First Things RSS Feed - Philip Jenkins https://www.firstthings.com/author/philip-jenkins en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:52:04 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/philip-jenkins 60 Witch Ways https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/12/witch-ways https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/12/witch-ways Sun, 01 Dec 2019 06:00:00 -0500 The Witch:
A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present
 by ronald hutton
yale, 376 pages, $30

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]]> Going South https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/08/going-south https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/08/going-south Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:00:00 -0400 From Every Tribe and Nation: A Historian’s Discovery of the Global Christian Story
by mark a. noll
baker, 224 pages, $19.99

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]]> The Alpha Course: British Christianity’s Biggest Success Story https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/04/the-alpha-course-british-christianitys-biggest-success-story https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/04/the-alpha-course-british-christianitys-biggest-success-story Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:27:43 -0400

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]]> Easter Stories https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/easter-stories https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/easter-stories Sat, 30 Mar 2013 08:13:25 -0400

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]]> Christian Influence on Islam https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/christian-influence-on-islam https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/christian-influence-on-islam Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:11:50 -0400 I posted recently  about the network of small states that existed between the Roman and Persian empires, the two superpowers of Late Antiquity. Most of these buffer states are of little interest to non-specialists, but two of those middling powers in particular demand our attention for what they suggest about the early history of both Christianity and Islam. Arguably, early Islamic history makes little sense except in the context of these two remarkably influential tribal powers, which together represent a lost Christian realm.

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]]> From Cranmer to Welby https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/from-cranmer-to-welby https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/from-cranmer-to-welby Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:33:11 -0400

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]]> Patrick Wasn’t Irish: He Was British. Deal with It. https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/patrick-wasnt-irish-he-was-british-deal-with-it https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/patrick-wasnt-irish-he-was-british-deal-with-it Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:10:50 -0400

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]]> Turfan and the Christians of the Silk Route https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/turfan-and-the-christians-of-the-silk-route https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/turfan-and-the-christians-of-the-silk-route Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:56:28 -0400

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]]> That’ll Be the Day That I Die https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/thatll-be-the-day-that-i-die https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/thatll-be-the-day-that-i-die Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:21:23 -0500

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]]> Economics as Eugenics https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/10/001-economics-as-eugenics https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/10/001-economics-as-eugenics Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0400 Gregory Clark’s A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World is not quite as bad as either its author or publisher try to make it. As reported in a major New York Times article heralding the publication of “the next blockbuster in economics,” the book represents a startling breakthrough in our understanding of how humanity escaped the Malthusian trap”in which rising populations always outpaced their food production”that had captured all human generations before the Industrial Revolution.

The daring approach by which Clark tries to explain this change is self-evidently silly. Yet, putting aside his deeply flawed grand theory, A Farewell to Alms (Princeton University Press, 420 pages, $29.95

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