The Institute of Religion and Public Life (the publisher of First Things) was founded in 1989 by Richard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran pastor who later became a Catholic priest. 

A recent fundraising letter noted that, “Father Richard John Neuhaus wrote that the public square is naked without religion. An individual without a serious grasp of the role of religion in public life is likewise unclothed, vulnerable to ideological falsehoods. As G. K. Chesterton observed, ‘When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.’” 

The above quote appeared to reflect the main reason why Neuhaus founded The Institute of Religion and Public Life – to put religion in the public square – to encourage men to believe in God.

A typical issue of First Things begins with “Letters,” “Opinions” (mini articles), and the lengthier and more developed “Essays.” Each issue also has five or so lengthy “Reviews” (mostly books) and a similar number of shorter reviews categorized as “Briefly Noted.” Each issue has poetry sprinkled throughout the magazine. First Things typically features three columns: “Leibovitz at Large” (by Liel Leibovitz), “The Back Page” (literally in the back), and “The Public Square” (by the magazine’s editor, R. R. Reno). 

The Public Square

My favorite part of the magazine is R. R. Reno’s column “The Public Square.” It usually starts with two or three timely issues that are worthy of debate in the public square. The December 2025 issue, for example, discusses “Overcoming Nihilism” and “Rome and Immigration.” 

Then, under the heading of “While We’re At It,” Reno has some miscellaneous tidbits on what is happening in the public square. The December 2025 issue, for example, noted a “slight uptick in belief in the afterlife,” “theological contributions to secularization,” and “the anxious and conformist habits of today’s elites.” It also questioned whether the Book of Ecclesiastes “isn’t just a nihilistic rant,” while noting that “next year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.’”

The above issue also discussed some Gallup Poll results (e.g., “only slightly more than one-third of Democrats are ‘extremely or very proud’ to be Americans, compared to more than 90 percent of Republicans." [And] "Members of Gen Z are the least likely generation to be extremely or very proud to be American”). Reno went on to theorize why this was the case. I enjoy these kinds of tidbits.

I should note that I am very much a “mark and rip” reader. When I read, I have a pencil or pen in hand, underlining or otherwise marking the words, sentences, and paragraphs that interest me the most. I then go back and review what I “marked,” and “rip” out the articles that I found most interesting or informative. Most of the ripped articles that I have collected over the years have been from R. R. Reno’s Public Square column.

R. R. Reno

Rusell Ronald Reno III, better known and R. R. Reno has been the editor of First Things since 2011. He graduated (Ph. D) from Yale University in 1990, with an emphasis on religious ethics. According to Wikipedia, he has authored eight books, including Heroism and the Christian Life (with Brian Stewart Hook, 2000) and Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society (2016).

Reno was baptized into the Episcopalian Church as an infant and grew up as a member of the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore, Maryland. He was active in his church, becoming a member of the Theology Committee of the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops from 2001 to 2003. On September 18, 2004, he was received into the Catholic Church.

I was a Reno fan (from his columns) before finding out that he once was a professor of theology at Creighton University (my alma mater) from 1990 to 2010. In 2010 he took an “extended” leave from Creighton to work full time at First Things. Maybe that was one thing that attracted me to Reno – his Midwest sensibilities combined with his Creighton/Jesuit teaching background. I was long gone (1975) before Reno came to Creighton. 

On Thursday, May 4, 2023, Reno presented a public lecture on “Pope Benedict XVI’s understanding of the moral foundation of politics” at the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO). His lecture was followed by a panel discussion including Reno, Omar Gutierrez (of the Archdiocese of Omaha), and Carson Holloway (Chair, UNO Department of Political Science). I enjoyed his lecture and the subsequent panel discussion. I was able to speak with Reno and Holloway briefly, after the panel discussion, about the difficulties associated with expressing conservative views in a university setting. My grandson was having such problems – at UNO – at that time.

Summary

First Things is my favorite religious/political magazine. In my next post, I will discuss some “other” magazines – the more secular ones.