R. R. Reno

First Things exists to liberate modern men and women of faith from bondage to secular falsehoods. Continue Reading »

In today’s anti-discrimination battles, the great and the good bring their power to bear on the little people who haven’t gotten the progressive memo. Continue Reading »

Paul Ryan will not seek another term in Congress. No doubt the personal reasons he gave for bowing out are important. But it’s likely he’s also frustrated that the market-oriented and freedom-focused conservatism he took for granted has lost traction. He’s not alone. The ideas and priorities . . . . Continue Reading »

Liberalism has created a world in which disordered souls kill themselves with drugs and alcohol—and in which those harboring murderous thoughts feel free to act upon them. Continue Reading »

The American experiment.” I cringed whenever Richard John Neuhaus used that formulation. We live in a country, not an experiment. I seek to purify my soul so that I may be worthy of citizenship in the City of God. But in this temporal frame, I have never wanted to be anything other than an . . . . Continue Reading »

Most of our elite universities have been rigorous about merit from their inceptions. What’s changed is what counts as merit. Continue Reading »

Our first reaction is a benumbed sadness. Seventeen dead in a Florida school, shot by a disturbed young man. Then we search for explanations. The killer suffers from mental illness. Like so many others, he is from a broken home. Guns are too readily available. The media frenzy makes the shooter into . . . . Continue Reading »

A Catholic politics never seeks to be a sacred politics, never proposes a full and complete integration of statecraft with soulcraft. Continue Reading »

The political winds are shifting, and our elites are increasingly dismayed and disoriented. Voters throughout the West are rejecting establishment parties, often in spite of dire warnings by the mainstream media and the leadership class. The European Union, supposedly a template for a more . . . . Continue Reading »

An atmosphere of crisis envelops us. Political commentary has become hysterical, not just on clickbait Internet platforms, but also in prestige journals and newspapers. Authoritarian, fascist, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, neo-Bolshevik—these terms are being used liberally today. After penning . . . . Continue Reading »