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James K.A. Smith Quotes

The church's theology bought into this ahistoricism in different ways: along a more liberal, post-Kantian trajectory, the historical particularities of Christian faith were reduced to atemporal moral...

James K.A. Smith

The church's theology bought into this ahistoricism in different ways: along a more liberal, post-Kantian trajectory, the historical particularities of Christian faith were reduced to atemporal moral...

Tags: christianity, church history, evangelicalism, god, liberal christianity, primitivism, tradition

According to Maximus the Confessor in One Hundred Chapters of Love, the key to directing and increasing one's desire for God is the acquisition of the virtues-which, you'll recall, we described above...

James K.A. Smith

According to Maximus the Confessor in One Hundred Chapters of Love, the key to directing and increasing one's desire for God is the acquisition of the virtues-which, you'll recall, we described above...

Tags: formation, habits, practices

About Author
James Kenneth Alexander Smith (born 1970) is a Canadian-American philosopher who is currently Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University, holding the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview. He is the current editor-in-chief of the literary journal Image.

And I’m looking through the glass Where the light bends at the cracks And I’m screaming at the top of my lungs Pretending the echoes belong to someone — Someone I used to know.

James K.A. Smith

And I’m looking through the glass Where the light bends at the cracks And I’m screaming at the top of my lungs Pretending the echoes belong to someone — Someone I used to know.

Or, to put it another way, presuppositional apologetics--such as that developed by Francis Schaeffer, but also by Cornelius Van Til and, to a degree, Herman Dooeyeweerd--rejects classical apologetics...

James K.A. Smith

Or, to put it another way, presuppositional apologetics--such as that developed by Francis Schaeffer, but also by Cornelius Van Til and, to a degree, Herman Dooeyeweerd--rejects classical apologetics...

Tags: derrida, interpretation, philosophy, postmodernism, presuppositional apologetics

Do we tell ourselves we’re just going in order to guard against the disappointment of never arriving? Do we call the road home to avoid the pain of never being welcomed?

James K.A. Smith

Do we tell ourselves we’re just going in order to guard against the disappointment of never arriving? Do we call the road home to avoid the pain of never being welcomed?

We confess knowledge without certainty, truth without objectivity.

James K.A. Smith

We confess knowledge without certainty, truth without objectivity.

It’s like we have moral muscles that are trained in the same way our biological muscles are trained when we practice a golf swing or piano scales. Now

James K.A. Smith

It’s like we have moral muscles that are trained in the same way our biological muscles are trained when we practice a golf swing or piano scales. Now

The call to follow Christ, the call to desire his kingdom, does not simplify our lives by segregating us in some pure space; to the contrary, the call to bear Christ’s image complicates our lives beca...

James K.A. Smith

The call to follow Christ, the call to desire his kingdom, does not simplify our lives by segregating us in some pure space; to the contrary, the call to bear Christ’s image complicates our lives beca...

But one of the unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation, Taylor argues, was a disenchantment of the world. Critical of the ways such an enchanted, sacramental understanding of the world h...

James K.A. Smith

But one of the unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation, Taylor argues, was a disenchantment of the world. Critical of the ways such an enchanted, sacramental understanding of the world h...

Ethical knowledge is the emplotment of one’s life in the theological narrative

James K.A. Smith

Ethical knowledge is the emplotment of one’s life in the theological narrative

James Smith argues that liturgies are compressed, performed narratives that recruit the imagination through the body.

James K.A. Smith

James Smith argues that liturgies are compressed, performed narratives that recruit the imagination through the body.

Tags: worship

In fact, I must tell you that in the past couple years I’ve become convinced that perhaps nothing is so important for our walk with the Lord as good friends. I think God gives us good friends as sacra...

James K.A. Smith

In fact, I must tell you that in the past couple years I’ve become convinced that perhaps nothing is so important for our walk with the Lord as good friends. I think God gives us good friends as sacra...

Worship isn’t political only to the extent that it can be marshaled and invoked in contemporary partisan debates; it is always already political insofar as liturgy is the rite of citizens of the heave...

James K.A. Smith

Worship isn’t political only to the extent that it can be marshaled and invoked in contemporary partisan debates; it is always already political insofar as liturgy is the rite of citizens of the heave...

What makes them religious is not just that they are informed by beliefs and worldviews but that they have formative pretensions that are nothing short of liturgical. It shouldn’t be surprising when an...

James K.A. Smith

What makes them religious is not just that they are informed by beliefs and worldviews but that they have formative pretensions that are nothing short of liturgical. It shouldn’t be surprising when an...

Not surprisingly, where Barnes really appreciates the haunting of immanence is in the realm of the aesthetic.

James K.A. Smith

Not surprisingly, where Barnes really appreciates the haunting of immanence is in the realm of the aesthetic.

The Godfather amounts to a visual parable of a challenge and critique that dogs the Cultural Liturgies project: while I extol the formative power of historic Christian worship practices, it would seem...

James K.A. Smith

The Godfather amounts to a visual parable of a challenge and critique that dogs the Cultural Liturgies project: while I extol the formative power of historic Christian worship practices, it would seem...

Excarnation The process by which religion (and Christianity in particular) is dis-embodied and de-ritualized, turned into a belief system.

James K.A. Smith

Excarnation The process by which religion (and Christianity in particular) is dis-embodied and de-ritualized, turned into a belief system.

The upshot is a hermeneutics of suspicion; if someone tells you that he or she has converted to unbelief because of science, don’t believe them. Because what’s usually captured the person is not scien...

James K.A. Smith

The upshot is a hermeneutics of suspicion; if someone tells you that he or she has converted to unbelief because of science, don’t believe them. Because what’s usually captured the person is not scien...

Worship is not primarily a venue for innovative creativity but a place for discerning reception and faithful repetition. That

James K.A. Smith

Worship is not primarily a venue for innovative creativity but a place for discerning reception and faithful repetition. That

But one of the dangers of eagerly diving in to the political sphere is that it tends to underestimate the strength of the currents already swirling around in that sphere. In other words, such Pylesque...

James K.A. Smith

But one of the dangers of eagerly diving in to the political sphere is that it tends to underestimate the strength of the currents already swirling around in that sphere. In other words, such Pylesque...