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
Hidden Wound, Living Bridges, and Local Food Processors
“What is Happening at Spring Arbor University?” I was informed this past week that this year will be my last at Spring Arbor University. I don’t have much to say…
Tech Monopolies, Church Forests, and Publish and Perish
“Closing Time: We’re All Counting Bodies.” Clare Coffey reviews two recent books that diagnose American rot: “Who is in any serious doubt that the American health-care system is cobbled together…
Cooperatives, Lasch’s Prescience, and Political Wisdom
I enjoyed some time off email and social media this past month, but I'm ready to resume these Water Dipper posts. I also want to take this opportunity to say…
Left Conservatism, Public Lands, and Flannery O’Connor
As I try to do each year, I’ll be taking a break from the internet for a couple of weeks. FPR will continue publishing under the able guidance of Matt…
Free America, The Front Porch Republic, and America’s Decentralist Tradition
The contributors to Free America belonged to one another and to the vision of a humane society, one founded on distributed property. Just because this vision has been drowned out…
No 2020 Conference, but Maybe a Local Porch
This announcement is a disappointment, although not a surprise. FPR has a few suggestions to temper your grief: Barbecue and pull some pork, then slather on homemade Nashville BBQ sauce.Read…
Poetry, Localism, and Postliberal Epistemology
“Verse Lines When the Streets Are on Fire.” James Matthew Wilson offers a stirring defense of poetry in a season of chaos: “Disease, disorder, and riot are reminders to us…
Science, Police, and Pigs
“The Intellectual Vocation.” Josh Hochschild reviews three recent books—by Scott Newstok, Zena Hitz, and Alan Jacobs—on liberal education: All three books, by testifying to fruitful intellectual life, remind us we…
Bartering, Caregiving, and a Failed State
“The Great Stagnation—or Decline and Fall?” Patrick Deneen reviews Ross Douthat’s latest book with the help of Henry Adams and suggests our society is not merely decadent and stagnant—it is…
COVID-19 Literature, American Conservatism, and Algorithmic Stories
A good rule of thumb is that literature about current events is terrible. I have, however, come across two recent exceptions to this general rule. The first is James Matthew…
Porches, Oedipus Rex, and Essential Workers
“Wendell Berry.” Silas House recounts a day he spent with the Berrys last summer: “It seems to me that joy, sorrow, and affection are the three things always present in…
Liberal Arts, Chaos Gardens, and Ralph Meatyard
“Christians Need the Liberal Arts Now More Than Ever.” John Fea argues that the value of a liberal arts education has been made particularly apparent by the coronavirus: A nurse…
Elegy and Plenitude, Decline and Hope
We’ve been getting reports that the new issue of Local Culture is finally arriving in mailboxes. If your copy hasn’t yet come, there’s now a light at the end of the dark…
Wendell Berry and Zoom
While the futurists and transhumanists and purveyors of educational technologies would have us voluntarily cut off our arms so we can enjoy their fancy new prostheses, our priority should be…
Decadence, Hope, and Eavan Boland
“Sources for Rebuilding.” Anthony Barr reviews Yuval Levin’s A Time to Build and puts it in conversation with a variety of other voices that also celebrate those quotidian but essential virtues of…
Tinned Fruit, Globalization Gravy Train, and Sigrid Undset
“Regeneration.” Plough Quarterly is publishing a special digital issue over the next several weeks with responses from a very promising lineup of authors. One excellent place to start is with Bill McKibben’s contribution.…
Local Culture Update, Bookshop, and Dvořák in Iowa
A quick update for subscribers to Local Culture: the printing was delayed a bit by COVID-19-related causes. However, our printer was deemed “essential,” (I’m sure because of their efforts in…
Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Jimmy Dorrell
“Dorothy Day’s Radical Faith.” Casey Cep takes the recent discussions regarding Dorothy Day’s potential sainthood as an occasion to consider her rich and bracing legacy. Keep an eye out for…
Pandemics, Power, and Holy Week
On Good Friday, Pilate and nearly everyone else thought that he was in control. He wasn’t. And on this Good Friday, Pilate’s heirs have much less power than they think…
Food Sovereignty, Ed McClanahan, and Quarantine Notebook
“Beyond Originalism.” Adrian Vermeule is causing a stir with his conservative critique of originalism in the Atlantic. In its place, he advocates ”common-good constitutionalism.” I’m not sure the courts are the…
Local Food Systems, Good Stories, and Grassland 2.0
Many of the essays being published right now respond to the coronavirus, and while I’ll link to a few of these below, they all suffer from our fundamental ignorance of…
Wendell Berry’s Distractions, Productive Households, and Factory Farming
“Wendell Berry: The Poet of Place.” Silas House corresponds with Berry about the work of faithful dwelling and writing: I think my work also has benefited from distractions. There are…
Limits, Fantasy, and Pandemics
“To Live and Love with a Dying World.” This conversation between Tim DeChristopher and Wendell Berry is quite good. Berry is a wily old fox, repeatedly refusing to be baited…
Good Work, CAFOs, and Pseudo Events
“Working Together.” Gracy Olmstead’s March newsletter relates the myriad benefits of working—and feasting—alongside friends. “Uyghurs for Sale.” Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Danielle Cave, James Leibold, Kelsey Munro, and Nathan Ruser report…