The death of Wendell Berry on Aug. 31 has occasioned a new outpouring of appreciation from diverse poles of the political, cultural and religious spectrums. The uniquely broad appeal of his work ever surprises.
I saw this with my own eyes when his lecture at the Arlington (Virginia) Public Library in 2010 caught organizers completely unprepared. There was a traffic jam of epic proportion, and people from all walks of life were turned away in disappointment from the auditorium.
If we grasp the reason for his broad appeal, we might see why in large numbers Catholics, too, have been moved by Berry, even though he was a lifelong Baptist with a complicated relationship with organized religion and certain views at odds with Church teaching.
A prophet of beauty
Wendell Berry was a prophet of the extraordinary beauty and importance of the ordinary in human life — a reality that Catholics have particular reason to reverence as central to God’s providential plan.
Why do I say “prophet?” His profound insight into the richness of human existence moved him to sound the alarm about our progressive turning away from our common inheritance. His voice was a firm and clear condemnation of the seemingly inexorable demise of goods so central in human life, such as membership in a community, marriage, home, friendship, family ties, neighborliness, physical place, working with our hands, responsibility, “porch time,” cultivating the earth, belonging to one another.
Berry made clear that losing these things, as well as regaining them, is at root a matter of choice. Our choice. Dominant forces today often serve up under the guise of “progress” what is in fact a mess of pottage. While resisting these forces is difficult, ongoing decline is not inevitable. And though Berry saw his own strength in bringing to light a deeper narrative of how we have come to where we are, he also excelled in giving inspiration and direction for renewal.
Nature and grace
I think the heart of what he has done is this: Wendell Berry helped us discover deep desires we didn’t know we had. Whether it was his essays, his fiction or his poetry — and each has its unique power and appeal — we felt something stir and come to life within us. What stirred within was never alien, even if it was scary, novel or new. We might say that Berry has helped us understand God’s plan for human life in its more “natural” aspects, thereby shedding light on the “nature” that theologians tell us is perfected by supernatural grace.
His fictional characters are unforgettable. In them we see much about ourselves, and who we want to be, or not be. Though they seem to be from a different time, Berry clearly saw them as for our time. One of the most subversive aspects of life today is how our common practices often obscure what should be obvious. Berry excels in pointing to precisely those features of human nature that we tend to miss.
One of his most beloved characters, Jayber Crow, gives voice to a conviction that runs through everything Berry wrote: “But earth speaks to us of Heaven, or why would we want to go there?”
Death and life
It is likewise Crow that expresses a profound, Christian understanding of death, and life: “I whisper over to myself the way of loss, the names of the dead. One by one, we lose our loved ones, our friends, our powers of work and pleasure, our landmarks, the days of our allotted time. One by one, the way we lose them, they return to us and are treasured up in our hearts. Grief affirms them, preserves them, sets the cost. Finally a man stands up alone, scoured and charred like a burnt tree, having lost everything and (at the cost only of its loss) found everything, and is ready to go. Now I am ready.”
The voice of Wendell Berry will be missed by many. But his writings remain as a witness and a call to discover the astounding richness of the ordinary things for which our hearts long. In this way they might help us understand something more of the words of Our Lord, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10).
John A. Cuddeback is professor of philosophy at Christendom College. His books “True Friendship” and “The Intentional Household” are published by Ignatius Press. His work at LifeCraft is renowned for applying a timeless wisdom to life today.
