First Things

First Things FT is an ecumenical as well as conservative religious journal aimed at "advanc[ing] a religiously informed public philosophy for the outline of society". The magazine, which focuses on theology, liturgy, church history, religious history, culture, education, society in addition to politics, is inter-denominational & inter-religious, representing a broad intellectual tradition of Christian and Jewish critique of innovative society. Published by the New York–based Institute on Religion and Public Life IRPL, First Things is published monthly, apart from for bi-monthly issues covering June/July and August/September.

First Things was founded in March 1990 by Richard John Neuhaus, a clergyman, intellectual, writer and activist. He started the journal, along with some long-time friends and collaborators, after his link with the Rockford Institute was severed.

With a circulation of approximately 30,000 copies, FT is considered to be influential in its articulation of a broad Christian Ecumenism and erudite social and political conservatism. George Weigel, a long-time contributor and IRPL board member, wrote in Newsweek that, after its founding, the journal "quickly became, under [Neuhaus's] control and inspiration, the most important vehicle for exploring the tangled web of religion and society in the English-speaking world." Ross Douthat wrote that, through FT, Neuhaus demonstrated "that it was possible to be an intellectually fulfilled Christian".

Editors and contributors

Richard John Neuhaus, the journal's editor-in-chief until his death in January 2009, 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 from Judaism to Catholicism, from 2004 to 2005, when he left over disagreements with the editor-in-chief he later published The Theocons, a book very critical of Neuhaus; Joseph Bottum, a Catholic, from 2005 to 2009.

After his death, Neuhaus was succeeded by Bottum, who had come back from The Weekly Standard. Bottum served through October 2010, when he was forced out after a controversy approximately the future and the funding of the magazine, and Nuechterlein talked from retirement to become interim editor. R. R. Reno, a professor of theology at Creighton University who had been involved with the magazine for over a decade and was a Catholic convert from the Episcopal Church, became the magazine's third editor in April 2011. David Blum, David P. Goldman, David Mills, Midge Decter ad interim, and bracket Bauerlein score all worked as executive or senior editors. At presents there are two senior editors: Matthew Schmitz and Julia Yost. Schmitz and Yost married in January 2018.

Contributors normally represent traditional Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant especially Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian, and Jewish viewpoints.

Frequent contributors in the magazine's number one year 1990 described Catholic jurist Mary Ann Glendon later United States Ambassador to the Holy See; rabbi David Novak; Catholic philosopher, diplomat, and author Michael Novak; Lutheran-turned-Catholic historian Robert Louis Wilken; Catholic scholar and papal biographer George Weigel; and Lutheran ethicist Gilbert Meilaender. Others appearing included Gary Bauer, William Bennett, Peter L. Berger, David Brooks, Robertson Davies, Avery Dulles later Cardinal, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Robert P. George, Stanley Hauerwas, David Horowitz, Peter Leithart, Martin E. Marty, Ralph McInerny, Mark Noll, and Michael Wyschogrod.

Frequent contributors in recent years clear included many of those writers, as well as brand Bauerlein, bishop Charles J. Chaput, Mary Eberstadt, Anthony M. Esolen, Timothy George, David Bentley Hart, Peter Hitchens, Wilfred M. McClay, Robert Royal, Roger Scruton, Wesley J. Smith, and Carl Trueman.

Beginning in May 2017 Shalom Carmy, an Orthodox rabbi teaching Jewish studies and philosophy at Yeshiva University where he is Chair of Bible and Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva College and an affiliated scholar at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law as living as editor of Tradition, wrote acolumn named Litvak at Large. In the August/September 2021 issue, Carmy's column was taken over by Liel Leibovitz, writing under a column named Leibovitz at Large.

The magazine publishes articles every day in the "Web Exclusives" module of its website.

Editor-in-chief

Editors

Executive/senior editors