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First Things

First Things

Magazine | United States | Right
www.firstthings.com/

Journal of religion and public life featuring leading scholars on faith, culture, and public policy.

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Articles

Discussions from First Things

Culture

Classics v. Classics

The furious debate about Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey has revealed an unexpected fact: Many people take Homer seriously, very seriously. Modifying the canonical epic in the least detail, it appears,. The post Classics v. Classics appeared first on First Things

United States
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Politics

Berlin and the Contradictions of Identity Politics

On July 25, twenty-one-year-old Abdul Ballout drove a van into a crowd at Berlin’s Pride festival before stabbing attendees with a machete. One woman was killed and twenty-nine people. The post Berlin and the Contradictions of Identity Politics appeared first on First Things

Germany
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Culture

How the Press Lost Public Trust

In the ​latest installment of the ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein, Tara Henley joins in to discuss her recent book, The Trust Spiral: Why the Media Needs. The post How the Press Lost Public Trust appeared first on First Things

United States
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Culture

The Summer Reading List: 2026

A 2025 YouGov poll revealed some interesting factoids about Americans’ reading habits—or lack thereof. Forty percent of us didn’t read a book last year. About a quarter of the. The post The Summer Reading List: 2026 appeared first on First Things

United States
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Culture

Who Gets Custody of the Latin Mass?

In any messy breakup, there are the inevitable conflagrations over custody of the kids, the dog, the vinyl collection. The parting of ways between the Catholic Church and the. The post Who Gets Custody of the Latin Mass? appeared first on First Things

United States
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Culture

The Sun Also Rises at 100

The Hemingway style—terse, direct, formidable, in both prose and personal deportment—dominated American literature and the native ideal of manliness for much of the twentieth century. His suicide in 1961,. The post The Sun Also Rises at 100 appeared first on First Things

United States
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Technology

Left to Our Own Devices

Hiding in most of our pockets is a shiny black mirror with a logo on the back that evokes the forbidden fruit of Genesis 3. As the apple was the. The post Left to Our Own Devices appeared first on First Things

United States
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Culture

The Critic as Artist

In this episode, Dana Gioia joins R. R. Reno on The Editor’s Desk to talk about his most recent piece for Portico, “The Last of the Lost Generation.” The. The post The Critic as Artist appeared first on First Things

United States
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Culture

Putting World War II Behind Us

In “The End of the Age of Hitler” (November 2024), Alec Ryrie observes that, as secularism advanced in recent decades, World War II replaced the New Testament as our. The post Putting World War II Behind Us appeared first on First Things

Global
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Education

My Four Years at St. John’s College

Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;We will grieve not, rather findStrength in what remains behind. —William Wordsworth, “Ode on. The post My Four Years at St. John’s College appeared first on First Things

United States
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Politics

The Founders and the Common Good

The dominant public philosophy among American elites is modern liberalism, often referred to merely as “liberalism.” Two beliefs make up liberalism’s core: first, that freedom is, in the words. The post The Founders and the Common Good appeared first on First Things

United States
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Geopolitics

Ukraine and the Limits of Dialogue

For months now, I have been receiving alarming, early-morning text messages from Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halyč, leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The texts are typically. The post Ukraine and the Limits of Dialogue appeared first on First Things

Ukraine
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