Archive

Crabgrass Catholicism:How Suburbanization Transformed Faith and Politics in Postwar Americaby stephen m. koethuniversity of chicago press, 328 pages, $30 In the third grade, my teacher asked if we knew...

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— / Little we see in Nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

The following is an excerpt from the first edition of The Fourth Watch, a newsletter about Catholicism from First Things. We invite you to subscribe by clicking here. The Fourth Watch, authored by James...

Yesterday, November 30, was the Feast of St. Andrew, Jesus’s first apostle. Why did Jesus call on Andrew to become his first disciple? Matthew’s Gospel gives us a hint....

"In the last few weeks,” the theologian Jacob Phillips recently remarked, “I’ve spoken at various Catholic events which were full to the brim with recent converts in the 18-30 age range...

August 2025 in northern England was chilly and windy. I had gone over to this land along the Anglo-Scottish border one month earlier, in July, to scout out St....

How can we express thanks for an inexpressible gift? If someone brings a turkey to Thanksgiving dinner, we easily find words to describe the gift and convey our gratitude:...

As we pause to give thanks for family, turkey, and Plymouth in the year 1621, take a few moments to give thought as well to the very word “thanksgiving,”...

First Things staff share their most recent autumn reading recommendations.

Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer’s 1961 film about the Nuremberg trials, is rightly deemed an American film classic, featuring top-notch actors. James Vanderbilt’s 2025 Nuremberg, on the other hand...

Prior to the “Revolution of Dignity” that began on the Maidan, Kyiv’s Independence Square, in late 2013 and eventually gave birth to the country that has amazed the world...

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recently released a document on the Blessed Mother entitled Mater Populi Fidelis (Mother of the Faithful People). It is subtitled “Doctrinal...

News came out last week that the Trump administration is stepping up efforts to dismantle the Department of Education. We’ve already seen a large number of staff reductions in the...

This essay is adapted from a talk delivered at the Portsmouth Abbey School in 2010. In the capacious personal Index Locutionum Prohibitorum of William F. Buckley Jr., I suspect...

Taking Religion Seriouslyby charles murrayencounter, 200 pages, $29.99 The academy is one of the most intellectually stultifying places in America, particularly those disciplines called the “soft sciences.” Despite presenting...