Lionel Basney was a poet and professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Prior to his time at Calvin, Basney taught at Houghton College, where his father also taught before him. Basney was interested in Samuel Johnson, William Shakespeare, and Ned Ludd and the origins of the Luddite movement. He was the author of An Earth-Careful Way of Life: Christian Stewardship and the Environmental Crisis. Wendell Berry's Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition is dedicated to Basney. In 2000, The Conference on Christianity and Literature at Pepperdine University began awarding the annual Lionel Basney Prize "to the article deemed by the CCL Publications Committee to be the most outstanding article of the year in Christianity and Literature". According to the website, "the award...commemorates both the scholarly career and the personal character of a teacher, scholar, poet, and essayist who, during nearly two decades of affiliation with Calvin College, was deeply committed to CCL and all that it seeks to promote." Basney's own work received awards and critical recognition, particularly the essays that were published in The American Scholarin 1999 and 2002. "Immanuel's Ground" was included in The Best Christian Writing 2000 and The Best Spiritual Writing 2000 "Teacher: Eleven Notes" not only was included in The Best Christian Writing 2002 but also received The American Scholar's award for Best Essay in January 2003. According to Basney,
"Five Notes on the Didactic Tradition, in Praise of Wendell Berry" in Paul Merchant, editor. Wendell Berry. Lewiston, Idaho: Confluence, 1991: 174-183.
"Narrative and Judgment in the Life of Savage." Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly: 14.2 : 153-64.
"Prudence in the Life of Savage." ELN: 28.2 : 17-24.
"'His Proper Business': Johnson's Adjustment to Society." Texas Studies in Literature and Language: 32.3 : 397-416.
"Having Your Meaning at Hand: Work inSnyder and Berry", in: World, Self, Poem: Essays on Contemporary Poetry from the Jubilation of Poets, ed Leonard M. Trawick. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1990: 130-143.
"Review of Collected Poems 1957-1982." Christianity and Literature 25 : 31-32.
"God and Peter Wimsey." Christianity Today 17 : 27–28
"The Balanced Mind: Johnson's Christian Empiricism"; Christian Scholar's Review III:3.
"Ecology and the Scriptural Concept of the Master"; Christian Scholar's Review III:1 : 49-50.
"'Lucidus Ordo': Johnson and Generality" Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 : 39-57.