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
The Voice of Communities in the Conversation of Mankind
What might be gained by viewing Nisbet’s different forms of community as being in a conversation, rather than in a competition?
Techn-Kings, Micro-Colleges, and Groupthink
If you think an algorithmic function can have a moral character, I’m not sure you’ll have a productive conversation about aligning AI with human goods.
Against AI Slop. For Feelable Thought
What will it take to sustain the remnants of a contemporary republic of letters on the margins of a public square blasted by machine-speak?
Chesterton, Lukacs, and Joe
Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn expresses gratitude for Wendell Berry’s latest novel and his faithful voice speaking truth over many decades.
Why Cormac McCarthy Stands Alone Among Novelists
McCarthy, a little before the rest of us, had caught a glimpse of Western Civilization’s end.
Abundance, Chromebooks, and Satellites
This excerpt from Christopher Beha’s new book draws on John Stuart Mill to probe the flaw at the heart of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s technocratic vision of liberalism.
Baseball, Gardening, and the Metaverse
It’s been a rough week for those committed to Wendell Berry’s Terrapin Theory of Technology.
Meatpackers, Barnes & Noble, and Wittgenstein
Arthur Brooks draws on Eitan Hersh and others to remind people that following politics like it’s entertainment erodes civic virtue.
Form, Fraud, and Suckers
I’m in the middle of savoring Call Out Coyote right now. Seth’s poems roll off the tongue and stick like a burr in the heart.
Gratitude, War, and Play
Matt Wheeler writes a wonderful appreciation of Wendell Berry’s newest novel.
Seeds, Scribes, and Jeremiahs
Sam Kriss visits San Francisco and talks to highly agentic people burning through a lot of cash to do stuff.
Indianapolis, the Humanities, and Immigration
Brad East reviews Ross McCullough’s new book, This Body of Death, and captures its uncapturable wonders as well as anyone could do.
Poverty, Progressives, and Publics
In an absolute barn burner of an essay, Matthew Walther asks hard questions about our obligations to those rendered passive, distracted, and poor by our technological society.
Brigid, Ozempic, and Stehekin
“Big Ag Has Corrupted Our Food System. Here’s How We Can Rebuild.” Sara June Jo-Sæbo talks with Austin Frerick about how to fix America’s broken food economy: “The first antitrust…
Come On Up to the House: A Review of Wake Up Dead Man
The film's mystery is a satisfying one, but its pleasures are secondary to the consideration of the larger mystery of the Christian faith.
Economic Republicanism, the Second Amendment, and Isolation
Charles Carman reviews Kingsnorth’s new book, and while he finds some flaws that frustrates him, he also argues that it has warnings we should take seriously.
Memorization, Gamification, Sanctification
James Pogue, one of the best journalists writing today, profiles a Washington representative with an unconventional approach.
Dorothy Day, Tanya Berry, and Ludwig Wittgenstein
Kristin M. Collier contemplates the practice of medicine predicated on a creaturely view of persons.
Plumbers, Pepsi, and the Amish
Antón Barba-Kay articulates the appeal of Curtis Yarvin and diagnoses the very-online irony that marks his rhetoric.
The State of the Porch
FPR aims to gather and encourage those who aspire to a creaturely life even in a machine age.
Lift a Glass to Mark Mitchell
Leave a comment to thank Mark. Add your good wishes to mine. He deserves them.
Attention, Housing, and Subscriptions
Ezra Klein wrestles with the limitations of liberalism in the face of big tech efforts to capture users’ attention.
From the Editor—Local Culture 7.2: Work and Leisure
Wading in a river and lumberjacking in the woods are at once work and play, play and work, and in this they resemble anything we might do for instrumental ends…