Place. Limits. Liberty.
Join us for FPR’s 2025 Conference on “Work and Leisure”

labor 7

Craft and Theology: The Reason

The frictionless existence we were promised, one that freed us from slavish obedience to place and tradition and family bonds, turns out to be one in which we amorphously float…

Fear and Hope in the Hay Field

We need to love smaller, more energy-efficient houses and cars in order to love people more. We need to give up much of our casual oil consumption for leisure. We…
October 20, 2023

Hannah Arendt on Labor, Work, and Dwelling—and Plastic Straws

An appreciation for labor and the cycle of nature is not itself enough for sustainable human dwelling. We also need a re-appreciation of the durability and independence of the works…
October 2, 2019

Resisting Romanticism and the Elision of Labor

I thus find myself in the odd position of resisting romanticism while, nevertheless, hoping that future conditions will create that temptation.
September 27, 2019

The Local Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer stands at the fore of figures of the Christian past who loom large over political theology and religious activism today. The German pastor and theologian’s life elevates his…

Fifty Dollar Tomato

Hillsdale, MI. When I first thought about writing this it was the “Ten Dollar Tomato.”  But historians are more or less required to tell the truth, and it now costs…

Food and Freedom

RINGOES, NJ. Isn’t it interesting how quickly speculation becomes conventional wisdom? Back in the fall, when we began to hear rumblings of economic catastrophe, things were a bit vague. Most…
Mark T. Mitchell
March 9, 2009