[3] George Weigel, a long-time contributor and IRPL board member, wrote in Newsweek that, under the influence of Neuhaus, First Things had "quickly became, under his leadership and inspiration, the most important vehicle for exploring the tangled web of religion and society in the English-speaking world.

[6] The symposium was widely denounced by the mainstream press and more moderate conservatives including Midge Decter, who screamed at Neuhaus in a telephone call, and David Brooks, and the resignation of editorial board members Gertrude Himmelfarb and Walter Berns.

[11][12] In April 2011, R. R. Reno, a professor of theology and ethics at Creighton University, who had been involved with the magazine for over a decade and was a Catholic convert from the Episcopal Church, was selected by the IRPL board as editor.

"[16] Catholic writer Michael Sean Winters called the article "morally repugnant" and "intellectually deplorable", while First Things regular contributor Robert P. George described it as "an embarrassment".

"[20] 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.

controversy,[23] Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas, who resigned in February 2002 in protest with the journal's stance on the war on terror,[24][25] and Mary Ann Glendon, Catholic jurist and former United States Ambassador to the Holy See.

[26] 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.

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; 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.

[35] Frequent contributors in recent years have included some of the aforementioned authors and several members or former members of the IRPL board and the former advisory council, as well as Hadley Arkes, Sohrab Ahmari, Mark Bauerlein, Hans Boersma, Randy Boyagoda, Christopher Caldwell, archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Elizabeth C. Corey, Ross Douthat, Mary Eberstadt, Joseph Epstein, Anthony Esolen, Timothy George, David Bentley Hart, Peter Hitchens, Sam Kriss, Wilfred M. McClay, Joshua Mitchell, Stanley G. Payne, cardinal George Pell, Nathan Pinkoski, Ephraim Radner, Robert Royal, Matthew Rose, Roger Scruton, Wesley J. Smith, Patricia Snow, Peter Tonguette, Michael Toscano, and Carl Trueman.