We wish that we could pass this play over, and say nothing about it. All that we can say must fall far short of the subject; or even of what we ourselves conceive of it.” So William Hazlitt, in ...

This piece will appear in the November 2026 issue of First Things. How would you write a public letter that you know will become front-page news? Would you write it yourself, or would you have a team ...

It used to be that if you died horribly and honorably and happened to be a person of note, your legacy was secure. Amelia Earhart, John F. Kennedy, and Kurt Cobain were served well by their untimely ...

Texas Public School Students Will Be Required to Read the Bible,” warned a headline in the New York Times in June. The Texas State Board of Education had just approved a required reading list for K–12 ...

In a life of reading, there are special times of wonder and delight. Books come into your hands that address your central concerns and discuss matters you’ve long pondered. But they do so in fresh and ...

Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore… UncategorizedPeter LawlerOn the Square ...

It used to be that if you died horribly and honorably and happened to be a person… ...

On Tuesday, September 29th, Lionel Shriver will read from her short story “The Cello,” published in the fall issue of Portico. Among her literary achievements, Shriver won the 2005 Orange Prize for ...

I recently lectured in Rome on the topic of the Antichrist. The Antichrist interests me for several reasons, mostly because nobody else is talking about it—which, for most of Christian history, would ...

The problem with the evangelical elite is that there isn’t one. All too few evangelical Christians hold senior positions in the culture-shaping domains of American society. Evangelicals don’t run ...

The memories are still vivid, even though it was a long time ago. Having been born in 1956, I’m just old enough to remember the confusing and tumultuous era of “the changes” that came after the Second ...

The Synod of Bishops is currently congregating in Rome for a four-week meeting of the Synod on Synodality. A second session will follow in October 2024. The theme of “synodality” is a notion ...