicholas Fedyk, Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs

First Things Junior Fellows Program

Graduating college seniors and recent graduates are invited to apply for the First Things junior fellows program. The junior fellows work closely with the editors to produce the magazine and its website. The one-year, full-time fellowship (which can be extended to a second year) includes housing and . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 12.18.15

The Wound of Beauty
Gregory Wolfe, Image

Modernity, Religion, and Morality
George Weigel, Yoram Hazony, Tikvah

Elijah and the Widow: An Advent Meditation
Richard Beck, Experimental Theology

San Francisco Values
Michael Anton, Claremont Review of Books

Muslim Parents on How They Talk to Their Children About Hatred and Extremism
Hanna Ingber, New York Times

Towards Plural Marriage: Understanding and Countering the Liberal Wringer
Scott Yenor, Public Discourse

Economic Participation
Richard Aleman, Distributist Review

Krampus Resurgent
Jonathan McDonald, Dappled Things

Application Information: Religious Freedom Project
Nicholas Fedyk, Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs