Our Only World, by Wendell Berry

Berry places concern for food production and land use, climate change, and the politics of sex and marriage within the context of personal responsibility and ordinary relationships. The first entry, “Para­graphs from a Notebook,” reads like a version of Pascal’s Pensées aimed against the analytical, disintegrating, and violent tendencies of science, industry, and political ideologies. The final entry, “On Being Asked for ‘A Narrative for the Future,’” rests in part on a Christian principle of re­sponsible stewardship (Matt. 6:34). These wise essays—one of which first appeared in the Christian Century—are informed by years of thoughtful attention to the cultivation of the earth, local husbandry, and the shape of marriage, family, and community.