Editing First Things (section)

==Governance==
''First Things'' is run by the board of the Institute on Religion and Public Life (IRPL), which is chaired by Colin Moran and whose members include, among others,  [[Russell Hittinger]], [[David Novak]], [[George Weigel]], and Robert Louis Wilken (former chairman) as of January 2023.<ref name="firstthings.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.firstthings.com/masthead |title=Masthead |work=First Things}}</ref> Similarly to [[Richard John Neuhaus]], Wilken is a former Lutheran minister converted to the Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2014/12/the-evangelical-catholic-tradition |title=The Evangelical Catholic Tradition - Mathew Block |work=firstthings.com |date=15 December 2014 |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chnetwork.org/journey-home/dr-robert-louis-wilken-former-lutheran-minister-journey-home-program/ |title=Dr. Robert Louis Wilken: Former Lutheran Minister - The Coming Home Network |work=chnetwork.org |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref> The pair first met at the [[Concordia University Texas|Lutheran Concordia College of Texas]] in 1953, became friends, graduated in 1955 and earned the master of Divinity at [[Concordia Seminary]] in 1960. Former members of the editorial board include [[Neoconservatism|neoconservatives]] [[Gertrude Himmelfarb]] and [[Peter L. Berger]], who resigned in November 1996 amid "The End of Democracy?" controversy,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.firstthings.com/article/1999/03/001-the-future-of-the-end-of-democracy |title=The Future of the End of Democracy - J. Budziszewski |work=firstthings.com |date=March 1999 |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref> Methodist theologian [[Stanley Hauerwas]], who resigned in February 2002 in protest with the journal's stance on the [[war on terror]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.firstthings.com/article/1996/11/001-the-end-of-democracy-the-judicial-usurpation-of-politics |title=The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics - Various |work=firstthings.com |date=November 1996 |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/stanley-hauerwass-pacifism/article/2496 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829215824/http://www.weeklystandard.com/stanley-hauerwass-pacifism/article/2496 |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 29, 2016 |title=Stanley Hauerwas's Pacifism |date=13 May 2002 |work=[[The Weekly Standard]] |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref> and [[Mary Ann Glendon]], Catholic jurist and former [[List of ambassadors of the United States to the Holy See|United States Ambassador to the Holy See]]. Both Berger (a Lutheran) and Hauerwas continued to publish articles in the journal also after their resignation from the editorial board. Until 2010, the journal had a finance committee, whose latest members were William Burleigh, Frederic Clark, Robert P. George, [[Peter Thiel]] and George Weigel.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.firstthings.com/masthead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704151810/https://www.firstthings.com/masthead | archive-date=2010-07-04 | title=Masthead }}</ref> Other former leading members of the advisory council have included [[Jean Bethke Elshtain]], [[Ernest Fortin]], [[Elizabeth Fox-Genovese]], [[Suzanne Garment]], [[Bruce C. Hafen]], [[Carl F. H. Henry]], Leonid Kishkovsky, [[Glenn Loury]], [[George Marsden]], Gilbert Meilaender (who still contributes to the journal), and [[Max Stackhouse]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://firstthings.com/menus/about.html |title=About First Things |date=12 April 1997 |work=archive.org |access-date=5 September 2016 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970412182745/http://firstthings.com/menus/about.html |archive-date=12 April 1997}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://firstthings.com/menus/about.html |title=About First Things |date=9 January 1998 |work=archive.org |access-date=5 September 2016 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980109142147/http://firstthings.com/menus/about.html |archive-date=9 January 1998}}</ref>

The journal used to have an advisory council (appointed  by the institute board). In mid 2017, it included among others neoconservative writer [[Midge Decter]]; historian [[Wilfred M. McClay]]; philosophers [[Hadley Arkes]] and [[Robert P. George]]; political scientist Timothy Fuller; Christian theologians or biblicists Gary A. Anderson (Methodist), Thomas Sieger Derr (Congregationalist), [[Timothy George]] (Baptist), [[Terryl Givens]] (Latter-day Saint), [[Chad Hatfield]] (Eastern Orthodox), [[Robert Jenson]] (Lutheran), [[Peter Leithart]] (Presbyterian), [[Cornelius Plantinga]] (Dutch Reformed) and Ephraim Radner (Anglican); Jewish scholars [[David G. Dalin]] and Eric Cohen, founding editor of ''[[The New Atlantis (journal)|The New Atlantis]]''; physicist [[Stephen Barr]]; and [[Mark C. Henrie]], president of the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation and former Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice-president of the [[Intercollegiate Studies Institute]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rupefoundation.org/about/directors-and-officers//|title=Directors & Officers – Arthur N. Rupe Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://home.isi.org/speakers-bureau-profile/2061/Mark%20Henrie |title=ISI Speakers Bureau {{!}} Intercollegiate Studies Institute: Educating for Liberty |website=home.isi.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225051411/https://home.isi.org/speakers-bureau-profile/2061/Mark%20Henrie |archive-date=2017-02-25}}</ref><ref name="masthead">{{cite web |url=http://www.firstthings.com/masthead |title=First Things Masthead |date=27 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127015041/http://www.firstthings.com/masthead |archive-date=2017-01-27 }}</ref> Until his death in February 2017, the council included also theologian and writer [[Michael Novak]],<ref name="masthead" /> who, along with fellow Catholics Neuhaus and Weigel, was part of the "neoconservative trinity" according to critics.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H8butfwlk5gC&q=novak+weigel+neuhaus+neoconservative+trinity&pg=PA93 |title=Prospettiva "neocon": capitalismo, democrazia, valori nel mondo unipolare |first=Flavio |last=Felice |date=5 March 2018 |publisher=Rubbettino Editore |isbn=9788849810240 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.culturewars.com/2010/Manhattan.htm |title=Culture Wars: Manhattan Declaration |website=www.culturewars.com}}</ref>