Peter J. Leithart

Early modern Europeans freed themselves from the burdens of a corrupted medieval world by laughing at it. Continue Reading »

Despite appearances, jazz and baseball are historically intertwined. Baseball players and jazz musicians both strive for a perfect balance between disciplined practice and spontaneity. Continue Reading »

This year marks the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. It is a year of celebration, because the Reformers accomplished what they claimed: They stripped away idolatries that had encrusted and obscured the gospel of grace, and they reformed the Church’s worship and ministry to . . . . Continue Reading »

Panic is good. It’s the crest on the wave of creativity, corresponding to the “transition” stage of labor. Once you’ve had a good panic, you’re fine. Everything’s smoothly downhill from here. Continue Reading »

Will believers be freer to be believers under Trump than they have been for the past twenty-five years? Continue Reading »

Despite its title, Tom Wolfe’s The Kingdom of Speech isn’t mainly about language. It’s about evolution, feckless intellectuals, and leftist politics. Continue Reading »

Since its first issues appeared more than twenty-five years ago, First Things has been hailed as the leading journal of religion and public life in America, one of the leading journals of its kind in the world. Continue Reading »

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Advent isn’t supposed to soothe us. Continue Reading »

Is the gospel identical with the Protestant doctrine of salvation? Or is the gospel a message about God's Son that Protestants and Catholics affirm together? Continue Reading »

Complaints about aging contain an implicit affirmation of the body, rooted in the truth that our bodies are us. When our bodies ail, we ail; when they fail, we fail. We touch the world—lovers and enemies, soccer and sunsets, sonnets and sushi—only through eyes and ears and brains and nerves and hands and tongues. Continue Reading »