James K.A. Smith

“A sacramental understanding of the world is simply a shorthand way of describing the psalmist’s claim that "The earth is the Lord’s…

— James K.A. Smith

“Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we…

— James K.A. Smith

“What if the primary work of education was the transforming of our imagination rather than the saturation of our intellect? And what…

— James K.A. Smith

“Antoine de Saint-Exupéry captures this well: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t…

— James K.A. Smith

“classical apologetics operates with a very modern notion of reason; “presuppositional” apologetics, on the other hand, is postmodern (and Augustinian!) insofar as…

— James K.A. Smith

“the postmodern critique is not aimed at metanarratives because they are really grounded in narratives; on the contrary, the problem with metanarratives…

— James K.A. Smith

“Formative Christian worship paints a picture of the beauty of the Lord--and a vision of the shalom he desires for creation--in a…

— James K.A. Smith

“Similarly, if I am going to be a teacher of virtue, I need to be a virtuous teacher. If I hope to…

— James K.A. Smith

“But once you realize that we are not just thinking things but creatures of habit, you’ll then realize that temptation isn’t just…

— James K.A. Smith

“Lyotard. The assertion that postmodernity is “incredulity toward metanarratives” is ultimately a claim to be affirmed by the church, pushing us to…

— James K.A. Smith

“Too much of our cultural analysis is rooted in thinking-thingism: we scan culture, listening for “messages,” bent on rooting out “false” teachings.…

— James K.A. Smith

“Worship works from the top down, you might say. In worship we don’t just come to show God our devotion and give…

— James K.A. Smith

“Your deepest desire,” he observes, “is the one manifested by your daily life and habits.”6 This is because our action—our doing—bubbles up…

— James K.A. Smith

“The music moves us very strongly, because it is moved, as it were; it captures, expresses, incarnates being profoundly moved. (Think of…

— 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…

— James K.A. Smith

“But should we accept this negative view of power? Is power all bad? Specifically, can Christians share in this devaluation of power…

— James K.A. Smith

“By calling into question the very ideal of a universal, autonomous reason (which was, in the Enlightenment, the basis for rejecting religious…

— James K.A. Smith

“The place we unconsciously strive toward is what ancient philosophers of habit called our telos --our goal, our end. But the telos…

— 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…

— James K.A. Smith

“Being a disciple of Jesus is not primarily a matter of getting the right ideas and doctrines and beliefs into your head…

— James K.A. Smith