First Things is monthly journal published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, whose purpose “to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.” The magazine is edited by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a Roman Catholic priest who was a Lutheran minister until his conversion to Catholicism in the early 1990s. Neuhaus, one of the leading religious commentators in the country, founded the magazine after he left the conservative Rutherford Institute after apparent disagreements with its management.

A ten-issue subscription runs $39. Issues at the newsstand are $4.95.

The magazine includes erudite articles written from Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Jewish perspectives although Catholic writers are most commonly published. Featured articles run the range from religion and philosophy to politics, law, and current events. Editorial content is what the media would call “conservative”, and while the legal and political articles are in that vein, such appellation is really appropriate in a religious and especially the Catholic context in which much of the writing falls. The magazine and its level of discourse reminds me very much of Commentary which, although featuring many articles of Jewish concern, is probably the leading neoconservative journal in the country. (Similar leftist journals might include American Prospect and The Nation.) Although the magazine takes firm stand on its issues, the tone is generally respectful and gives a fair shake to its opponents (in contrast to, say, The American Spectator or The Nation, both of which are extraordinarily partisan).

Despite its relatively small readership, First Things has a certain influence beyond its circulation. Indeed, the magazine in general and Neuhaus specifically have garnered significant criticism from the left as being an incubator for conservative and neocon thinking. Unquestionably, some of its articles have created considerable controversy. In 1996, for example, an article entitled The End of Democracy challenged the legitimacy of certain U.S. Supreme Court decisions and raised issues of civil disobedience that ignited a firestorm of criticism. (Leftist philosopher Ronald Dworkin’s own statements that the alleged failure of certain American economic policies compromise our claim to democratic legitimacy have evoked no similar criticism in the secular press.)

The magazine’s seventy-two pages begin with 6-8 pages of letters to the editor. Much like Commentary, these are often missives written by the subjects of earlier articles or by writers commenting on them, plus responses by the articles’ authors. Several short opinion pieces of 1-2 pages each follow. The guts of the journal are three or four articles of 4-6 pages each. These articles are wide-ranging in focus and, as I have said earlier, are written by adherents to the religious faiths mentioned above. Recent subjects have included just war and Iraq, C.S. Lewis, the Supreme Court and abortion, faith and science, and the meaning of a Christian university. Prominent authors include Hadley Arkes, Justice Antonin Scalia, Avery Cardinal Dulles, Michael Novak, George Weigel and many others. The editorial positions are religiously “authentic” and generally though not exclusively politically and economically conservative (economics in particular is often dealt with from a “Christian” perspective and is not wholeheartedly free market).

Regarding the level of discourse, I’m a pretty bright guy but on some theological and philosophical levels the magazine sometimes leaves me behind. Readers who are well read in ontology and Christology or drop phrases like “metaphysical univocity” over drinks will enjoy themselves. On the other hand, most of the rest of writing will be comprehensible to the ordinary adult who has an Ivy League graduate degree in humanities.

There are usually several large and a number of smaller reviews of books across the political and religious spectra and their interplay in modern culture and politics. The reviews take political stands but are generally more fair-minded than one will encounter in, for example, the extremely biased The New York Times Book Review.

The magazine concludes a section entitled The Public Square, ten or twelve pages of rumination by Fr. Neuhaus on subjects that he finds of interest. This includes a longer essay and then a number of shorts on whatever is bugging Fr. Neuhaus on that particular day. Such subjects include the aforesaid New York Times, whose perceived anti-Catholic bias is a favorite hotspot of Neuhaus, the Catholic Jesuit order and its retreat from its faith, the liberal theologian Fr. Richard McBrien, and mainline Protestant denominations, as well as a wide-ranging commentary on current events, obituaries, and books.

As I said, readers thumbing through this magazine will be convinced it takes a conservative perspective. This may be true politically and economically, but at least in terms of its treatment of Catholic issues (which receive more attention than other faiths, witness the many articles written by Catholic bishops and cardinals not to mention Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI) that is not. True, First Things defends papal infallibility and opposes such hot button items as abortion on demand, ordination of women as priests, and homosexual marriage, but it is not correct to say its positions are conservative Catholic ones. Rather, they are simply Catholic positions, and positions opposing them are not “liberal” Catholic but, rather, are heretical.

That having been said, I recommend the magazine to those who are interested in an erudite ecumenical review of religious and political issues from a generally rightist perspective. Liberals, frankly, will either be offended or amused by much of what they read, but it’s always important to know what the enemy is thinking, even when you disagree with him.

buffoonery’s magazine and newspaper reviews:

Wall Street Journal
Commentary
The Economist
National Review
The Nation
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun-Times
First Things
The American Spectator
The New Republic
Guitar World
Guitar World Acoustic
Guitar One
Guitar Player


Recommended: Yes