Jeffrey Bilbro is an Associate Professor of English at Grove City College. He grew up in the mountainous state of Washington and earned his B.A. in Writing and Literature from George Fox University in Oregon and his Ph.D. in English from Baylor University. His books include Words for Conviviality: Media Technologies and Practices of Hope, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News, Loving God’s Wildness: The Christian Roots of Ecological Ethics in American Literature, Wendell Berry and Higher Education: Cultivating Virtues of Place (written with Jack Baker), and Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry’s Sustainable Forms.
Jeffrey Bilbro
Articles by Jeffrey Bilbro
Family Doctors, Designer Babies, and Bug Farms
The details of the dissolution of the Honors College at Tulsa continue to be quite discouraging.
My Encounters with Dr. Dobson: His Unremarked Upon Strengths and Fatal Weakness
Dobson knew his influence was on one side of the political divide and kept his focus and advocacy there. Political loyalties came first.
Weedkiller, Conversation, and Data Centers
Charles Eisenstein lays out some initial policy proposals that could help farmers stay solvent while transitioning to more regenerative agricultural practices.
TikTok Democracy, AI Parenting, and Rooted Virtue
Christine Rosen pens a biting response to Katherine Boyle’s rosy picture of techno-families.
Don’t Die, Bad Neighbors, and Unions
Piers Gelly describes how students responded when he invited AI into their classroom.
The Essay, Jane Greer, and Blue States
Sally Thomas remembers the wry and wonderful formalist poet Jane Greer.
Markets, Slop, and Alyosha
Jen Pollock Michel describes what she’s learned while caring for her aging mother.
Pints, Children, and Libraries
“Food Is Not Magic.” Garth Brown probes the oddities that ensue when people conscript food into an ideological project: “Contradictions and superficiality do not discredit the claim that the modern…
Identity, Mundanity, and Vaccines
Matthew Crawford points out that much new technology today only adds layers of friction rather than actually solving a problem.
Ivan Illich, Byung-Chul Han, and Cloning
Bianca Bosker dives into the weird and disturbing world of making creatures.
Reflections on Alasdair MacIntyre
Dependent Rational Animals offers both a satisfying philosophical exclamation point and a sorely needed ethical and political vision appropriate for the struggles of our own day.
Seamus Heaney, Oakland Ballers, and Frugality
"In fact, MacIntyre’s work is extreme, but we live in extreme times."
MacIntyre, Classical Music, and Diapers
“Remembering Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025).” Christopher Kaczor remembers the life and legacy of his teacher: “I have never met, nor do I ever expect to meet, a philosopher as fascinating as…
Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025)
I don’t see how any English-speaking student of politics or philosophy from the past half-century could have avoided being shaped by After Virtue, his short and explosive argument against the…
The Census Taker in a Church Pew, Part 7
His hands remind me of a topographical map. Even now with their nail scars, do Jesus’ hands bear also the marks that come with age and years as a craftsman?
Leaving the Keys in the Truck: Trust, Tension, and the Rural Bargain
Trust in rural places isn’t built on virtue; it’s built on visibility. It’s knowing you’ll see the person again.
From the Editor: Local Culture 7.1
There is no law preventing us from being worthy pupils of the spring rains, the dead, and the plants. We can mind first principles; we can keep our hands off…
Remodeling the Porch
Amateur operations are fragile and tenuous. But we’re grateful for a much-improved virtual home.
Agrarian Voices Lecture
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…
Milton, Babbitt, and Auden
“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…
“As I Know by Love”: Wendell Berry’s Another Day
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…
Progress, Tyson, and Messiah
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…