Lately, I'm reminded that as much as I appreciate much of what Wendell Berry says, I believe there are some real issues in his thought.

To be sure, Berry has a lot of positives. He has a wonderful imagination, an eloquence in his writing style, and a quiet peace that make his work a pleasure to read. In terms of his ideas, he is essentially a Burkean conservative. As such, he has some good advice for conservatives: we need to truly conserve--our families, our communities, our places. He shows that instead of making the economy an idol, we need to implement policies that put families, local communities, and places first. More importantly, we need to learn to love what we have been given. He argues persuasively that when we gain a sense of place, so many problems are prevented.

Berry's main ideas could be summed up as Rod Dreher has put it: "Small, Old, and Particular are better than Big, Global, and Abstract." In fact, Berry calls himself a Jeffersonian. For Berry, neither Big Corporations or Big Government is the answer. He promotes strong families, strong local communities, small farms, and a much smaller government. I concur wholeheartedly.

But Berry has some issues. Although I agree with much of what he says on environmental issues, he can go over the top. Also, I find him critical of the church in a bitter, non-constructive way. His own theology is handpicked mainly from a few passages in the Gospels. (His independent, hyper-individualist theology seems to contradict his own critiques of hyper-individualism). And although I like many aspects of his view of place, I think that it has some problems. Christian scholar Alan Jacobs has written a good critique of it in The American Conservative: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/jacobs/christianity-and-place/.

So I enjoy much of Wendell Berry's work, and I think more of us need to listen what he says. But of course, we need to read him with a grain of salt.

UPDATE: Jeffrey Bilbro sent me a link that discusses Alan Jacobs' view of Wendell Berry and clarifies some things:   "Place Isn't Just Geographical".