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
Localism in the New York Times, Wendell Berry on Dairy Farmers, and More
“Trump’s Enemy is Not Your Friend: Why We Shouldn’t Defend Amazon.” Thomas Frank doesn’t like the false dichotomy that Trump’s recent attacks on Amazon seem to pose. Do we really…
Telling the Stories Right
Though he may be better known as an essayist or poet, Berry calls himself a storyteller, and the best introduction to his agrarian vision is his fiction.
University Press of Kentucky, Group Think, the Farm Bill, and more
“An Open Letter.” The bad news is that the University Press of Kentucky lost some of their funding in the new state budget. The good news is that UK and…
Baseball, Liberty Hyde Bailey, and more
“Quit Trying to ‘Fix’ Baseball: Its Leisurely Pace Is Just What Our Society Needs.” Gregory Hillis tells Rob Manfred (and the rest of us) that we need what baseball offers:…
Convenience, Digitized Childhood, Hunters, and more
“Make Communities Great Again.” James Bruce argues the federal government should adopt policies that would strengthen local communities. “The Tyranny of Convenience.” Tim Wu writes about how our quest for…
Technology and the Virtues: Scale Matters
When an autonomous Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, Uber suspended its fleet of self-driving cars and assured everyone that it was “cooperating with authorities.” Such “cooperation”…
Tanya Berry, Bitcoin, Technology, and more
“Staying Human: The Tech Issue.” Plough Quarterly has a new issue on technology with several thoughtful essays. My favorite is Susannah Black’s profile of Jack and Amy Baumgartner, “The Perfect…
Digital Commons, Stinkbugs, Nationalism, and More
Wendell Berry writes in defense of the University Press of Kentucky: "If it should happen, this destruction would amount to an act of censorship, for the knowledge made available by…
Wendell Berry Interview, Life after Liberalism, and More
“The Agrarian Life with Wendell Berry.” Bryan Wood and Mike Kline from Back to the Roots Podcast conduct a long interview with Wendell Berry. It’s worth setting aside the time…
Loneliness, Rural College Students, and More
It's been a busy first week on the remodeled porch, and we have an excellent lineup of new essays coming next week. For now, though, here are some of the…
What is Liberty Anyway?
Patrick Deneen’s new book, Why Liberalism Failed, is a manifesto in defense of place, limits, and liberty. And the amount of attention it’s received (how often does The New York…
Technological Failures, New Localism, and More
Each week, I’ll try to post links to recent essays and stories that might interest Porchers. If you have additional essays to recommend, please link to them in the comments.…
Reviving the Conversation on the Porch
I’m honored and excited to be joining the Front Porch Republic in a more official capacity and taking over the editorial duties for this site. When I stumbled across FPR…
Dash, Grandpa’s Three-Legged Dog
I wasn’t there. In fact, I’m not sure who all was. And as I write this sitting in Michigan, I’m far from those who might know. My Grandma was alive…
Does Wendell Berry Have Rose-Colored Glasses?
Given the unpopular and uncompromising stands that Wendell Berry takes, it’s only natural that many readers fiercely disagree with him. Some of these disagreements are simply matters of preference. As…
The Seer: Seeing Through Wendell Berry’s Eyes
Laura Dunn’s The Seer: A Portrait of Wendell Berry (later retitled Look & See) begins with the blurred lights of cars speeding along freeways and the barren wasteland left by mountaintop removal…
Puritans and The Pope: The Conflicted Christian History of American Ecological Ethics
The responses from American Christians to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ have fallen into two predictable categories: Economic conservatives push back against Francis’ critique of “technoscience,” claiming that capitalism and…
Wendell Berry Opts Out of the ‘Culture of Violence’
Our Only World: Ten Essays. By Wendell Berry. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2015. In January of 2012, Wendell Berry delivered a speech at Georgetown College that explained his support for legalizing gay…
Marginalizing Care: What Happens when Healthcare and Education become Industries
Spring Arbor, MI In our age of austerity and cost-cutting, the two industries currently under the microscope are healthcare and education. The gains in productivity that have transformed other parts…
Imagining Healthy Work: Why We all Have to Become Monks
This essay was originally presented at Spring Arbor University’s annual Focus series. I am speaking today not as a literature specialist, nor as a professional economist, nor as a business…
Beauty will Save the World
The following talk was given at a symposium titled “‘Beauty will Save the World’ – It’s the Culture,” arranged by Andy Anuzis and The Civil Society Initiative. I want to…
Place Isn’t Just Geographical
Rod Dreher’s new book, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, seems to have struck a chord among both sympathizers and critics of Wendell Berry. Ross Douthat, Alan Jacobs, Jake Meador,…