Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies)

Short Review: I mostly listened to the audiobook of this. The narrator was fine, but he wasn't Jamie Smith and Smith would have done a better job. I don't know why publishers don't let authors narrate their own books more often. No one knows the book better than the author. (Smith did say on twitter that he would have narrated it if he had been allowed.)

I am very late to this book. I have read six of Smith's books previously. At least two of those I have read twice. I have watched a number of videos of Smith speaking. There was little of the larger argument that I was unfamiliar with. I was familiar with almost all of the illustrations as well. But I still am glad that I read the book. Some of Smith's books can be a little philosophically heavy. I don't have a great philosophy background so that can really slow me down as I work through a book. But this was clear and I am not really sure why it has a reputation of being a bit academic. Imagining the Kingdom is much more academically oriented than Desiring the Kingdom is.

The short version of the argument is that we as human are not changed or formed primarily through information. Instead we are formed and changed by habit and ritual which then give form to the information we process. Culture hits us with liturgical practices all the time. So as the church, we have to counter the liturgical practices of culture by intentionally subverting them with Christian liturgical practice. This doesn't mean we all need to go to high church. This means that our practices of worship and communal life need to be thought through and be made to support the theological life of the believer (both individual and corporately).

I have about 1200 words that details this more clearly on my blog http://bookwi.se/desiring-the-kingdom/

This is a book that still should be widely read and recommended even if it is 9 years old now.