Byron Borger has, for a couple of years, been telling me to read Wendell Berry. I've got a couple of his books of essays and in all honesty it has been tough going to read him. This is because I live in a different world than he inhabits and am just not familiar with where he is coming from at times.
But I keep coming back to him and am glad I am and feel myself being drawn slowly into his agrarian web. My most recent foray into Wendell Berry was sparked by this post from Sean Michael Lucas. I'd like to say I read the whole post but the post is longer than some books, almost as long as some of my own posts. Anyway, Dr. Lucas recommended Berry's essay Thoughts In the Presence of Fear, so I got the book by the same title and read it. His thoughts on the global economy are astounding, and I am still processing them and won't comment, except to say that they are a good followup to this post. For now though I'll whet your appetite for Berry with this quote on education:
The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not primarily an industry and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. Its proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, socially, and culturally responsible. This cannot be done by gathering or "accessing" what we now call "information" - which is to say facts without context and therefore without priority. A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means first things first.
Related Tags: Books, Education, Wendell Berry
Berry's against the pragmatism that's wormed its way into modern Christianity. He's prophetic in that. Too much of what we pass off as the practical outworkings of genuine faith is actually godless pragmatism disguised in a holy veneer.
His books are hit or miss. I must say that What Are People For? totally rocked my world and forced me to rethink every assumption I have about the way I live as an American in the 21st century.
I wish more Christians would read Berry. No, he won't be everyone's cup of tea, but the challenges he offers for those of us who have capitulated to "The System" are profound.
Posted by: DLE | October 12, 2006 at 05:02 PM
I've assigned "Thoughts" as the final reading in my U.S. history class since 2001. The reaction of students tends to be negative (to my mind, defensive), not so much that they don't like that he's challenging their assumptions, but that their baffled how any sane individual could challenge these assumptions in the first place. But I hope it sticks with some of them.
Posted by: Russ | October 12, 2006 at 05:19 PM
Wow, I'll definitely be taking a look into some of Berry's works. I've been formulating my own ideas and looking forward to writing a book about some these very things. Some of the key words I remember running across my mind the other night were: practicality, and "the system". To see practicality replaced with pragmatism and "the system" used here is nothing other than astounding to me. I'm confident Berry will be a hit with me.
Posted by: Chris | October 13, 2006 at 12:44 PM
Wendell Berry, along with many other southern agrarians such as Richard Weaver have contributed greatly to critiquing modern industiral society as a whole and the philosophy of education (as seen in Dewey and others) in particular.
They have influenced my thinking in terms of "progress" and the modernistic use of that term, even in education. The homeschool movement seems to be reaction to much of this. I have providentially and recently posted a short article on this very issue here. It is one that is near and dear to me. May God grant us more men like Berry, Weaver, Lytle, Crowe, etc.
Posted by: David McCrory | October 13, 2006 at 01:15 PM
I read a lot of the post by Dr. Lucas and all of the notes on the Os Guinness lecture. From what I could understand of Berry's views as described, I'd give them a mixed review. While I agreed with much of it, I wondered if the concept that agrarian=good, urban=bad is quite Christian. Does in some ways it have more in common with the second response to globalization cited by Guinness, i.e, the Eastern and Native American ideas of living in equilibrium with nature? By contrast the biblical view emphasizes man's stewardship and rule over creation. By this I don't mean a false notion of doing harm to creation for the sake of man's wants and whims, as has been too often the case in our consumer-driven society. Christians should be in the forefront of seeing that each part of creation is given its due. But that is not the same thing as saying that the Lord's intention was for us to always have continued living in a garden. There's a right and proper progression of cultural development which includes the rise of cities. (At the end of time, a city descends from heaven...) It's possible for cities to be wonderful, enriching communities with proper parks and transit, and architecture that uplifts and encourages human interaction. I was in one such city this year, Cracow, Poland, and actually the city I live in now, Toronto, though not perfect, has many of those qualities.
Have I misinterpreted Mr. Berry?
Posted by: TED WILCOX | October 14, 2006 at 01:20 AM
Ted Wilcox (and others),
There was a good discussion in 2005 at Comment Magazine about agrarianism and urbanism. Here are the articles:
Life in a Machine
The Cultural Mandate and the Spirit of Agrarianism
Then a number of replies here, here, here, and here.
Posted by: macht | October 14, 2006 at 04:35 PM
Count me in as a Berryite :) If you have not read his book Life is a Miracle I would encourage you to do so.
I now own all of Berry's books. He does get easier to read with time. I find him constantly challenging how I live my life (and I live in rural Ohio)
I will soon be 50. I wish I head read Berry at a much younger age. Age and illness limit what I can do now. I encourge my grown children to read Wendell Berry. Perhaps there is hope for the younger generation.
Berry promotes a holistic view to life. He soundly rejects Greek dualism and I see his writings as an attempt to deliver the Church from such dualism and pragmatism.
We jhave only been given ONE earth. It does matter how we care for it.
Posted by: Bruce Gerencser | October 29, 2006 at 06:19 PM
This is cool, I would love to make a post on my blog on this and a link back to your blog of course.....
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