logo
  • Contact
    • Request Information
    • Staff Directory
    • Faculty Directory
    • Media Kit
    • Contact Us
  • Visit
    • Visit Us
    • Daily Visit Options
    • Open Houses
    • Virtual Tour
    • Group Visit
    • Summer Camps
    • Meet us on the road
    • Driving Directions
    • Campus Map
    • Accommodations
    • Dining
    • Regional Attractions
  • Apply
  • Events & News
    • Events & News
    • Alumni & Friends Events
    • Calendar
    • Open Houses
    • Student Publications
    • Commencement 2025
    • Commencement Archive
    • Media Coverage
    • News Releases
    • GeDunk Alumni Magazine
    • Live & Recorded Events
    • Life of the Mind Lectures
  • Athletics
  • Give
  • Impact 150
  • Pres. Bradley J. Lingo '00
logo
    close
  • Our Story
    Our Story
    Built on American values.
    Learn More
    • Our Distinctives
    • History
    • Faith & Freedom
    • By the Numbers
    • Leadership Teams
    • Our Alumni
    • The Institute for Faith & Freedom
    • Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation
    • Center for Rural Ministry
  • Academics
    Academics
    Educating the entire you.
    Learn More
    • Majors & Departments
    • Grad School Prep
    • Study Abroad Programs
    • Graduate & Online Programs
    • Faculty Directory
    • Academic Resource Center
    • Accreditations & Affiliations
    • Request a Transcript
    • Dual Enrollment Program
    • Online Courses
  • Experience the Grove
    Experience the Grove
    A community so unique, we have our own name.
    Learn More
    • Organizations & Clubs
    • Campus Life
    • Athletics
    • Facilities
    • Virtual Tour
  • Faith & Purpose
    Faith & Purpose
    Who will you become?
    Learn More
    • Christian Formation
    • Find Your Calling
    • Chapel Livestream
  • Admissions & Financial Aid
    Admissions & Financial Aid
    You'll get more than what you pay for.
    Learn More
    • Admissions & Financial Aid
    • Why Grove City College?
    • Visit Us
    • Financial Aid & Scholarships
    • Applying to Grove City College
    • Accepted Students
    • Dual Enrollment Program
    • Online Courses
    • College Search Resources
    • Meet the Admissions Staff
Search
Search
  • Top Searches:
  • Programs
  • Athletics
  • Virtual Tour
  • Faculty Directory
    close
  • Portals
    • My GCC
    • Alumni Login
  • Info For
    • Parents & Guardians
    • Alumni & Friends
    • Donors
    • Educators
    • Employers
    • New Students
  • Offices
    • Institutional Advancement
    • Bookstore
    • Registrar
    • Office of Admissions
    • Office of Financial Aid
    • Office of Career Services
    • Stan & Karen Johnson Office of Global Programs
    • Imago Dei Center
    • Offices of Marketing & Communications
    • Information Technology Services (ITS)
    • Residence Life
    • Zerbe Health & Wellness Center
    • Counseling Center
  • Home
  • Academics
  • Majors & Departments
  • Arts & Letters
  • English
  • Christian Writers Conference
  • Christian Writers Conference
    • Conference Program

Christian Writers Conference

 

English-Christian-Writers-Conference-Body_0224

Complicity and Hope in Wendell Berry’s Membership
Guest: Andrew Peterson
The Eastern Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature
February 21-22, 2025
Grove City College Campus
 

This conference marks the 50th anniversary of one of the more significant events in the life of Wendell Berry’s fictional Port William community: the loss of Andy Catlett’s right hand to a mechanized corn picker. This may seem an odd episode to inspire a conference, but as the autobiographical character in Berry’s fiction, Andy Catlett’s life story and tragic accident offer a way to consider the central drama of Berry’s imaginative work. Unlike Andy, Berry himself has the full use of both his hands, which invites readers to consider why he would narrate Andy’s life history in this way. As Andy reflects in “Dismemberment” on the meaning of this loss, he comes to the conclusion that the machine took his hand “as the price of admission into the rapidly mechanizing world that as a child he had not foreseen and as a man did not like, but which he would have to live in, understanding it and resisting it the best he could, for the rest of his life.” This sense of inescapable complicity haunts Andy:

And so the absence of his right hand has remained with him as a reminder. His most real hand, in a way, is the missing one, signifying to him not only his continuing need for ways and devices to splice out his right arm, but also his and his country’s dependence upon the structure of industrial commodities and technologies that imposed itself upon, and contradicted in every way, the sustaining structures of the natural world and its human memberships. And so he is continually reminded of his incompleteness within himself, within the terms and demands of his time and its history, but also within the constraints and limits of his kind, his native imperfection as a human being, his failure to be as attentive, responsible, grateful, loving, and happy as he ought to be. He has spent most of his life in opposing violence, waste, and destruction—or trying to, his opposition always fragmented and made painful by his complicity in what he opposes.

Andy’s missing hand becomes a perpetual reminder of central questions that we all must live with: How do we imagine our complicity in and responsibility for systemic evils? How do we respond to our failure to live up to our ideals? How do we make do as maimed members of wounded communities? Christians have long wrestled with what it means to dwell on earth as exiles, and Berry’s writings offer us ways of living with this longing for a home and a wholeness that we know can never be realized on this side of the new creation.

In keeping with the tenor of Berry’s writings, we welcome papers from disciplines beyond English (e.g. history, theology, philosophy, political science, ecology, music, visual arts, etc.), and we prefer papers that avoid what Hannah Coulter calls the “Unknown Tongue” of stilted academic writing. Papers might address:

  • Any topic related to the writings of Wendell Berry
  • Writers from the many communities that Berry has belonged to: Kentucky writers, writers who studied with Wallace Stegner at Stanford, members of the Temenos circle, etc.
  • Literary responses to these questions from across history, particularly from those whom Berry has turned to for guidance: Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, the Romantics, Thoreau, and others
  • Authors from other places or times who consider related questions of complicity, despair, and hope
  • Issues related to the genre of fictionalized autobiography
  • Agrarian, regional, or local literature
  • Representations of nostalgia and exile
  • Considerations of the interactions between local and global
  • Ways of imagining the relationship between our present condition and the eschaton

The conference will take place on February 21-22, 2025 at Grove City College. Andrew Peterson will give a keynote address and an evening concert.

conference Registration     Conference Program

Accommodations

Candlewood Suites Grove City, PA:  $109 Friday/Saturday (per room, per night, plus 11% tax). Extended stay hotel with a full kitchen in every room. Weekly housekeeping. Pet friendly. No breakfast, but shop in the lobby with food items/beverages. Free shuttle service within 10 miles.

  • Call Direct: 724-748-6900. Ask for the "Christian Writers Conference"
  • Easy Booking Link: Christian Writers Conference Room Block – Candlewood Suites Grove City, PA
  • Note: Once you enter the dates and choose your room type, the code for your event will automatically pop up.
    • Must book rooms by 2/14/25 to guarantee rates and availability.
    • Hotel cannot guarantee early check in prior to 3 p.m. Please reserve two nights to ensure enough time to catch the shuttle to the venue.

 

 

  • Our Story
    • Our Distinctives
    • History
    • Faith & Freedom
    • By the Numbers
    • Leadership Teams
    • The Institute for Faith & Freedom
    • Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation
    • Center for Rural Ministry
    • Our Alumni
    • FCC Applications
  • Academics
    • Majors & Departments
    • Research & Libraries
    • Grad School Prep
    • Study Abroad Programs
    • Student & Alumni Stories
    • Faculty Directory
    • Academic Resource Center
    • Accreditations & Affiliations
    • Request a Transcript
  • Experience the Grove
    • Organizations & Clubs
    • Campus Life
    • Athletics
    • Facilities
    • Virtual Tour
  • Faith & Purpose
    • Find Your Calling
    • Chapel Program
    • Campus Ministries
  • Admissions & Financial Aid
    • Why Grove City College?
    • Applying to Grove City College
    • Financial Aid & Scholarships
    • Accepted Students
    • Find Your Calling
    • Dual Enrollment Program
    • Meet the Admissions Staff
  • Portals
    • My GCC
    • Alumni Login
    • JobGrove
    • Employment
  • Info For
    • Parents & Guardians
    • Alumni & Friends
    • Donors
    • Educators
    • Employers
    • New Students
  • Offices
    • Counseling Center
    • Zerbe Health & Wellness Center
    • Office of Marketing & Communication
    • Office of International Education
    • Career Services Office
    • Financial Aid Office
    • Admissions Office
    • Registrar
    • Bookstore
  • More
    • Portals
    • Offices
    • Employment
    • Bookstore
Grove City College seal
Grove City College
100 Campus Drive
Grove City,  PA  16127
724.458.2000
info@gcc.edu
Directions
Contact

  • The Collegian

  • Student Blogs
logo
  • Contact
  • Visit
  • Apply
  • Events & News
  • Athletics
  • Give
  • Campus Map
  • Student Consumer Information
Copyright 2025 by Grove City College
Grove City College Flickr Grove City College LinkedIn Grove City College Instagram Grove City College Issuu Grove City College Twitter Grove City College Facebook Grove City College YouTube