Wendell Berry: Life and Work by Jason Peters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been reading Wendell Berry for about ten years now, and although I don't always agree with every jot and tittle in his books, I have great respect for him, and I have enjoyed and learned much from him.

In my view, his thought can be summed up in these lines from his poem "How to Be a Poet":

There are no unsacred places.
There are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Berry helped me understand that this world is a wonderful, sacred place, and that we need to live here with a sense of gratitude, stewardship, and affection. In another of his books, he says, "I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness." For Berry, love for God should not be thought of as consisting only in a spiritual realm, but should actually influence everything we do in our day-to-day activities. It should cause us to care holistically for our families, for our fellow man, and for the land God created. As Berry puts it, "It all turns on affection."

This book is an excellent, detailed summary of Berry's thought, influences on him, and his influence. Writers include Berry scholars, as well as his friends and fellow writers. I didn't read every essay, but I read most of them and found them helpful.

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