How to Inhabit Time
- Christian Living
- World Religions
- Publisher: Brazos Press (Baker Publishing Group)
- Published: 2022
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Publisher's Description
2023 Christian Book Award® Winner (Christian Living)Christianity Today 2023 Book Award Finalist (Christian Living & Spiritual Formation)The Spiritual Significance of TimeMany Christians live a faith that is "nowhen." They are disconnected from the past or imagine they are somehow "above" the flux of history, as if every generation starts with a clean state. They lack an awareness of time and the effects of history--both personal and collective--and thus are naive about current issues, prone to nostalgia, or fixated on the end times and other doomsday versions of the future. Popular speaker and award-winning author James K. A. Smith explains that we must reckon with the past in order to discern the present and have hope for the future. Integrating popular culture, biblical exposition, and meditation, he helps us develop a sense of "temporal awareness" that is attuned to the texture of history, the vicissitudes of life, and the tempo of the Spirit. Smith shows that awakening to the spiritual significance of time is crucial for orienting faith in the twenty-first century. It allows us to become indebted to the past, oriented toward the future, and faithful in the present.★ "This incisive and eloquent volume will expand readers' minds."--Publishers Weekly starred review "A beautifully written book. . . . [Smith] offers a good, pastoral word to Christians today."--Christian Century
Endorsements (2)
“Christians have no right to be ignorant of history just because they stand in the truth.”
“Annie Dillard memorably wrote, ‘How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.’ There is only the particular. And the Christian faith gives us a distinct place to stand in the present, formed by a specific history and drawn by the eschatological Spirit into God’s future. Yet, as James Smith shows, often proponents of the very faith, which should locate us most clearly in God’s time, settle for the parody—‘nowhen’ Christians. This book has helped me—genuinely. James Smith has helped me think about the subject of time in a fresh way. I greatly enjoyed the distilled wisdom, the broad philosophical engagement, the connecting of Scripture, tradition, and culture. Truly this book is a gift which has engaged my awareness of how we are called to live the gifts which are our lives. My hope and prayer is that the impact of this book on how we live—on the times of our lives—will be exponentially more than the time it took to read it.”
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