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A review by davehershey
Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation by James K.A. Smith
4.0
Whether when I was in seminary or now in campus ministry, there is a lot of talk among Christians in such circles about worldview. The way it goes is that the university, for example, has a view of the world which is being taught to students in the classroom. Our responsibility as Christians is to teach Christian students a Christian worldview. Usually the emphasis is on the intellect and on belief. Your university professor will teach you to believe one thing but you need to critique that belief and have the correct Christian belief.
One of the main points of James Smith's fantastic book is that this way of engaging with the world buys into a false anthropology. It is the idea that humans are merely thinking creatures whose bodies don't matter. The battle happens in the mind and if we change what goes on in the mind then everything else in life will also change. Against this Smith argues (and note he argues, so this is not any sort of anti-intellectual book) that this is not how humans change our behavior. Most of what we do happens precognitively, before we even think rationally about it. We move through life as habitual people, doing things because we have been trained to do them.
We are still responsible for these things as it is our choices and previous actions that create these habits. But changing how we live and act is not as simple as just beginning to believe differently. Smith argues that the world around knows that we are shaped not just by thinking differently, and if the church only focuses on changing minds and beliefs we are doomed to frustration. In the end, Smith offers the Christian liturgy as the format for spiritual formation, it is within such regular rituals and repetitions that new habits are formed. Further, engaging in Christian worship involves our whole bodies, us as we really are, which moves us to change in actions.
Overall this book, and its sequel Imagining the Kingdom (I am not going to write a different review for that one) are a must read for pastors and campus ministers and all who work in ministry. Smith writes from a Reformed perspective (though perhaps not young and restless?) but his ideas and conclusions apply to Christians of all stripes. This is one of the most helpful and challenging books I've read in a long time in regards to how I do ministry on a regular basis. I know I will be thinking about it and returning to it for a long time.
One of the main points of James Smith's fantastic book is that this way of engaging with the world buys into a false anthropology. It is the idea that humans are merely thinking creatures whose bodies don't matter. The battle happens in the mind and if we change what goes on in the mind then everything else in life will also change. Against this Smith argues (and note he argues, so this is not any sort of anti-intellectual book) that this is not how humans change our behavior. Most of what we do happens precognitively, before we even think rationally about it. We move through life as habitual people, doing things because we have been trained to do them.
We are still responsible for these things as it is our choices and previous actions that create these habits. But changing how we live and act is not as simple as just beginning to believe differently. Smith argues that the world around knows that we are shaped not just by thinking differently, and if the church only focuses on changing minds and beliefs we are doomed to frustration. In the end, Smith offers the Christian liturgy as the format for spiritual formation, it is within such regular rituals and repetitions that new habits are formed. Further, engaging in Christian worship involves our whole bodies, us as we really are, which moves us to change in actions.
Overall this book, and its sequel Imagining the Kingdom (I am not going to write a different review for that one) are a must read for pastors and campus ministers and all who work in ministry. Smith writes from a Reformed perspective (though perhaps not young and restless?) but his ideas and conclusions apply to Christians of all stripes. This is one of the most helpful and challenging books I've read in a long time in regards to how I do ministry on a regular basis. I know I will be thinking about it and returning to it for a long time.