For several years after the founding of National Review in 1955, the magazine had no dedicated beat for matters of religion. But William F. Buckley Jr. knew that religion was integral to cultures and societies and relevant — often highly relevant — to politics and policy. He also understood that Christianity and its mother religion, Judaism, had helped to shape American culture and the American polity.
Buckley was a religious believer — a Catholic — and he knew that the conservative values he held and was building a movement to propagate came in large measure from the Judeo-Christian tradition. So, he tapped Will Herberg, a Jewish scholar — an ex-Marxist — who was teaching at Drew University in New Jersey, to be NR’s first religion editor.
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