Despite its flaws, Louise Penny’s latest novel is ultimately a book of fundamental human goodness. It encourages us to look at a child, as happens at a significant New Year’s Eve moment, and not see “Down syndrome,” but a person with a name—a person given for us to love. Continue Reading »
The Index of Self-Destructive Acts is the Big New York Book of the 2020s, as Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities was for the 1980s. Continue Reading »
Good bookstores invite us to contemplate truths that lie beyond our everyday concerns. Continue Reading »
Given the rubbish about Ukraine spewed out by Russian propaganda trolls and regurgitated by foolish or ideologically besotted Americans, this year’s annual summer reading list will focus on serious books that explain the background of a conflict that will shape Europe’s future—and ours. Continue Reading »
Does apocalypticism about American Christianity merit more serious consideration? Hard to say, but I’m struck by the radically truncated and highly selective historical memory that seems to characterize so many accounts of our current situation. Continue Reading »
Thoughtful non-theologians will benefit from patient exposure to these scholars. Continue Reading »
The feminine tendency is toward the immanent, the personal; and its danger is emotionalism. The masculine tendency is toward the transcendent, the beyond-personal; and its danger is abstraction. Continue Reading »
In his new book, Bill McKibben wonders whether the flag, cross, and station wagon of his youth were really so good for America. Continue Reading »
A recent book on the history of Native American rock art invites readers to experience both a profound sense of otherness and a fundamental human bond, neither one cancelling out the other. Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
