Front Porch Republic
A Day (Un)Like Any Other Day
And then I noticed that she had a Children’s Hospital visitor sticker on her sweater and that, hardly before I finished my admonishment, she began to sob.
In Marce Catlett Wendell Berry Remembers for Us
Hardship fades from memory with each generation. Those who lived it remember the weight of it. Those who didn’t often forget.
American Gospel
Are our first principles as Americans, as humans, as creatures, sifted and rightly laid down?
The Sorrowful Love Nests of Never Again
The saddest pair of words in the English language is the phrase never again.
News, Notes, & Podcasts
Newsletter Editor:
Jeffrey BilbroEnter your email to receive a weekly newsletter highlighting what’s new at FPR.
You Play a Caryatid Easy: Songs About Constancy
We start with some songs about faithful women this week before moving on to some more abstract examinations of constancy. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
Regenerative Farming, Jonathan Swift, and Palantir
James Rebanks warns of the fragility of a food system that prioritizes efficiency above all else.
Set Me Free from This Mighty, Mighty Fire: Songs About Salvation
It’s songs about salvation this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs—and not nearly as much Christian rock as I was afraid I’d play! Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com.
Roundup, Virtues, and Wit
Nate Halverson has a level-headed and disturbing report on the use of glyphosate to manage US forests.
More Articles
Why AI Will Not Replace Human Love
“Relationships” between human beings and machines are not real relationships because machines cannot relate to the experience of living a human life.
A Pleasant Blast From the Past: Why a Working Scoreboard Still Matters
When the scoreboard lit up at my son’s game yesterday, it felt like a small miracle.
Want to Find Yourself? Volunteer In Your Church’s Nursery
To gaze into the eyes of a helpless baby was to see my actual condition as a creature laid bare.
Forsaking Success: Wendell Berry’s Return to Kentucky
As one Kentuckian wondered, why would he give up the “glitz and glamour” elsewhere to come back home to farm?
Chasing Eden: On the Present Age and the Possibility of Humanity
Once, a very long time ago, man and woman lived in a garden and walked with God.
Flying Home
The only area in Green Valley that has escaped urban sprawl is Mr. Henry’s Farm, at which stands an old oak tree named Birch.
A Fool’s Hope for Higher Education
Universities are peculiar institutions, and they need peculiar leaders.
From the Editor — Local Culture 8.1
Nostalgia, properly speaking, is homesickness. In its etymologically precise sense it is a longing not for a time but for a place.
The Balance of Us: On the Strange Therapeutic Power of Faulkner’s Prose
The prose in As I Lay Dying simultaneously provides a mirror for and an escape from my experience.
The Need for Non-Ironic Limits: A Review of The Philosophy of Philip Rieff
We often find ourselves fleeing “forward,” one might say, to escape the meaninglessness that forever snaps at our heels.
From the Archive
From the Editor–Local Culture 4.1: The Civil Dissent Issue
Think not, then, of the ubiquitous screens and hideous architecture and suburban metastasis and microwave dinners. Think rather of Eric Voegelin’s famous quip—Voegelin, who said that “no one is obliged…
Spiritual Secession: A Conversation with Paul Kingsnorth
" None of your readers need me to tell them that the useful work is practical, particular, small and careful: to get away from screens as much as we can, get…
Tanya Berry’s Faithful Art
Women like Tanya bring artistry and honor to everything they touch: the homes they inhabit, the land they steward, the children they raise. These photographs are testimony to the clear,…
Can There be a National Conservatism?
Here’s the irony: a growing number of conservatives realize that it will require the assistance of the State to correct many of the problems that have been created by the…
Cheese Should Be Dangerous
The cheese crafted here came about as a byproduct of a larger whole, the natural dividend of a complete way of life, and this is the foundation of the best…