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James K. A. Smith Quotes

Sometimes to be creative you have to give yourself permission to not be outstanding.

Sometimes to be creative you have to give yourself permission to not be outstanding.

James K. A. Smith
Giving, Creative, Sometimes

What if the primary work of education was the transforming of our imagination rather than the saturation of our intellect?

James K. A. Smith
Imagination, What If, Saturation
James K. A. Smith (2009). “Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation”, p.18, Baker Academic

In short, liturgies make us certain kinds of people, and what defines us is what we love.

James K. A. Smith
People, Kind, Liturgy
James K. A. Smith (2009). “Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation”, p.25, Baker Academic

Education is a holistic endeavor that involves the whole person, including our bodies, in a process of formation that aims our desires, primes our imagination, and orients us to the world - all before we ever start 'thinking' about it

James K. A. Smith
Thinking, Imagination, Desire
James K. A. Smith (2009). “Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation”, p.39, Baker Academic

What if education wasn't first and foremost about what we know, but about what we love?

James K. A. Smith
What If, Firsts, Knows
James K. A. Smith (2009). “Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation”, p.18, Baker Academic

We all - whether naturalists, atheists, Buddhists, or Christians - see the world through the grid of an interpretive framework - and ultimately this interpretive framework is religious in nature, even if not allied with a particular institutional religion.

James K. A. Smith
Christian, Religious, Buddhist

Our Christian faith - and correlatively, our account of apologetics - is tainted by modernism when we fail to appreciate the effects of sin on reason. When this is ignored, we adopt an Enlightenment optimism about the role of a supposedly neutral reason in the recognition of truth.

James K. A. Smith
Christian, Optimism, Appreciate
James K. A. Smith (2006). “Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? (The Church and Postmodern Culture): Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church”, p.28, Baker Academic

Whenever science attempts to legitimate itself, it is no longer scientific but narrative, appealing to an orienting myth that is not susceptible to scientific legitimation.

James K. A. Smith
Narrative, Myth, Susceptible
James K. A. Smith (2006). “Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? (The Church and Postmodern Culture): Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church”, p.68, Baker Academic

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