Wendell Berry died yesterday. Whilst I have only (so far!) read a small number of his works, his influence on my thinking has been significant.
I first came across Wendell Berry a couple of years ago during my first year of undergraduate degree in geography. I came across Wendell Berry when thinking about place and rootedness (two key geographical ideas), and quickly realised I had read his words before elsewhere. I quickly began reading his works, firstly some of his essays, and then his Port William novels.
The way he writes, and argues for an agrarian, communitarian view, was deeply attractive to me, tapping into that feeling of unease and malaise I felt about the modern world. He advocated for slow over fast, wisdom over knowledge, and a rootedness which we all lack today.
I grew up in a small town, and whilst many of his experiences are vastly different to mine (I never grew up surrounding by farming), his expounding of local and rootedness resonated in a world which is so often placeless and empty, where globalist and cosmopolitan values are seen as “progressive”, and those who care about their community as “backwards” or “providential”. He challenged all of this. He challenges the cultural stories I was being told, that I should go to university so I could “escape” my roots. He reminded me of what was important in life, of Biblical truths and wisdom that we so often forget in our human folly.
He also advocated an environmentalism which was different to what many are saying; a small-scale, caring-for of the place in which we find ourselves; rather than a finding-of “big” solutions, he advocated for a change in how we live, a rejection (in part) of modern industrialism - to consider more critically how we use technology and tools to serve ends rather than becoming a end in themselves.
He was a counter-cultural voice that our world still needs. I look forward to continuing to read his works, and trust that the values he championed, which many share, will continue to be defended and encouraged in our broken world; a broken world which desperately needs the hope of the Gospel, which Wendell Berry showed in many of his writings.
RIP Wendell Berry, 1934 - 2026