When Did Wendell Berry Start Talking Like a Christian?

Around 1979, Wendell Berry began using more explicitly Christian language to articulate his view of creation. This essay traces Berry’s youthful rebellion from and eventual return to Christian language through his letters with Snyder and his essay “The Gift of Good Land.” It then contrasts the sacramental vision his early sabbath poems articulate with the pagan vision of several early poems—poems he chooses not to include in his 1985 Collected Poems. Finally, it considers how Remembering, his first novel focusing on the autobiographical character Andy Catlett, can be read as a conversion narrative.