We began just after daybreak. One by one, the brigades filed out of the parking lot, each singing a different hymn. Turning away from the water, the lengthening line of pilgrims snaked up the hill toward a colossal statue of St. Isaac Jogues. This St. Isaac was not the bashful youth of prayer cards. . . . . Continue Reading »
In recent decades, the Civil War has received an increasing amount of attention from historians. Some of this scholarship has focused on the role religion played in the war. In The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (2006), Mark Noll describes the Civil War as a turning point in the . . . . Continue Reading »
In the last fifty years, most writing about modern Catholicism has treated Vatican II as the great watershed. According to the standard narrative, the Church before the Council was wedded to a stultifying scholasticism and sunk in soul-crushing authoritarianism. After the Council, a new spirit . . . . Continue Reading »
This is our 300th number, marking thirty years of publication. In early 1989, Richard John Neuhaus had no inkling that he was about to found First Things. A Lutheran pastor noted for his incisive religious and political commentaries, he was busy running the Center on Religion and Society. The Center . . . . Continue Reading »
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah see priestly celibacy, and the sacrifices (but also the joy) it entails, as vital to the life of the Church. Continue Reading »
As history, the Netflix film The Two Popes is baloney on steroids. Continue Reading »
Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah have published a book that eloquently defends priestly celibacy. Continue Reading »
The local Churches that have tried hardest to play catch-up with “history” and “the times” are collapsing. Continue Reading »
Suggested resolutions that might help us all deal with the year ahead in faith, hope, and charity. Continue Reading »
On February 2, 2018, seven members of a group called Bristol Antifascists assembled outside a lecture hall at the University of the West of England in Bristol. They donned balaclavas or dark glasses, according to taste, and entered through the double doors at the back of the hall. “No platform for . . . . Continue Reading »
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