Author: James K. A. Smith

The Barna Group’s report, “Is there a ‘Reformed’ Movement in American Churches?” seems to be getting a lot more discussion than it deserves (see, for instance, Scot McKnight’s post at Jesus Creed). I’m leery about contributing to that attention, but also feel compelled to point out the weaknesses and shoddy social science behind this “report.”…

While it is the very height of bourgeois whining, one doesn’t have to spend too much time around professors before you begin to hear complaints about grading. Used to our tenured autonomy, and generally enjoying discussion of ideas and texts in class, “grading” is the one drudgery that we have to do. It also comes…

I’m starting to experiment with using Scribd a bit, and just uploaded my first paper. Entitled “Worldview, Sphere Sovereignty, and DTK: A Guide for (Perplexed) Reformed Folk,” this was a paper I presented last week at the ARIHE Symposium, a gathering of presidents, administrators, and educators from Reformed colleges and universities. One could think of…

While browsing in the Eerdmans booth at the American Academy of Religion meeting, I got sucked into Charles Matthewes new book, The Republic of Grace: Augustinian Thoughts for Dark Times. While it’s not absolutely central to the theme of the book, this comment in the Introduction stuck with me: It may seem oddly limiting to…

A couple of interviews that might be of interest: First, I was interviewed by Kenneth Sheppard for Patrol Magazine on “Philosophy, Culture, and Communication”–a conversation about academic life, public scholarship, and how Christian scholars serve the church. Second, I was interviewed for Inner Compass, Calvin College’s PBS program on religion and culture. That is now…