Who is the most acclaimed Christian writer you’ve never heard of? Although he is widely read among academics, activists, and literary circles, many Christians don’t know about Wendell Berry. He has received numerous writing awards, belongs to various literary clubs, and has taught at major universities around the globe.
Wendell Berry, born in 1934, is an American writer, activist, farmer, and Christian who lives in rural Kentucky. Many of his writings and activism have carried a prophetic voice to reorient humanity to a sustainable life with one another, God’s creation, and God Himself. His writing often takes place in the economies and cultures of rural communities. Berry has written over 25 books of poems, 16 volumes of essays, 12 novels and various short story collections.
Wendell Berry was born in rural Kentucky, and his father was a lawyer and tobacco farmer. The families of both of his parents farmed in the region for at least five generations. Eventually, he earned a B.A. (1956) and M.A. (1957) in English from the University of Kentucky.
The same year he earned his B.A.A. from the University of Kentucky, he married Tanya Amyx.
Berry published his first novel, Nathan Coulter, in 1960.
From 1964-1977, he taught creative writing at the University of Kentucky. During this time, he also came to know author and monk Thomas Merton, who lived in a monastery in Kentucky. From 1987-1993, he again taught in the English Department at the University of Kentucky.
In 1965, Berry, his wife, and his children moved to a farm, Lane’s Landing. They eventually expanded it to become a homestead, where they have lived ever since. They have grown grains, raised sheep, and he has done most of his writing there.
From 1977 to 1980, Berry wrote for publications like Organic Gardening and Farming and The New Farm.
Throughout Western history, Christian writers have had a significant role in shaping culture and have had a wide readership of both Christians and non-Christians. Notable Christian writers in the last two hundred years have included G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Flannery O’Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Lewis and Tolkien both belonged to a literary circle called the Inklings whose works continue to inspire and delight many readers today.
While Christian writing has a rich heritage, most contemporary, living Christian writers are not seen as having much influence in the literary world. However, Wendell Berry is one of the exceptions. He is widely loved and admired regardless of the religious beliefs of his readers. He is largely respected for his ideology, lifestyle, integrity, commitment to his convictions, and writing ability.
Additionally, Wendell Berry is unique because he has written in a wide variety of genres—
everything from nonfiction, fiction, essays, and poetry (including his “sabbath poems”). He continually writes with agrarian themes and often focuses on the idea that one’s work should be rooted in and in response to the place where one lives.
While Wendell Berry has a unique place as a Christian writer who has gained mainstream literary appeal, he is not the only one. Here are some other Christian writers (both contemporaries and younger ones) who have explored similar themes.
Marilynne Robinson (1943 to present) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist best known for her novel Gilead. Her work often explores religion and country life.
Robert Siegel (1939-2012) was one of the twentieth century’s trailblazers when it came to writing fantasy and science fiction with a Christian emphasis. His Whalesong trilogy mixed both fantasy and ecology and received many accolades.
Matthew Dickerson (1963 to present) is a novelist and Inklings scholar best-known for fiction like The Finnsburg Encounter. His nonfiction includes meditations on the dangers of technology, respecting ecology, and literary analyses of fantasy literature.
Frederick Buechner (1926-2022) was an ordained Presbyterian minister who wrote many books (poems, novels, memoirs, and lay theology) praised by secular publications. His first novel, A Long Day’s Dying, made waves in the literary scene of New York City, though many know him better today for Godric.
Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007) won the Newberry award for her book A Wrinkle in Time. She was a science fiction and fantasy writer who passionately advocated for using the creativity that God has given each person.
Much of Berry’s writing has focused on what he has deemed a good and right life. It is a simpler life defined by values like:
- participation in sustainable agriculture
- using small-scale and localized technologies
- having a deep connection to the place in which one lives
- taking pleasure in good food
- the ethical care of animals
- supporting local economies
- faithfulness to the community one lives in
- moderation
- reverence and awe for God’s creation and work.
He writes that these deep interconnections of life can be threatened by industrial farming and the overall industrialization of all areas of life, greed, arrogance, violence against others, and the destruction of God’s creation—such as the eroding of topsoil in the United States. His upbringing, travels across the United States and Europe, and spending time with the Amish seeing their traditional farming methods, shaped these values.
Berry has continued to advocate that humanity must harmoniously live within the rhythms of life that have existed since the beginning of creation; otherwise, humanity will perish. He states that the global economy is not predicated on these natural rhythms but is largely built to exploit or destroy one place to foster the over-development of another place.
Pastor Dr. James Emery White has written on how Berry has helped determine his theology on Creation Care. Also, reflecting Berry’s wide range of topics he has written on, Russell Moore, the American theologian, ethicist, and preacher, has commented on how Wendell Berry has influenced his parenting.
“The ecological teaching of the Bible is simply inescapable: God made the world because He wanted it made. He thinks the world is good, and He loves it.” — What People Are For
“People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely, shameful, and addictive. We need drugs, apparently, because we have lost each other.” — The Art of the Commonplace
“It is His world; He has never relinquished title to it. And He has never revoked the conditions, bearing on His gift to us of the use of it, that oblige us to take excellent care of it. If God loves the world, then how might any person of faith be excused for not loving it or justified in destroying it.” — What Are People For
“You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this:
‘Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.’
I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.” — Hannah Coulter
“Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation.” — The Art of the Commonplace
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.” — Given
“I dislike the thought that some animal has been made miserable to feed me. If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade.” — What Are People For?
“I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God.” — The Art of the Commonplace
3. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
4. The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
5. A Place in Time: Twenty Stories of the Port William Membership
7. Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer
8. What Are People For: Essays
9. This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems
10. The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History of Prejudice
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Stephen Cohen/Stringer
Nate Van Noord is from Detroit, MI, a graduate of Calvin University, and has taught high school history for many years. He loves to bike, run, and play pickleball, has been to about 30 countries, and is a three time winner of NPR's Moth Detroit StorySlam competitions.
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