Contributor

James K.A. Smith

James K.A. Smith was the editor-in-chief of Comment from 2013-2018, and teaches philosophy at Calvin College where he holds the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology and Worldview. He is the editor-in-chief of Image Journal.

His latest book is Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology (Baker Academic, 2017).

A native of Embro, Ontario, Jamie studied at Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa; the University of Waterloo; the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto; and earned his Ph.D. at Villanova University. He is a Visiting Professor at Trinity College of the University of Toronto and has also taught at Regent College, Fuller Seminary, Calvin Theological Seminary, and Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.

Working at the intersection of philosophy, theology, and cultural criticism, Smith is an award-winning author of a number of books including Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? (Baker Academic, 2006), Letters to a Young Calvinist (Brazos, 2010), Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Baker Academic, 2009), Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning, co-edited with David Smith (Eerdmans, 2011), Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works (Baker Academic, 2013), How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (Eerdmans, 2014), and You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Brazos, 2016).

His writing has also appeared in a variety of magazines including Christianity Today, First Things, Books & Culture, Christian Century, and The Banner. A first collection of his popular writing is available as The Devil Reads Derrida: And Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts (Eerdmans, 2010), and, Discipleship in the Present Tense: Reflections on Faith and Culture (Calvin College Press, 2013).

Jamie and his wife, Deanna, are elementary school sweethearts and have four children. They live in the Heritage Hill neighborhood of Grand Rapids and attend Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church.

World View

An annotated reading of your world.

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More From This Contributor

James K.A. Smith Jun 12, 2018 Social Isolation

World View

Ordinary Saints In January, our family lost someone dear to us—a surrogate mother God placed in our lives as a surprise. Sue Johnson lived next door with her daughter Melissa when we bought our first house in Grand Rapids. I can’t possibly describe what she became to...

James K.A. Smith Sep 1, 2017 A Church for the World

Renewing the Church for the Sake of the World

The fabric of civilization is unravelling, the barbarians have broken through the gates, and looming threats to society have left the ruling elite anxious, unnerved, looking for someone to blame. So they turn to Christians and the church. The scene will feel contemporary, but in fact it is the opening context for Augustine’s fifth-century apologetic, […]

James K.A. Smith Oct 22, 2015

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The State of Joy

What if we tried to assess the health of society, not merely in terms of GDP or a consumer confidence index, but in terms of joy?

James K.A. Smith Sep 1, 2015 Health Beyond The Hospital

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World View

An annotated reading of your world. Topics this issue include Calvinist vacations, a visit paid to the Clapham House, too-long political campaigns, praise for newspapers, and attacks on video games.

James K.A. Smith Jun 1, 2015 Inequalities

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World View

An annotated reading of your world. Topics this issue include policing, architecture (the physical kind), and a craftsman more interest in being a first-rate artisan than a wealthy businessman.

James K.A. Smith Jun 1, 2014 The Other Side of the City

World View

An annotated reading of your world. Topics this issue include the predicament of the architect; pumping stations treated like cathedrals; and the features of what might be called “Calvinist” parenting.

James K.A. Smith Dec 20, 2013

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Reading Culture Charitably

We need to remain attentively open to the Spirit’s gifts in unexpected places. When we do so, we might be surprised to find that even the empire is less disordered than we expected.

James K.A. Smith Sep 1, 2013 We Believe in Institutions

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World View

A number of us involved with Comment are indebted to the inimitable Calvin Seerveld, longtime Senior Member in Philosophical Aesthetics at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and author of the classic Rainbows for the Fallen World. Seerveld introduced many...

James K.A. Smith Apr 5, 2013

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A Divided Church for the Common Good?

Many of those concerned about justice have little time for the institutional church, while ecclesiologists are often suspicious of “justice” talk. Ephraim Radner won’t let these two groups keep ignoring each other.

James K.A. Smith Mar 1, 2013 Persuasion

Editorial: The Lost Art of Persuasion

We believe in persuasion as a mode of convicted charity—willing to meet one’s interlocutors where they are, while unapologetically hoping to change their mind.

James K.A. Smith Mar 1, 2013 Persuasion

Earning Your Voice

“I was a participant in a shared human enterprise, rather than a combatant against the enterprise. That was crucial.”

James K.A. Smith Dec 5, 2012 The story

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Redemption

(Originally published March 2010:) The Word became flesh, not to save our souls from this fallen world, but in order to restore us as lovers of this world.

James K.A. Smith Oct 19, 2011

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Dream Small

You don’t need me to tell you to dream big. But I do hope you’ll hear me when I encourage you to also dream small. Because that might be what really matters.

James K.A. Smith Mar 1, 2011 Letters to the Young

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Editorial: Apprenticeship by Correspondence

Those of us a little further down the road know that we could do nothing better than pour ourselves into this task, for the young come to the world with wonder, feel intensely the heartbreak of its brokenness, and still manage to muster kingdom-sized hope. We need...

James K.A. Smith Jul 30, 2010

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Show Me The World

Like in the book of Esther, God might not show up in a Charles Wright poem.