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** Daily Newsletter: October 10, 2025
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** In today’s newsletter:
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JASON A. STAPLES: No, Paul Was Not Against the Jews ([link removed])
PETER J. LEITHART: Third Ways and Other Ways ([link removed])
Welcome to the new and improved Daily Newsletter from First Things. Our content isn’t going to change drastically—we’ll still bring you the new articles each day, straight to your inbox.
Now, we'll also connect new articles to the larger conversations First Things has been leading for thirty-five years.
And if you don’t want to read all that, the new articles are listed at the top.
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** No, Paul Was Not Against the Jews ([link removed])
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** Jason A. Staples
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Today, author Jason A. Staples responds to a review of his book Paul and the Resurrection of Israel. In his response, Staples challenges Gerald McDermott’s characterization of the book in last month’s article “Paul Against the Jews? ([link removed]) ”
For further reading: James R. Wood initially reviewed Staple’s book for the magazine in “Paul’s Ethnic Gospel ([link removed]) ,” calling it “The fruit of painstaking exegetical labor and theological attentiveness, the book stands as arguably the most consequential contribution to Pauline studies since John Barclay’s Paul and the Gift.”
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** Third Ways and Other Ways ([link removed])
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** Peter J. Leithart
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When confronted with the American political binary, some Christians say it is best to eschew both left and the right and choose instead a “third way.” And yet this “third way” is by nature a reaction to the first two ways, Peter J. Leithart writes today. Christians are free to open up “other ways” of responding to societal challenges that transcend left, right, and “third.” “Christians should embody a different way altogether, one that’s not defined by the contingent, fluctuating contours of American politics,” he writes, pointing to Catholic Social Teaching and the thought of Oliver O’Donovan.
For further reading: The efficacy of the “third way” approach has aroused contention in the past few years. Throughout his ministry, Tim Keller advocated that Christians remove themselves from the culture wars and instead embrace a nonpartisan “third way” of allegiance to Christ. In 2022, James Wood explained in “How I Evolved on Tim Keller ([link removed]) ” how he, as a “fanboy” of Keller, began to question if this evangelistic and political framework “would provide sufficient guidance for the cultural and political moment,” given that Christianity is facing a more hostile culture than Keller did during his most active years. Aaron M. Renn explained this shift in “The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism ([link removed]) ” (February 2022).
The article ignited fierce debate, including accusations that Wood was trying to baptize Trumpism. Associate editor Justin Lee came to Wood’s defence, writing in "Takeaways from the Debate over Tim Keller’s ‘Third Way’ ([link removed]) ” that Keller’s approach worked only because “it was a brilliant strategy for evangelizing a culture intoxicated by the idea of its own universality. But time has revealed liberal universalism to be a parochial delusion.”
Upcoming Events
* November 2, 2025: A Night of Poetry with Ben Myers | New York, NY. Register here ([link removed]) . ([link removed])
* November 3, 2025: The 38th Annual Erasmus Lecture: In Praise of Translation | New York, NY. Register here. ([link removed])
* November 11, 2025: Lecture at the University of Dallas | Irving, TX. Details coming soon.
* January 9, 2026: Second Annual Neuhaus Lecture at the New College of Florida | Sarasota, FL. Details coming soon.
Until next time.
Virginia Aabram's signature
** VIRGINIA AABRAM
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Newsletter Editor
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