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Books for Christmas: ‘13 Edition

The flurry of instabooks published shortly after the election of Pope Francis didn’t shed much light on the formation, character and interests of Jorge Mario Bergoglio or the likely trajectory of his pontificate. Now comes something serious and useful: Pope Francis: Our Brother, Our Friend—Personal Recollections About the Man Who Became Pope, edited by Alejandro Bermúdez and published by Ignatius Press. In twenty interviews, longtime friends and associates of the pope “from the ends of the earth” give readers real insight into the radical Christian disciple who is leading the Church “into the deep” of the new evangelization, following the call of John Paul II in 2001. . . . Continue Reading »

False Portrait

The main lines of Rockwell’s life are well known. He was born in 1894 in New York. By his teens he was well embarked on his career as an illustrator. He married three times, and had three sons (all with his second wife, Mary). He died in 1978, as probably the best-loved American painter ever. In her new biography, however, Deborah Solomon presents a Rockwell we might not be inclined to love so much. . . . Continue Reading »

The Problem of Place in Douglas Farrow’s Ascension Theology

“Come up here,” Jesus said to John, and at once John was standing before his throne (Revelation 4:1). Where was Jesus, and where did John go? Christian theology is much better in dealing with time than space. We profess that Jesus will return in the future, and thus we are resigned to the absence of his glorified body in the present, but in the meantime, where is he? . . . Continue Reading »

Please Support First Things Now

’Tis the season to be jolly. ’Tis also the season for me to ask for your financial support! Our mission is important. Our need is great. First Things magazine and firstthings.com are published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life, a 503(c)(b) non-profit that depends on people like you for donations… . Continue Reading »

Donna Tartt’s Goldfinch

When Donna Tartt published The Secret History in 1992, many believed she would become the best American novelist of her generation. That prediction may well have come true, though not in the way most expected. For after the appearance of The Secret History—a riveting tale of murder and betrayal at an elite New England college—Tartt waited ten years before she published The Little Friend. Now, after another decade, Tartt has published her most acclaimed book yet, The Goldfinch… . Continue Reading »

How to Read a Book: Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch

Here’s a conversation that you will have if you, at any point in your life, read a novel: You’ll dislike some aspect of it (let’s say the main character is flat and boring), you will voice this criticism of the novel (“the main character is flat and boring”), and then you will be told, no, that’s the point, he’s meant to be flat and boring, the book is an examination of the flat and boring. That brings us to Donna Tartt’s new book, The Goldfinch, which is made up of 771 lovely pages staring unblinking into the void. . . . Continue Reading »

Edward T. Oakes, S.J.: An Appreciation

Father Edward T. Oakes, S.J., professor of dogmatic theology at Mundelein Seminary and University of St. Mary of the Lake, has gone to God, dying on December 6, 2013. Readers of First Things know Fr. Oakes well. Over the course of two decades he has been intimately linked with the journal, publishing essay after essay on subjects that extended from Shakespeare to original sin, from the latest movie, to the nature of evolution… . Continue Reading »

Preparing for His Coming

Advent looks back to celebrate the coming of the Son of God in human flesh. As Advent lectionary readings show, God comes in many ways, and so Advent also looks ahead to God’s future interventions in history, and especially to his final advent at the last day… . Continue Reading »

Discrimination Against Christians?

Christians are facing more and more difficulties in Western society. Every day, especially in Europe, churches and cemeteries are desecrated; blasphemy pretends to be an art for the general public; activists like Femen attack symbols of religion, and the media rarely miss an opportunity to belittle Christians and the Catholic Church. It is this latent hostility towards Christianity which explains the indifference, or even the complaisance, of our society towards the desecration of its religious heritage and the persecution of Christians throughout the world… . Continue Reading »

What If We Are Alone in the Universe?

A new study suggests there are 8.8 billion potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Habitable is defined by, among other things, the Goldilocks zone, that magical narrow band of space extending around a sun where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold, where water can exist as a liquid. . . . Continue Reading »

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