Product Description

First Things is a journal of ideas that examines the most interesting -- and often controversial -- issues arising at the crossroads of religion and public life today. It begins with the premise that to understand American society -- and where it is headed it is necessary to understand its religious life and values.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #491 in Magazine Subscriptions
• Formats: Magazine Subscription, Print

Customer Reviews

Yes, Virginia, intelligent people can take faith seriously
First Things is a consistently well-written thought-provoking magazine which offers an examination of public life, ethical issues, and religious issues from a perspective which takes faith seriously. The bent is mostly Catholic, but the magazine regularly publishes articles written by non-Catholics. This is one of the few forums in America where serious discussion of ecumenical issues can take place.

Because the perspective of First Things differs from that of the secular media, you can count on encountering fresh perspectives on the issues of the day. The contributors routinely draw on history, literature and philosophy to inform their understanding of current issues, and this lends depth to the perspectives offered. First Things offers irrefutable proof of the compatibility of faith and reason.

First Things is right-of-center, but all thinking people should find food for thought here. Even when I disagree with the writers, I walk away with more insight into the issues of the day than is the case with any other magazine. I give it my most enthusiastic recommendation.

It's the top: intellectual, funny, and religious all at once
If you have never picked up a copy of "First Things" you need to do so today. There is simply nothing else even remotely like it. No amount of praise could be too lavish for this magazine.

"First Things" an interfaith religious magazine. Yes, I said religious, a word hovering on the brink of the suspect list lately. The magazine does lean to Catholic and Protestant issues, although I have read articles by Jewish writers as well.

In this month's issue (May 08) there are articles on whether or not Shakespeare was Catholic, the ethics of immigration, a very interesting article on marriage, and a warm and personal reflection on William F Buckley. Also a comparison between hard-core atheists like Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx, and the new, soft-core atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens, who call God evil, even though "in order to make such value judgements one must assume, as the hard-core atheists are honest enough to acknowledge, that there exists somewhere, in some mode of being, a realm of rightness that does not owe its existence completely to human invention, Darwinian selection, or social construction (p 75).

You need it to keep abreast of the gossip about the breakup of your favorite mainline denomination and the outrages of liturgical dumb bunnies! To cleanse your mind after an hour spent watching the bilge that television producers call entertainment! To keep your sanity as western civilization collapses!

You need it as a gift to a student leaving to be brainwashed in one of our universities.

You need it as the perfect gift for those atheist friends of yours who claim all believers are barely sentient.

And, of course, it is an obviously necessary gift to yourself.

tremendous
This is my desert island magazine: if I was stranded and had only one magazine subscription, this would be it. (Actually, if I was indeed stranded on a desert island, that's probably about the only way I would have the time to read each issue as closely as I would like.)

The very existence of this erudite but un-stuffy magazine helps me to be less pessimistic about the state of intellectual affairs today.

The editor's outlook is very interesting. He was quite liberal in the 60s, active in activism, knew Martin Luther King, and so on, but he has developed into a more conservative stance. But--an important but, here--he is not full of gloom and doom like many that have taken a similar route. In may ways he has a very upbeat outlook on the state of culture, politics and religion, and he is quite refreshing as a result.

So much intelligent, critical writing comes off like the bitter musings of a grumpy old man. In my view, First Things tends to avoid this better than just about any other intelligent magazine out there today, and that goes for the stuff on the right and the left, the orthodox and the progressive.

If you are interested in getting a free sample issue or two, send me an email and I will write the publisher and have them send one along to you. (I don't work with or know anyone at the magazine, and I'm not an employee or an investor, and don't have any stake in this enterprise at all. In the back of each issue they make the offer to send free samples to folks recommended by subscribers.)

This periodical is becoming more and more influential; though it's not aimed at the masses, it gets read carefully by thousands of very influential people in politics and academia. I highly recommend that you check it out.