Jeffrey Bilbro

“The Moses Option.” Paul Kingsnorth writes against the dangerous allure of activism: “What is the ‘solution’ to our modern ‘problem’? For a start, it is to stop thinking like that, because that is Machine thinking. We do not have a ‘problem’ that can be ‘solved’ by politics or war or top-down civilisational projects. We just […]

“An Education in Thanksgiving.” Rachel Alexander Cambre gives a very perceptive reading of Hannah Coulter: “Stories that bring the past to life, on the other hand, pass down memories of the blessings that have shaped our lives, and in doing so, they pass down gratitude. Rather than dismiss the past as irrelevant or mistaken, stories […]

“The Berry Center Journal.” The fall issue of the Berry Center Journal includes an opening letter from Mary Berry, a 1989 speech by John M. Berry Jr., and more, including a new short story by Wendell Berry: “it is a prayer also for his home country and his home history. For if Wheeler had gone […]

I’ll be taking the next couple of weeks off for the Christmas holidays. Look for these to resume in January. “Can a Phone-Free Learning Environment Work? This College President Emphatically Says Yes.” Charlie Camosy talks with Wyoming Catholic College president Kyle Washut about their campus culture and the benefits of cutting out much digital tech: […]

One might think that after forty-four years of writing these Sabbath poems, Berry would run out of things to say. But it seems that as long as the trees continue their silent conversion of light to soil, as long as the sun and the moon endure, as long as he has life and breath, Berry will continue his acts of Sabbath praise.

Long before generative AI became a reality, its false promises of ease and justice appeared in science fiction—and the desert temptation of Christ.

“AI and All Its Splendors.” I continue my mulling on AI and its underlying temptations in this lengthy essay for Christianity Today. I aim to craft a book proposal this summer that gathers together and brings some order to the various responses to AI I’ve been thinking about in recent years: “An encounter with God […]

FPR’s own Jason Peters will be giving an Agrarian Voices Lecture later this month at the Berry Center. If you’re near New Castle on Jan. 23rd, consider going in person to heckle him. If not, rumor has it there may be a video recording posted at a later date.

“Educating Humans.” I’m relishing the new issue of Plough. Alex Sosler has a great essay on trade schools, Tim Maendel describes one teacher’s creative ways of teaching his students to care for and conserve their place, and there are several other excellent pieces. “Walk on Air Against Your Better Judgment.” In this remarkable essay, Caitlin […]

“Last Boys at the Beginning of History.” This essay by Mana Afsari defies summary. Let me just say it is very good: “I was begging to be given values, community, a purpose, a vocation—and found none. Instead my teachers repeated what they’d heard on the news. In due time, by forcefully pursuing what was left […]