 | |
| Editor | R. R. Reno |
|---|---|
| Categories | Religion |
| Frequency | Monthly (10 issues/year) |
| First issue | March 1990 |
| Company | Institute on Religion and Public Life |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City |
| Language | English |
| Website | FirstThings.com |
| ISSN | 1047-5141 |
First Things (FT) is a journal aimed at "advanc[ing] a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society",[1] focusing ontheology,liturgy,history of religion,church history,culture,education,society,politics,literature,book reviews, andpoetry.First Things isinter-religious, inter-denominational andecumenical, especiallyChristian andJewish. It articulates Christian ecumenism,Christian–Jewish dialogue, eruditesocial and politicalconservatism and a critique of contemporary society.
First Things is published by theNew York–based Institute on Religion and Public Life (IRPL) as a monthly, except for bi-monthly issues covering June/July and August/September,[2] and has a circulation of approximately 30,000 copies.First Things' founding editor and editor-in-chief, from 1990 to his death in 2009, wasRichard John Neuhaus. Since 2011,R. R. Reno has served as editor.
Ross Douthat wrote that, throughFirst Things, Neuhaus demonstrated "that it was possible to be an intellectually fulfilled Christian".[3]George Weigel, a long-time contributor and IRPL board member, wrote inNewsweek 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."[4]
First Things was founded in March 1990 byRichard John Neuhaus, aLutheran pastor turnedCatholic priest, intellectual, writer, and activist. He started the journal, along with some long-time friends and collaborators, after he left theRockford Institute.[5]
In 1996, in response to theColorado Supreme Court's decision inRomer v. Evans, which the magazine's leaders correctly predicted theSupreme Court of the United States would uphold on appeal,First Things published a symposium titled "The End of Democracy?", which denounced the ruling and included an essay byCharles Colson calling Christians to consider what future level of resistance might be necessary in the face of such a ruling.[6] The symposium was widely denounced by the mainstream press and more moderate conservatives including the magazine's ownMidge Decter, who screamed at Neuhaus in a telephone call, andDavid Brooks. It led to the resignation of editorial board membersGertrude Himmelfarb andWalter Berns.[6]
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 fromJudaism to Catholicism, from 2004 to 2005, when he left over disagreements with Neuhaus (whom he later criticized heavily in his bookThe Theocons);[7][8] andJoseph Bottum, a Catholic, from 2005, upon returning fromThe Weekly Standard.[9]
After his death, Neuhaus was succeeded by Bottum, who used the title "editor".[10] 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.[11][12]
In April 2011,R. R. Reno, a professor of theology and ethics atCreighton University, who had been involved with the magazine for over a decade and was a Catholic convert from theEpiscopal Church, was selected as editor.[13][14][15]
After Neuhaus's death,David P. Goldman,David Blum,David Mills, Midge Decter (ad interim),Mark Bauerlein, Matthew Schmitz, Julia Yost, and Dan Hitchens have served as executive or senior editors; the latter two are still in office.
In 2018,First Things published a review by theDominican priest Romanus Cessario ofVittorio Messori's bookKidnapped by the Vatican? The Unpublished Memoirs of Edgardo Mortara. The book covers thecase of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy mistakenly baptized by Italian nuns and kidnapped by theVatican 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."[16] Catholic writerMichael Sean Winters called the article "morally repugnant" and "intellectually deplorable", whileFirst Things regular contributorRobert P. George described it as "an embarrassment".[17]
In 2022,First Things published "The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism" by Aaron Renn.[18] The essay spawned a full-length book,Life in the Negative World, and was the most-read print issue article on theFT website in 2022.[19]Christianity Today said Renn's "positive-neutral-negative world framework is among the most thought-provoking ideas pertaining toAmerican evangelicalism this century."[20]
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.[1] Similarly toRichard John Neuhaus, Wilken is a former Lutheran minister converted to the Catholic Church.[21][22] The pair first met at theLutheran Concordia College of Texas in 1953, became friends, graduated in 1955 and earned the master of Divinity atConcordia Seminary in 1960. Former members of the editorial board includeneoconservativesGertrude Himmelfarb andPeter L. Berger, who resigned in November 1996 amid "The End of Democracy?" controversy,[23] Methodist theologianStanley Hauerwas, who resigned in February 2002 in protest with the journal's stance on thewar on terror,[24][25] andMary Ann Glendon, Catholic jurist and formerUnited States Ambassador to the Holy See. 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 and George Weigel.[26] Other former leading members of the advisory council have includedJean Bethke Elshtain,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), andMax Stackhouse.[27][28]
The journal used to have an advisory council (appointed by the institute board). In mid 2017, it included among others neoconservative writerMidge Decter; historianWilfred M. McClay; philosophersHadley Arkes andRobert P. George; political scientist Timothy Fuller; Christian theologians or biblicists Gary A. Anderson (Methodist), Thomas Sieger Derr (Congregationalist),Timothy George (Baptist),Terryl Givens (Latter-day Saint),Chad Hatfield (Eastern Orthodox),Robert Jenson (Lutheran),Peter Leithart (Presbyterian),Cornelius Plantinga (Dutch Reformed) and Ephraim Radner (Anglican); Jewish scholarsDavid G. Dalin and Eric Cohen, founding editor ofThe New Atlantis; physicistStephen Barr; andMark C. Henrie, president of the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation and former Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice-president of theIntercollegiate Studies Institute.[29][30][31] Until his death in February 2017, the council included also theologian and writerMichael Novak,[31] who, along with fellow Catholics Neuhaus and Weigel, was part of the "neoconservative trinity" according to critics.[32][33]
Contributors usually represent traditionalCatholic,Orthodox,Anglican,Protestant (especiallyLutheran,Methodist, andPresbyterian),Jewish andIslamic viewpoints.[34] Frequent contributors in the magazine's first year (1990) included Catholic juristMary Ann Glendon (laterUnited States Ambassador to the Holy See underGeorge W. Bush); rabbiDavid Novak; Catholic philosopher, diplomat and authorMichael Novak; Lutheran-turned-Catholic historian Robert Louis Wilken; Catholic scholar and papal biographerGeorge Weigel; and Lutheran ethicistGilbert Meilaender. Others appearing includedGary Bauer,William Bennett,Peter L. Berger,David Brooks,Robertson Davies,Avery Dulles (later Catholiccardinal),Jean Bethke Elshtain,Robert P. George,Stanley Hauerwas,David Horowitz,Peter Leithart,Martin E. Marty,Ralph McInerny,Mark Noll, andMichael Wyschogrod.[35]
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 asHadley Arkes,Sohrab Ahmari,Mark Bauerlein,Hans Boersma,Randy Boyagoda,Christopher Caldwell, archbishopCharles J. Chaput, Elizabeth C. Corey,Ross Douthat,Mary Eberstadt,Joseph Epstein,Anthony Esolen,Timothy George,David Bentley Hart,Peter Hitchens, Sam Kriss,Wilfred M. McClay, Joshua Mitchell,Stanley G. Payne, cardinalGeorge Pell, Nathan Pinkoski, Ephraim Radner,Robert Royal, Matthew Rose,Roger Scruton,Wesley J. Smith, Patricia Snow, Peter Tonguette, Michael Toscano, andCarl Trueman.[36]
First Things has often hosted statements byEvangelicals and Catholics Together, a group of leading scholars in the United States that are eitherevangelical Protestants or Catholics. Beginning in May 2017,Shalom Carmy, anOrthodox rabbi teaching Jewish studies and philosophy atYeshiva University (where he is Chair of Bible and Jewish philosophy atYeshiva College, also and an affiliated scholar atBenjamin N. Cardozo School of Law), as well as editor ofTradition, wrote a regular column named "Litvak at Large".[37] In the August/September 2021 issue, Carmy's column was taken over byLiel Leibovitz, writing under a column named "Leibovitz at Large". Carmy continued to be a frequent contributor ofFirst Things.R. R. Reno has continuedRichard John Neuhaus's columns called "The Public Square" and "While We're At It" and each issue ofFirst Things hosts poetry. The magazine publishes articles every day in the "Web Exclusives" section of its website.[38]
Editor-in-chief
Editors
Executive/senior editors
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