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Published by The Institute of Religion and Public Life, First Things is an educational institute aiming to advance a religiously informed public philosophy.
- 309articles · 365d
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News
Have American Catholics Given Up on Evangelizing?
1+ mon, 2+ day ago (337+ words) Here’s a simple, biblical truth: We’re never as smart as we think we are, and we’re never as wise as we need to be. The best intentions can have unintended consequences. The data are at least plausible. They warrant some…...
A Catholic Moment or an Evangelical Century?
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (444+ words) Contrary to online chatter, we are not in a “Catholic moment.” But we may already be in an evangelical century. The previous “Catholic moment,” lasting from 1995 to 2002 by Bottum’s reckoning, failed to fill the Mainline Protestant void. Rather, the post-Protestant…...
Pärt’s Music of the Word
2+ mon, 1+ week ago (130+ words) The music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has been described as spiritual, transcendent, Eastern, angelic, ethereal, mystical, ascetic, tranquil, otherworldly. Jeremy Begbie adds “escapist” to the modifiers, criticizing Pärt for constructing a “cool sonic cathedral” while ignoring the ragged plane…...
The Community Answering the College Faith-Abandonment Crisis
2+ mon, 2+ week ago (316+ words) After learning about the Oaks Retreat during her Auburn tour, Caitlyn Holmes decided to attend the Arch Retreat as a freshman at the University of Georgia. During her sophomore year, she signed up to be a counselor and saw the…...
Theistic Transhumanism
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (304+ words) Christians instinctively, and rightly, protest. Our bodies are cunningly designed and, as Carl Trueman has insisted, they aren’t raw material to shape to our whims. We’re creatures, bounded and finite, necessarily limited in our knowing and acting. Any attempt to…...
Cultural Christianity’s Ambivalence
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (126+ words) Here lies a real danger for those committed to “evangelizing the culture.” How does the Church reach out to actual people? Are we evangelizing “the culture” because it is less messy than dealing with individuals and families? Culture, whatever its…...
Ordinary Means, Extraordinary Ends
3+ mon, 3+ week ago (195+ words) As always, there are two major speeches at the ceremony, one by a distinguished guest, the other by an outstanding student. This year the former was delivered by Sen. Rand Paul, the latter by Ashley Van Dixhoorn. And as is…...
Centesimus Annus at Thirty-Five
4+ mon, 6+ day ago (208+ words) John Paul thus understood the free society of the future to involve three, not just two, interlocking parts. A vibrant public moral culture, inculcating and supporting the virtues that make it possible to live freedom well, was essential to guide…...
Project Hail Mary’s Unresolved Moral Dilemmas
4+ mon, 1+ week ago (86+ words) First Things Charlotte Allen is an arts and culture columnist for Quillette and author of The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus. Three-quarters of a century ago, on April 29, 1951, I was baptized by Fr. Thomas Love, S.J.,… Peter Thiel’s…...
Gen Zeal
5+ mon, 2+ week ago (279+ words) The local church retained its parishioners only through inertia. Habit kept them coming to Mass. To my young eyes, pastoral work seemed like a desperate effort to plug the leaks in a sinking ship, as the clergy had no answer…...