first things

May 19, 2020

Rev. Robert Sirico: What would Fr. Neuhaus think of ‘First Things’ now?

First Things magazine has transformed radically from the days when Rev. Richard John Neuhaus established it as the foremost magazine of Christian engagement with the public square. Acton Institute President and Co-founder Rev. Continue Reading...

November 27, 2019

Do classical liberals ‘pave the way for white nationalists’?

Matthew Schmitz’s article “How classical liberals paved the way for white nationalists” in the Catholic Herald borrows a conceit from Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Both place two unrelated phenomena in their titles for dramatic effect. Continue Reading...

July 01, 2019

Letter from Rome: American vs. European Nationalism

Last month’s Sohrab Ahmari-David French debate was the more recent skirmish about the meaning of American conservatism. Acton’s Joe Carter has helpfully compiled a reading list without appearing to favor one side over the other. Continue Reading...

February 18, 2019

Who are ‘our poor’ in the immigration debate?

At First Things last week, in his essay “Our Poor,” economist Andrew M. Yuengert reflected upon his 2004 Acton monograph Inhabiting the Land, questioning whether his economic analysis (that immigration is a net gain for both immigrants and natives) needs more nuance in the light of our current political climate: Continue Reading...

July 10, 2018

Pahman to First Things: Markets are not inherently destructive to the soul

In “Origami of the Soul,” published recently by First Things, Timothy Reichert and Francis X. Maier argued that “hierarchical institutions” are needed to spiritually form the individual and that markets not only cannot form the individual, but also damage the institutions that would seek to. Continue Reading...

June 19, 2018

Video: Rev. Ben Johnson on First Things blaming democracy and capitalism for abortion

Rev. Ben Johnson, editor of the Acton Institute Religion & Liberty Transatlantic project, appears on the Stephen Herreid Show on YouTube to talk about his critique of First Things editor Matt Schmitz’s essay which blamed democracy and capitalism for Ireland’s repeal by referendum of its 8th Amendment, which “recognizes the equal right to life of the pregnant woman and the unborn.” Continue Reading...

June 08, 2018

‘Satanic’ capitalism brought abortion to Ireland: ‘First Things’ editor

There is much to lament over the Republic of Ireland’s repeal of the Eighth Amendment, including the death of reason among some who have commented on it. This last was lamentably displayed in an essay written by First Things senior editor Matthew Schmitz and published in the Catholic Herald on Thursday. Continue Reading...

October 12, 2017

Samuel Gregg: Ideas, intellectuals and the free economy

In another round of conservative debate on the virtues — or vices — of the market economy, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg published a new piece at Public Discourse in which he takes on the critiques of writer Matthew McManus. Continue Reading...

September 20, 2017

Samuel Gregg: ‘First Things,’ R.R. Reno, and the market economy

The role of free market economics in the West should not be off-limits for debate among religious conservatives. As Samuel Gregg writes in a new essay, that standard should “provide philosophical and theological guidance about how to ground free economies—and liberal institutions more generally—upon more solid foundations than the peculiar mixes of utilitarianism, autonomy-for-autonomy’s sake, and pseudo-evolutionary theory advocated by some liberal thinkers.” Continue Reading...

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