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Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies)
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$ 19.35
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598274 |
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Item Description...
Overview
Desiring the Kingdom focuses education around the themes of liturgy, formation, and desire. The author contends--as did Augustine--that human beings are "desiring agents"; in other words, we are what we love. Postmodern culture, far from being "secular," is saturated with liturgy, but in places such as malls, stadiums, and universities. While these structures influence us, they do not point us to the best of ends. Smith aims to move beyond a focus on "worldview" to see Christian education as a counter-formation to these secular liturgies. His ultimate purpose is to re-vision Christian education as a formative process that redirects our desire toward God's kingdom and its vision of flourishing. --from publisher descriptioin
Publishers Description
Malls, stadiums, and universities are actually liturgical structures that influence and shape our thoughts and affections. Humans--as Augustine noted--are "desiring agents," full of longings and passions; in brief, we are what we love.
James K. A. Smith focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire in "Desiring the Kingdom," the first book in what will be a three-volume set on the theology of culture. He redirects our yearnings to focus on the greatest good: God. Ultimately, Smith seeks to re-vision education through the process and practice of worship. Students of philosophy, theology, worldview, and culture will welcome "Desiring the Kingdom," as will those involved in ministry and other interested readers. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 238
Dimensions: Length: 0.75" Width: 6" Height: 9"
Weight: 0.75 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Aug 1, 2009
Publisher Baker Publishing Group
ISBN 0801035775
EAN 9780801035777
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Availability 2 units.
Availability accurate as of May 26, 2012 08:58.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | formation of the imagination Nov 17, 2009 |
James Smith has written a book that needs to be read widely by all those concerned with the task of evangelism, discipleship and spiritual formation. Ostensibly a book addressing deficits in current approaches to Christian education, Desiring the Kingdom is much needed and long overdue philosophical anthropology. While Smith approaches the issue of human nature from the perspective of Christian education the meat of the book is his anthropology. Specifically he challenges the idea that human beings are essentially "thinking beings" who are shaped and formed by beliefs and/or ideas. Rather, human beings are essentially imaginative and desiring beings oriented to seek out their first love. What Smith wants to bring to light is the precognitive, prereflective understanding of the world situated in the human imagination that then gives rise to thoughts and beliefs. He draws from Charles Taylors concept of the social imaginary to describe this precognitive understanding of the world. That is, we indwell an understanding of the world before we think about it. Thus, current talk about worldview, while valuable, focuses too heavily upon our conceptual understanding and misses the fact of an imaginative construction of the world that precedes it. This imaginative construction is formed in the most mundane of ways - through practices that form habits, each of which have implicit in them an understanding of the world. Thus, Smith calls for us to exegete the things that we do (such as go shopping at the mall and attend sporting events) in order to bring to light how we are training ourselves to be human. For Smith, everything is formative - the question is "how are we being formed by what we are doing?" He calls us to engage in an intentional counter-formation grounded in Christian worship.
This book is a much needed corrective in our thinking about what it means to be human. i fear that many will think it only for Christian educators - while I believe it is essential for all those who take discipleship, spiritual formation and evangelism seriously. Our task ought to be focused on forming the imagination through practices as well as thoughts, concepts and beliefs. | | |  | Revisionng Education Nov 1, 2009 |
| When JAK Smith wrote this book he reignited the discussion about the nature of CHristian Education. He is a lucid writer who I think rightly see that anthropology holds the key to understanding to the nature of Education and more specifically Christian Education. It is a good corrective to the general thrust from the reformed Christian educationalists who can be prone to seeing humans as essentially "thinking beings" rather than worshipping/desiring beings. I would recommend those who are in the position of shaping the educational endeavour of their institution to read this book and to engage with the ideas that Smith presents. | | | Write your own review about Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies)
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