Wendell Berry 202
Brass Spittoon: Imagining Hope for 2020
Wilfred M. McClay, Bethany Hebbard, and Jake Meador consider what recent trends—considered at the local, regional, and global scales—give reason for hope in 2020.
Noticing Birds
We don’t have to escape to a new and better location with more perfect neighbors. We need to lovingly attend to the ones we have.
Love Is Its Own Justification: Wendell Berry and the Lure of Political Efficacy
Scialabba insists that our actions are meritorious and good if they are effective, if they transform society and lead to measurable improvements. Berry, on the other hand, upholds love as…
Ernest Gaines, 1933-2019
On Tuesday, November 5th, Ernest Gaines, one of the great Southern novelists of the twentieth century, passed away. Gaines had a distinguished and decorated career: his honors include a MacArthur “genius”…
Two Great Interruptions
Wendell Berry’s new story is actually about two great interruptions: the first forms the occasion for Billy’s tale, and the second is how, as the title has it, the tale…
The Foreign Mystique
If we learn about ourselves and our homes through travel, we don’t just become better “citizens of the world”—we can become more conscious and thoughtful citizens of our own places.
Wendell Berry Conference Videos
Video recordings from our 2019 conference on the legacy of Wendell Berry are now online. We hope those of you who weren't able to join us in the flesh will…
The Localist Theory of Charles Marohn’s Wonderfully Practical Strong Towns
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] This past weekend, I took a group of students up to the annual Prairie Festival at The Land Institute in Salina, KS. I do this…
Learning to Read “the Book in Front of Us”
As the fall semester looms, the minutia of meetings and syllabi revisions threatens to drain the excitement from my impending return to the classroom. As a way of warding off…
A Casual Birder
For most of my adult life I’ve considered myself a birder. Some people say “bird-watcher,” but for me that term conjures up the sort of goofy-looking eccentrics you see in…
On Being Watched, and Remembered
“Don’t take my gun, Nightlife!” Tol called, trying to sound not too much concerned, and yet unable to keep the tone of pleading entirely out of his voice. “I’m liable…
The Yankee Southern Agrarian
Wendell Berry, while still writing more than most of us, is squarely in the awards and laurels stage of his earthly journey. Who will continue the call for sanity and…
Bringing Wendell Berry (and Business) to Sterling
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A week ago I was able to organize a small group of friends to attend a fine, relatively intimate event at Sterling College, a small…
The Crisis of Love in a Global Age
Any longtime reader of Wendell Berry’s work recognizes two of the many animating forces that give his writing its emotional resonance. These two forces, these two genii loci, revolve around Berry’s approach…
Thomas Merton’s Contemplative Politics
Fifty years ago today, Thomas Merton died suddenly during a visit to Thailand. During the past few months, I’ve been thinking about the ways his life and writings speak both…
Live like a Tree
I am an unlikely localist. My life is a product of globalization. My mother’s side of the family is from Singapore, China, and India, linked to each other through the…
Dirt Thick with Known Dead
While wandering in a used bookstore this summer, I picked up Donald Hall’s String Too Short to be Saved. I enjoyed Hall’s stories about his grandparents’ farm (the book’s title…
Dear Eugene
One of my heroes of the faith is dead. Eugene Peterson experienced death, but certainly not its sting, as he uttered his final words, “Let’s go,” on Monday, October 22.…
The Cornhusker Berryian: Ben Sasse’s Argument for Rootedness
It was said of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) that he had written more books than most senators had read. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) seems to aspire to…
Can You (or anyone) Put Wendell Berry’s Lightning in the Bottle of U.S. Higher Education?
Below is the text of a review for Orthodox Presbyterians -- of all people -- of Jack Baker and Jeff Bilbro's new book on Wendell Berry (some words have been…
Love in the Place of Almost Death
At the height of the political tension in King Lear, the corrupt usurpers of Lear’s throne are at the helm of Britain’s defense against French invaders. Cordelia, Lear’s truly beloved…
Learning to Distinguish between Demonic and Redemptive Technologies
In a recent essay for Christianity Today, “Do All Plants Go to Heaven?,” Abigail Murrish speculates that GMOs might be present in the New Jerusalem. It’s certainly an interesting question.…
Conservation by the Yard
I begin with a proposition adapted from Wendell Berry—namely, that mowing is an ecological act. Mowing extends the perennial drama of photosynthesis and carbon cycling. Too few lawn owners, however,…
The Cost of Knowing One’s Place
The first time you read the novels of Thomas Hardy–especially if you read them as a young adult–you’re likely to get a pretty forceful impression. With the story-telling powers of…