James K. A. Smith

{{Infobox academic

| name = James K. A. Smith

| image = James K. A. Smith on Rebel Wisdom.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Smith on Rebel Wisdom in 2019

| birth_name = James Kenneth Alexander Smith

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1970|10|09}}

| birth_place = Embro, Ontario, Canada

| death_date =

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| nationality = {{hlist | Canadian | American}}

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| website = {{official URL}}

| alma_mater = {{ubl | Emmaus Bible College | {{nowrap|Institute for Christian Studies}} | Villanova University}}

| thesis_title = How to Avoid Not Speaking{{cite thesis |last=Smith |first=James K. A. |year=1999 |title=How to Avoid Not Speaking: On the Phenomenological Possibility of Theology |degree=PhD |location=Villanova, Pennsylvania |publisher=Villanova University |oclc=42523029}}

| thesis_year = 1999

| school_tradition = {{hlist | Continental philosophy | postmodern Christianity | reformational philosophy{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}}}

| doctoral_advisor = John D. Caputo

| academic_advisors = James Olthuis

| influences = {{flatlist|

Augustine of Hippo
John Calvin
Abraham Kuyper
John Milbank{{cite news |last=Smith |first=James K. A. |date=December 17, 2015 |title=Christmas, 2015: Dr. James K.A. Smith |url=http://anglicanplanet.net/interviews/2015/12/17/christmas-2015-dr-james-ka-smith.html |interviewer-last=Careless |interviewer-first=Sue |website=The Anglican Planet |access-date=February 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212083944/http://anglicanplanet.net/interviews/2015/12/17/christmas-2015-dr-james-ka-smith.html |archive-date=February 12, 2018 |url-status=dead }}
Oliver O'Donovan{{cite web |last=Leeman |first=Jonathan |date=January 5, 2018 |title=Doing Political Theology, Waiting for King Jesus |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/doing-political-theology-waiting-king-jesus/ |publisher=The Gospel Coalition |access-date=December 23, 2020}}
Catherine Pickstock
Alvin Plantinga{{cite web |last=Marty |first=Martin E. |author-link=Martin E. Marty |date=November 12, 2018 |title=James K.A. Smith's 'Cultural Liturgies' |url=https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/james-ka-smiths-cultural-liturgies |work=Sightings |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago |access-date=May 6, 2019}}
Calvin Seerveld
Charles Taylor

}}

| discipline = Philosophy

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| workplaces = {{ubl | Loyola Marymount University | Calvin University}}

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| main_interests = {{hlist | Hermeneutics | philosophical theology | philosophy of social science | secularity}}

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James Kenneth Alexander Smith (born 1970) is a Canadian-American{{cite magazine |last=Gilger |first=Patrick |date=October 18, 2018 |title=James K. A. Smith's Theological Journey |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2018/10/18/james-k-smiths-theological-journey |magazine=America |location=New York |access-date=May 6, 2019}} philosopher who is currently Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University, holding the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview. He is the current editor-in-chief of the literary journal Image.{{cite web |url=https://imagejournal.org/editorial-announcement/ |title = Editorial Announcement - Image Journal}}

Early life and education

Smith was born on October 9, 1970,{{Cite web|url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n00084000.html|title=Smith, James K. A., 1970- - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies | Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)}} in Embro, Ontario.{{cite web|title=James K.A. Smith|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1000175851&v=2.1&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w|work=Contemporary Authors Online|publisher=Gale|access-date=10 June 2013|location=Detroit|year=2007}} He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo and Emmaus Bible College. He earned a Master of Philosophy degree in philosophical theology in 1995 at the Institute for Christian Studies where he studied under James Olthuis.{{cite book |last=Smith |first=James K. A. |year=2005 |title=Jacques Derrida: Live Theory |location=London |publisher=Continuum |page=xiii |isbn=978-0-8264-6280-0}} He went on to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1999 from Villanova University where he was advised by John D. Caputo.{{cite book |year=2005 |chapter=Introduction |editor1-last=Hankey |editor1-first=Wayne J. |editor1-link=Wayne Hankey |editor2-last=Hedley |editor2-first=Douglas |title=Deconstructing Radical Orthodoxy: Postmodern Theology, Rhetoric and Truth |url=https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/fass/Classics/Hankey/Deconstructing%20Radical%20Orthodoxy.pdf |location=Aldershot, England |publisher=Ashgate |access-date=August 23, 2020}} After teaching for a short time at Loyola Marymount University, Smith accepted his current position at Calvin University.

He currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum.

Work

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Smith's scholarly work is undertaken at the interface between philosophy, theology, ethics, aesthetics, science, and politics.{{citation needed|date = October 2022}} It draws from continental philosophy and is informed by a long Augustinian tradition of theological cultural critique, from Augustine of Hippo and John Calvin to Jonathan Edwards and Abraham Kuyper.{{citation needed|date = October 2022}} As of this date,{{when|date = October 2022}} his stated interest is in bringing critical thought to bear on the practices of the church and the church's witness to culture, culminating in the need to interpret and understand what he has called "cultural liturgies".{{cite quote|date = October 2022}}{{cite web|author=Smith, James, K.A.|title=Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation|url=http://www.calvin.edu/january/2010/smith.htm|work=January Series at Calvin College|publisher=Calvin College|access-date=2011-04-17|archive-date=January 21, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121023711/http://www.calvin.edu/january/2010/smith.htm|url-status=dead}}{{third party inline|date = October 2022}}

As a former{{when|date=December 2022}} proponent of radical orthodoxy, Smith's claim is that it is actually theology or, more specifically, the story told by the church that is capable of modernism.{{citation needed|date = October 2022}} His popular-level work aims to educate evangelicals regarding postmodernism and radical orthodoxy.{{citation needed|date = October 2022}} Though he is critical of the emergent church movement, he is at the same time sympathetic to much that could be described as part of that movement.{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=James. K. A. |title=Who's Afraid of Postmodernism: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church |date=2006 |publisher=Baker Academic |isbn=978-0801029189 |edition=2nd}}{{page needed|date = October 2022}}{{page needed|date = October 2022}}{{third party inline|date = October 2022}} A primary concern in his work is to expose certain {{which|date=December 2022}} postmodern philosophical claims (and certain {{which|date=December 2022}} ecclesial attempts to work with them) as not actually postmodern enough, pointing out instead that they too have accepted the agenda set by the enlightenment.{{citation needed|date = October 2022}} This is seen in his warnings that the emergent tendency away from historic ecclesial tradition is a grave mistake, and that putting down roots, committing to a community for the long haul, and engaging the deep discourses within historic Christian orthodoxy are in fact the truly post- or counter-modern practices for the church today.{{fact|date = October 2022}}

Given his training in continental philosophy and in the theology of the Reformed and Pentecostal traditions, his intellectual interests are a natural fit.{{editorializing|date = October 2022}}{{why|date=December 2022}} Smith's research topics range from the continental philosophy of religion to urban altruism to the relationship between science and theology.{{fact|date = October 2022}}

Bibliography

Smith, James KA (2000) The Fall of Interpretation: Philosophical Foundations for a Creational Hermeneutic. {{ISBN|978-0-83081574-6}}
–––(2002) Speech and Theology: Language and the Logic of Incarnation. {{ISBN|978-0-41527695-5}}
(2004) 101 Key Terms in Philosophy and Their Importance for Theology, with Kelly James Clark & Richard Lints. {{ISBN|978-0-66422524-7}}
(2004) Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-secular Theology, foreword by John Milbank. {{ISBN|978-0-80102735-2}}
Jean-Luc Marion (2004) The Crossing of the Visible'', translator.
(2004) The Hermeneutics of Charity: Interpretation, Selfhood, and Postmodern Faith (festschrift for James Olthuis), editor with Henry Isaac Venema. {{ISBN|978-1-58743113-5}}
(2005) Jacques Derrida: Live Theory. {{ISBN|978-0-82646280-0}}
(2005) Radical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition: Creation, Covenant, and Participation, editor with James Olthuis. {{ISBN|978-0-80102756-7}}
(2006) Hermeneutics at the Crossroads, editor with Bruce Ellis Benson & Kevin J. Vanhoozer. {{ISBN|978-0-25334746-6}}
(2006) Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church, The Church and Postmodern Culture series. {{ISBN|978-0-80102918-9}}
(2008) After Modernity? Secularity, Globalization, and the Reenchantment of the World, editor. {{ISBN|9781602580688}}
(2009) The Devil Reads Derrida: and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts. {{ISBN|9780802864079}}
(2009) Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, Cultural Liturgies series vol. 1. {{ISBN|9780801035777}}
(2010) Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy. {{ISBN|9780802861849}}
(2010) Science and the Spirit: A Pentecostal Engagement with the Sciences, editor with Amos Yong. {{ISBN|9780253355164}}
(2010) Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition. {{ISBN|9781587432941}}
(2011) Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning, editor with David I. Smith. {{ISBN|9780802866851}}
(2012) The Fall of Interpretation: Philosophical Foundations for a Creational Hermeneutic, second edition. {{ISBN|9780801039720}}
(2013) Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works, Cultural Liturgies series vol. 2. {{ISBN|9780801035784}}
(2013) Discipleship in the Present Tense: Reflections on Faith and Culture. {{ISBN|1937555089}}
(2014) Who's Afraid of Relativism? Community, Contingency, and Creaturehood, The Church and Postmodern Culture series. {{ISBN|978-0-80103973-7}}
(2014) How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor. {{ISBN|0-80286761-8}}
(2016) You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. {{ISBN|978-1-58743380-1}}
(2017) Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology, Cultural Liturgies series vol. 3. {{ISBN|0-80103579-1}}
(2019) On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. {{ISBN|978-1-58743389-4}}
(2022) How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now. ISBN 1-58743523-3

References

External links

{{Official website}}
[http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/mayweb-only/22.0c.html Christianity Today: What's So Radical About Orthodoxy?] Review of Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-secular Theology, by Ashley Woodiwiss
[http://www.e-n.org.uk/3481-Introducing-radical-orthodoxy.htm Evangelicals Now: Introducing Radical Orthodoxy] Response to a review of Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-secular Theology, by Paul Helm
[http://erdman31.googlepages.com/Smith-LimitedIncarnation.pdf Review/Summary of "Limited Inc/arnation"] (PDF) Summary and review of Smith's essay in Hermeneutics at the Crossroads.