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
Repairing the Rents of History
The real challenge is to make the wisdom of the past live in the present. Such work is analogous to sprouting a seed, playing a song, cooking and enjoying a…
Seeds, Reality, and Eucatastrophe
“Syria’s Seed Planters.” Plough’s Summer 2022 issue on “Hope in Apocalypse” has many essays on this important virtue. One of the most moving, I think, is Mindy Belz’s account of…
The Regime, Progress, and the Last Battle
I'll be taking the month of June off email and, for the most part, the Internet. FPR will continue publishing essays while I'm away--we have some substantive essays on tap--but…
Fiction, Insects, and Baseball
“The Colorado River is in Crisis, And It’s Getting Worse Every Day.” In a beautifully produced, well-illustrated essay, Karin Brulliard journeys down the Colorado River and highlights the communities and…
The End of the World, Pawpaws, and Local Journalism
“Not That Brothers K.” Ken Sundet Jones praises David James Duncan’s brilliant novel on the thirtieth anniversary of its publication: “It’s about American angst, familial drama, and Seventh Day Adventist…
Severe Mercies and Magnanimous Despair
If students grew up moving from city to city, or if they hail from a soulless suburb, or if they are inevitably complicit in economic and social systems they deplore,…
Christian Anarchism, Sigrid Undset, and Third Places
“Introduction to Christian Anarchism Summer 2022 Seminar.” Laurie Johnson is offering an online seminar exploring the tradition of Christian anarchism: “The five sessions will center on these themes: 1. basics…
Work, Time, and Seeds
“Christopher Beha Left the Catholic Church and then Came Back. Now He’s Writing a Book about Why..” Mary Grace Mangano talks with Chris Beha about his sickness, his return to…
Local Food, Hope, and Death
“Spring 2022.” The Berry Center’s spring newsletter has several good pieces, including Wendell Berry’s note of gratitude for the continued practice of local subsistence, in this case manifest during a…
Repair, Homeschooling, and Ownership
“Repair and Remain.” Kurt Armstrong shares some wisdom about fidelity that he’s picked up along a winding life: “for twelve years now I’ve had a hybrid operation, juggling a one-man…
Predictions, Literature, and Baseball
“Will Technology Enhance or Deplete Relationships?” Matthew Loftus draws lessons on electronic medical records and our broader use of technology from What is Not Sacred?, a book by the Tanzanian…
Announcing the 2022 FPR Conference
We have a date, location, and keynote for our fall conference. Stay tuned for a full schedule and registration information, and make plans to join us!
Disinformation, Friendship, and Beauty
“The Death Spiral of an American Family.” Eli Saslow profiles a family in Detroit who are at loose ends after the death of their patriarch, a man who had done…
Public Writing, Fences, and Neighbors
“Democrats are Kicking Rural America to the Curb. Again.” Art Cullen gives Democrats a tongue-lashing for their plans to change the primary schedule and give less influence to rural voters…
Scruton, Globalization, and Concentric Roots
“Scruton Makes His Case.” John G. Grove reviews a new collection of Scruton’s essays and finds that they display his optimistic “pessimism[, which] paradoxically leads us to fields of hopeful…
Local Culture and Global Paper–Update
The paper supply chain turmoil has come for Local Culture. Once the order of paper arrives, the magazines will be printed and mailed to subscribers. They are hoping a new…
Suffering, Happiness, and Baseball
“How Tech Despair Can Set You Free.” In a rich essay on Jacques Ellul, Samuel Matlack faces the dangers of our technological society squarely and considers the possibilities for hope:…
Soil, Friendship, and Laughter
“Why Putin is no Hitler.” Daniel McCarthy warns against falling into wrongheaded patterns of thinking as war takes place in Europe: “Certain reflexes remain irresistible in Washington, not only among…
Wendell Berry, Urban Planning, and Gleaning
“Wendell Berry’s Advice for a Cataclysmic Age.” In a surprisingly sympathetic essay—surprising given its appearance in the New Yorker, a publication not known for its sympathy with agrarians from rural…
Boys, Protests, and the Metaverse
“Big Business Games the Supply Chain” Rose Adams describes how companies like Amazon and Walmart are better positioned to profit from supply chain snarls while small businesses struggle acutely. Yet…
Shakespeare, Maus, and Mushrooms
“‘Aw, Partners, It’s Been a Bitch.’ A Letter from Ken Kesey After His Son’s Death.” Ken Kesey’s letter to Wendell Berry and other mutual friends describing the death and burial…
Idols, Democracy, and Communion
“The Migration of the Holy.” Paul Kingsnorth weighs England’s purported secular culture and finds it wanting. As he argues, “everything is religious,” and when we turn from a transcendent God,…
Social Media, Hyperbole, and Walking
“Can Our Campuses Be Reasonable?” Zena Hitz praises Jonathan Marks’s Let’s Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education, but she calls for a higher ideal than mere reasonableness: “The…
Trees, Old Books, and Local Politics
“The Trees at the Heart of Creation.” Andrew Peterson and Tim Mackie (from the Bible Project) talk about the role of trees in the biblical narrative and the implications we…