''First Things'' (''FT'') is a journal aimed at "advanc
nga religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society",
focusing on
theology
Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
,
liturgy
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...
,
history of religion
The history of religion is the written record of human religious feelings, thoughts, and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,200 years ago (3200 BCE). The Prehistoric religion, prehistory of reli ...
,
church history,
culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
,
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
,
society
A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...
,
politics
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
,
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
,
book review
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit.
A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view. B ...
s, and
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
. ''First Things'' is
inter-religious, inter-
denominational and
ecumenical
Ecumenism ( ; alternatively spelled oecumenism)also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalismis the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships ...
, especially
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
and
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
. It articulates Christian ecumenism,
Christian–Jewish dialogue, erudite
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives fro ...
and political
conservatism
Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, Convention (norm), customs, and Value (ethics and social science ...
and a critique of contemporary society.
''First Things'' is published by the
New York–based Institute on Religion and Public Life (IRPL) as a monthly, except for bi-monthly issues covering June/July and August/September, and has a circulation of approximately 30,000 copies. ''First Things'' founding editor and editor-in-chief, from 1990 to his death in 2009, was
Richard John Neuhaus. Since 2011,
R. R. Reno has served as editor.
Ross Douthat
Ross Gregory Douthat ( ; born November 28, 1979) is a conservative American author and ''New York Times'' columnist. He was a senior editor of '' The Atlantic''. He has written on religion, politics, and society.
Early life and education
Ross Gr ...
wrote that, through ''First Things'', Neuhaus demonstrated "that it was possible to be an intellectually fulfilled Christian".
George Weigel, a long-time contributor and IRPL board member, wrote in ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' that, under the influence of Neuhaus, ''First Things'' had "quickly became, under his leadership and inspiration, the most important vehicle for exploring the tangled web of religion and society in the English-speaking world."
History
''First Things'' was founded in March 1990 by
Richard John Neuhaus, a
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
pastor turned
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
priest, intellectual, writer, and activist. He started the journal, along with some long-time friends and collaborators, after he left the
Rockford Institute.
In 1996, in response to the
Colorado Supreme Court's decision in ''
Romer v. Evans'', which the magazine's leaders correctly predicted the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
would uphold on appeal, ''First Things'' published a symposium titled "The End of Democracy?", which denounced the ruling and included an essay by
Charles Colson calling for a violent uprising against the United States government.
The symposium was widely denounced by the mainstream press and more moderate conservatives including the magazine's own
Midge Decter, who screamed at Neuhaus in a telephone call, and
David Brooks. It led to the resignation of editorial board members
Gertrude Himmelfarb and
Walter Berns.
Neuhaus, the journal's editor-in-chief until his death in January 2009, regularly wrote columns called "The Public Square" and "While We're At It". Three editors served under Neuhaus: James Nuechterlein, a Lutheran, from 1990 to 2004;
Damon Linker, who converted from
Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
to Catholicism, from 2004 to 2005, when he left over disagreements with Neuhaus (whom he later criticized heavily in his book ''The Theocons''); and
Joseph Bottum, a Catholic, from 2005, upon returning from ''
The Weekly Standard''.
After his death, Neuhaus was succeeded by Bottum, who used the title "editor". Bottum served through October 2010, when he was forced out after a controversy about the future and the funding of the magazine, and Nuechterlein returned from retirement to become interim editor.
In April 2011,
R. R. Reno, a professor of theology and ethics at
Creighton University
Creighton University () is a private research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate ...
, who had been involved with the magazine for over a decade and was a Catholic convert from the
Episcopal Church, was selected as editor.
After Neuhaus's death,
David P. Goldman,
David Blum,
David Mills, Midge Decter (''ad interim''),
Mark Bauerlein, Matthew Schmitz, Julia Yost, and
Dan Hitchens
Dan Hitchens (born 1989) is a British journalist and a senior editor at ''First Things.'' He is the former editor of the ''Catholic Herald''.
Biography
Hitchens holds a doctorate in English from Oxford University. Hitchens contributes to the p ...
have served as executive or senior editors; the latter two are still in office.
In 2018, ''First Things'' published a review by the
Dominican priest Romanus Cessario of
Vittorio Messori
Vittorio Messori (born 1941) is an Italian journalist and writer. According to Sandro Magister, a Vaticanist, he is the "most translated Catholic writer in the world."
, 20 August 2004
Life
Messori had a completely secular upbringing. He wa ...
's book ''Kidnapped by the Vatican? The Unpublished Memoirs of Edgardo Mortara''. The book covers the
case of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy mistakenly baptized by Italian nuns and kidnapped by the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Geography
* Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy
* Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City
* Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome
* Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
on the grounds that anyone baptized had to be raised Catholic. Cessario wrote that "Divine Providence kindly arranged for his being introduced into a regular Christian life." Catholic writer
Michael Sean Winters called the article "morally repugnant" and "intellectually deplorable", while ''First Things'' regular contributor
Robert P. George described it as "an embarrassment".
In 2022, ''First Things'' published "
The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism" by Aaron Renn.
The essay spawned a full-length book, ''Life in the Negative World'', and was the most-read print issue article on the ''FT'' website in 2022.
''
Christianity Today
''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "eva ...
'' said Renn's "positive-neutral-negative world framework is among the most thought-provoking ideas pertaining to American evangelicalism this century."
Governance
''First Things'' is run by the board of the Institute on Religion and Public Life (IRPL), which is chaired by Colin Moran and whose members include, among others,
Russell Hittinger,
David Novak,
George Weigel, and Robert Louis Wilken (former chairman) as of January 2023.
Similarly to
Richard John Neuhaus, Wilken is a former Lutheran minister converted to the Catholic Church. The pair first met at the
Lutheran Concordia College of Texas in 1953, became friends, graduated in 1955 and earned the master of Divinity at
Concordia Seminary in 1960. Former members of the editorial board include
neoconservatives Gertrude Himmelfarb and
Peter L. Berger, who resigned in November 1996 amid "The End of Democracy?" controversy, Methodist theologian
Stanley Hauerwas
Stanley Martin Hauerwas (; born July 24, 1940) is an American Protestant theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual. Hauerwas originally taught at the University of Notre Dame before moving to Duke University. Hauerwas was a longtime professo ...
, who resigned in February 2002 in protest with the journal's stance on the
war on terror, and
Mary Ann Glendon, Catholic jurist and former
United States Ambassador to the Holy See
The ambassador of the United States to the Holy See is the Ambassadors of the United States, official representative of the United States, United States of America to the Holy See, the leadership of the Catholic Church. The official representati ...
. Both Berger (a Lutheran) and Hauerwas continued to publish articles in the journal also after their resignation from the editorial board. Until 2010, the journal had a finance committee, whose latest members were William Burleigh, Frederic Clark, Robert P. George,
Peter Thiel
Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. According ...
and George Weigel. Other former leading members of the advisory council have included
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Jean Paulette Bethke Elshtain (January 6, 1941 – August 11, 2013) was an American ethicist, political philosopher, and public intellectual. She was the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the University of C ...
,
Ernest Fortin,
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese,
Suzanne Garment,
Bruce C. Hafen,
Carl F. H. Henry, Leonid Kishkovsky,
Glenn Loury,
George Marsden, Gilbert Meilaender (who still contributes to the journal), and
Max Stackhouse.
The journal used to have an advisory council (appointed by the institute board). In mid 2017, it included among others neoconservative writer
Midge Decter; historian
Wilfred M. McClay; philosophers
Hadley Arkes and
Robert P. George; political scientist Timothy Fuller; Christian theologians or biblicists Gary A. Anderson (Methodist), Thomas Sieger Derr (Congregationalist),
Timothy George (Baptist),
Terryl Givens
Terryl Lynn Givens is a senior research fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University (BYU). Until 2019, he was a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, where he held the ...
(Latter-day Saint),
Chad Hatfield (Eastern Orthodox),
Robert Jenson (Lutheran),
Peter Leithart (Presbyterian),
Cornelius Plantinga (Dutch Reformed) and Ephraim Radner (Anglican); Jewish scholars
David G. Dalin and Eric Cohen, founding editor of ''
The New Atlantis''; physicist
Stephen Barr
__NOTOC__
Stephen Matthew Barr (born November 28, 1953) is an American physicist who is a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Delaware. A member of its Bartol Research Institute, Barr does research in theoretical particle physics a ...
; and
Mark C. Henrie, president of the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation and former Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice-president of the
Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
Until his death in February 2017, the council included also theologian and writer
Michael Novak,
who, along with fellow Catholics Neuhaus and Weigel, was part of the "neoconservative trinity" according to critics.
Contributors
Contributors usually represent traditional
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
,
Orthodox,
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
,
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
(especially
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
,
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
, and
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
),
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
and
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic viewpoints. Frequent contributors in the magazine's first year (1990) included Catholic jurist
Mary Ann Glendon (later
United States Ambassador to the Holy See
The ambassador of the United States to the Holy See is the Ambassadors of the United States, official representative of the United States, United States of America to the Holy See, the leadership of the Catholic Church. The official representati ...
under
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
); rabbi
David Novak; Catholic philosopher, diplomat and author
Michael Novak; Lutheran-turned-Catholic historian Robert Louis Wilken; Catholic scholar and papal biographer
George Weigel; and Lutheran ethicist
Gilbert Meilaender. Others appearing included
Gary Bauer,
William Bennett,
Peter L. Berger,
David Brooks,
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...
,
Avery Dulles (later Catholic
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to
* Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae
***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...
),
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Jean Paulette Bethke Elshtain (January 6, 1941 – August 11, 2013) was an American ethicist, political philosopher, and public intellectual. She was the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the University of C ...
,
Robert P. George,
Stanley Hauerwas
Stanley Martin Hauerwas (; born July 24, 1940) is an American Protestant theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual. Hauerwas originally taught at the University of Notre Dame before moving to Duke University. Hauerwas was a longtime professo ...
,
David Horowitz,
Peter Leithart,
Martin E. Marty,
Ralph McInerny,
Mark Noll
Mark Allan Noll (born 1946) is an American historian specializing in the history of Christianity in the United States. He holds the position of Research Professor of History at Regent College, having previously been Francis A. McAnaney Professor o ...
, and
Michael Wyschogrod.
Frequent contributors in recent years have included some of the aforementioned authors and several members or former members of the IRPL board and the former advisory council, as well as
Hadley Arkes,
Sohrab Ahmari,
Mark Bauerlein,
Hans Boersma,
Randy Boyagoda,
Christopher Caldwell, archbishop
Charles J. Chaput, Elizabeth C. Corey,
Ross Douthat
Ross Gregory Douthat ( ; born November 28, 1979) is a conservative American author and ''New York Times'' columnist. He was a senior editor of '' The Atlantic''. He has written on religion, politics, and society.
Early life and education
Ross Gr ...
,
Mary Eberstadt,
Joseph Epstein,
Anthony Esolen,
Timothy George,
David Bentley Hart
David Bentley Hart (born February 20, 1965) is an American philosopher, theologian, essayist, cultural commentator, fiction author, and religious studies scholar. Reviewers have commented on Hart's baroque prose and provocative rhetoric in over on ...
,
Peter Hitchens
Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 1951) is an English Conservatism in the United Kingdom, conservative author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator. He writes for ''The Mail on Sunday'' and was a Foreign correspondent (journalism), foreign cor ...
, Sam Kriss,
Wilfred M. McClay, Joshua Mitchell,
Stanley G. Payne
Stanley George Payne (born September 9, 1934) is an American historian of modern Spain and Europe, European fascism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He retired from full-time teaching in 2004 and is currently Professor Emeritus at its Dep ...
, cardinal
George Pell, Nathan Pinkoski, Ephraim Radner,
Robert Royal, Matthew Rose,
Roger Scruton
Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of Conservatism in the United Kingdom, c ...
,
Wesley J. Smith, Patricia Snow, Peter Tonguette, Michael Toscano, and
Carl Trueman.
''First Things'' has often hosted statements by
Evangelicals and Catholics Together, a group of leading scholars in the United States that are either
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
Protestants or Catholics. Beginning in May 2017,
Shalom Carmy, an
Orthodox rabbi teaching Jewish studies and philosophy at
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a Private university, private Modern Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City. (where he is Chair of Bible and Jewish philosophy at
Yeshiva College, also and an affiliated scholar at
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law), as well as editor of ''
Tradition
A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...
'', wrote a regular column named "
Litvak at Large". In the August/September 2021 issue, Carmy's column was taken over by
Liel Leibovitz
Liel Leibovitz (; born 1976) is an Israeli journalist, author, media critic, and video game scholar. Leibovitz was born in Tel Aviv, immigrated to the United States in 1999, and earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2007. In 2014, he was Visi ...
, writing under a column named "Leibovitz at Large". Carmy continued to be a frequent contributor of ''First Things''.
R. R. Reno has continued
Richard John Neuhaus's columns called "The Public Square" and "While We're At It" and each issue of ''First Things'' hosts poetry. The magazine publishes articles every day in the "Web Exclusives" section of its website.
List of editors
Editor-in-chief
*
Richard John Neuhaus (1990–2009), Lutheran/Catholic
Editors
*James Nuechterlein (1990–2004), Lutheran
*Damon Linker (2004–2005), Jewish/Catholic
*
Joseph Bottum (2005–2010), Catholic
*James Nuechterlein (''ad interim'', 2010–2011), Lutheran
*
R. R. Reno (2011–present), Catholic
Executive/senior editors
*
David P. Goldman (2009–2010), Jewish
*
David Blum (2010), Catholic
*
David Mills (2011–2013), Catholic
*
Midge Decter (''ad interim'', 2013–2014), Jewish
*
Mark Bauerlein (2014–2019), Catholic
*Matthew Schmitz (2017–2022), Catholic
*Julia Yost (since 2017), Catholic
*
Dan Hitchens
Dan Hitchens (born 1989) is a British journalist and a senior editor at ''First Things.'' He is the former editor of the ''Catholic Herald''.
Biography
Hitchens holds a doctorate in English from Oxford University. Hitchens contributes to the p ...
(since 2021), Catholic
References
External links
Official website{{Neoconservatism
Monthly magazines published in the United States
Political magazines published in the United States
Conservative magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1990
Religious magazines published in the United States
Christianity studies journals
Magazines published in New York City
Christian magazines