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 also served as the editor-in-chief of Image from 2019-2024.

His latest book is How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now (Brazos Press, 2022).

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.