For most of his 92 years, Wendell Berry farmed his Lane’s Landing homestead in Henry County, Kentucky, using methods that embraced the land. He preferred draft horses to diesel-powered tractors and used crop rotation and manure fertilizer to naturally nurture his fields.

The widely revered poet-farmer, who wrote passionately about rural American life and humans’ responsibility to care for the land, believed in practicing what he preached.

Those beliefs were rooted firmly in his Christian Baptist faith.

Throughout his life, Berry, who died on Aug. 31, 2026, was a leading advocate of environmental stewardship. You might recognize his belief system in what’s known as creation care today.

It embraces a responsibility to care for the Earth and all its creatures. Berry increasingly saw that ethic violated by the industrialization of agriculture and ignored by a dominionist theology, preached by some prominent American Christians, which holds that humans have a God-given right to exploit the Earth’s resources.

Biblical base for Berry’s environmental ethics

Berry’s environmental ethics had their basis in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, which emphasizes that humans are not the owners of the Earth but rather are called to be caregivers and to tend the planet. He wrote, “We are allowed to make no exceptions – every person’s obligation toward creation is summed up in two words from Genesis 2:15: ‘Keep it.’”

In contrast, the dominionist view emphasizes Genesis 1:8, which has been........

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