James K. A. Smith
Biography
James K. A. Smith wrote You Are What You Love, Desiring the Kingdom, and How (Not) to Be Secular.
Bios generated by automated processes. · Report a problem
Discipleship & Christian Education
“Almost everything I’ve learned about pedagogy I’ve learned from David Smith. This book is another gem from a master teacher of teachers. Attuned to the gritty particularity of classroom experiences, Smith invites teachers into habits of reflection about what they do every day, so that they may become increasingly attentive to how faith is carried in concrete practices. In this book, you will recognize the most mundane moments of your teaching day but see them in a new light—filled with possibility for faith formation.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“This is a singular and evocative book, combining erudition with real verve and even (dare we say it?) passion! Transgressive in all the best ways, Walsh tramples the staid doldrums of academic prose with writing that is animated and alluring, daring to imagine that scholarship might change how we see ourselves, creation, and one another. Exquisite Desire makes the Bible seductive and seduction spiritual.”
Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
“These essays invite a new generation to appreciate an older legacy of post-partisan political hope. Here is a voice that echoes with Burke, Chesterton, Berry, and above all, Christopher Lasch. Miller's pointed insights and intimate prose are invitations to both reflection and delight.”
Christian Living
“We’ve been waiting for this book for nearly forty years. Finally, a robust and unapologetically Christian engagement with contemporary art by an ‘insider’ to its world and conversation. Though Siedell invites us beyond the wooden ideal of ‘the Christian artist,’ at the same time he articulates a vision of artistic practice and criticism rooted in the church. He provides much-needed wisdom, modeling how Christians can charitably engage modern art. He also provides much-needed guidance for how Protestants can—and should—incorporate the arts in worship beyond the eclectic pastiche of the ‘hip.’ Required reading for emerging artists—and their teachers.”
Christian Living
“Socrates famously asserted that the unexamined life is not worth living. But Gregg Ten Elshof shows us that we make all sorts of little deals with ourselves every day in order to stave off examination and remain happily self-deceived. Most provocatively, he suggests this is not all bad! While naming its temptations, Ten Elshof also offers a ‘strange celebration’ of self-deception as a gracious gift. In the tradition of Dallas Willard, I Told Me So is a wonderful example of philosophy serving spiritual discipline. A marvelous, accessible and, above all, wise book.”
History & Biography
“This marvelous memoir embodies everything I admire about Nick Wolterstorff. It is wise, humane, and beautiful, infused with love and a passion for justice. It is also wonderfully witty in a way befitting someone who taught us that God’s shalom is a world bursting with delight. I was absorbed by it, and when I put it down, I was grateful and inspired.”
Theology
“Moltmann continues to exert influence in English-speaking theology, and has even found a new reception amongst 'emerging' theologians. Bonzo's book is a welcome addition to this conversation, combining charitable exposition with incisive, nuanced critique.”
Work, Money & Leadership
“We can be walking among ruins without realizing it. Our buildings might stand tall, with shimmering glass or towering spires, but the institutions they house are eroding. Whether it's our cynicism or our fixation on individual 'authenticity,' ourcommitment to institutional maintenance has suffered. And as a result, mission suffers, because institutions are how we channel energies and sustain common work. This is why Gordon Smith's book is so important. Drawing on rich theoretical insight and years of lived investment in institutions, Smith has written a veritable handbook for the future of faithful work. I can't imagine anyone who shouldn't read this.”
Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
“A generation of theologians has been worried about the deforming practices of the liberal state. What we really need to worry about are its games. The devil is in its bread and circuses. In this wise, accessible book Brent Laytham offers an engaged theological analysis of our entertainments and distractions, inviting us to follow Jesus with new intentionality.”
Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
“This is a book I’ve been waiting for: a careful, nuanced, but bold argument for the good of markets that neither demonizes them nor idolizes them. In other words, I no longer have to wait for Oliver O’Donovan to write a book on economics: Brent Waters did it instead. If you care about the poor, he argues with a contrarian flair, then you should affirm globalization. And if you care about capitalism, he adds, you should want to tame it. With verve—and just the right amount of acerbic wit—Waters articulates a theological defense of capitalism that will challenge deeply held assumptions on both left and right. I’ll be pressing this into the hands of a lot of my friends, and even more opponents.”
Counseling, Grief & Mental Health
“In poetic prose of spare, searing beauty, John West helps us see Christmas as another name for the human condition. These haunted, humane meditations are at once elegy and hymn, psalms of ascent and lament. West finds possibilities for language that birth possibilities for how to be. A singular book.”
Christian Living
“Sometimes the difference between drudgery and epiphany is just seeing things from the right angle, a frame that reframes everything, even the mundane. This marvelous little book is that certain slant of light that illuminates the everyday as an arena of sanctification, where the Spirit makes us holy in ways we might miss. You don't need more to do in a day, Warren shows. Instead, reframe the everyday as an extension of worship, and folding the laundry, washing dishes, and even commuting become habitations of the Spirit.”
Philosophy
“This little gem of a book is a bold intervention in current discussions of naturalism that dominate philosophy and cognitive science. Unlike so many others, it is not just a book written to make theists comfortably smug in the face of naturalist critiques. It is unabashedly directed to naturalists as well and seeks to engage them on their turf and on their terms. It should be required reading not only for theologians who sense an obligation to engage the broader cultural milieu but also for naturalists willing to relinquish dogmatism and actually listen. The book well fulfills its function as a ‘guide' — and more.”
Arts & Literature
“Funny and approachable, erudite and smart, this book is not merely a celebration of literature—it is an invitation to learn how to read as if our faith lives depend on it. Jennifer Holberg shows us why we love stories and, more importantly, why we need them.”
Christian Living
“In an age of ‘radicals’ always promising us the next best thing, Michael Horton wisely and winsomely points us to God’s faithfulness in the ordinary means of grace. In an era where everyone seems to have a nonprofit start-up that aims to the change the world, Horton reminds us of the joy found in ordinary, oft-unnoticed congregations where the Spirit dwells. In an age where everyone seems to be writing their memoir, Horton shows us that God delights in lives that quietly but faithfully care for lost souls. Forget ‘the next best thing’; God is at work in small, good things.”
Bible Studies & Devotionals
“This series is a wonderful gift for the church in late modernity. In an era of twittered attention, we have inculcated all sorts of bad reading habits that we then bring to Scripture. The Ancient-Future Bible Study prescribes a counter-formative regimen: the personal and communal practice of lectio divina or ‘sacred reading.’ For some this will be a strange, new practice; but it will quickly feel as natural as breathing. So find some friends, take up this series, and read anew!”
Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision
Philosophy
“"To the surprise of many, the apostle Paul has brought new energy to continental philosophy. But to date, the 'Pauline turn' in contemporary theory has been rather isolated from scholars in biblical studies--where Paul is undergoing a different kind of reconsideration. Finally, this volume changes all of that, bringing together philosophers, biblical scholars, and theologians to assess and engage the 'postmodern Paul,' intimating a Pauline revolution that not even Zizek could have dreamed.”
Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
“Jeffrey Dudiak has written a potent book that is a timely invitation to reconsider truth. He does so with eyes wide open to contemporary challenges. . . . Dudiak is pointing a way forward, not pining for a past. Our post-truth malaise is the outcome of diminished understanding of truth that settled for facts. He points to a richer and more radical understanding of truth as faithfulness. The result is a manifesto for the renewal of the university.”
NOTE: Only includes books currently in our catalog; not necessarily a complete list.
Christian Living
See something wrong on this page? Report a problem