Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works (Cultural Liturgies)

“When we worship on Sunday, it spills over into our cultural labor on Monday” (3).Imaging the Kingdom is volume two of James K. A. Smith’s Cultural Liturgies series. I previously reviewed volume one Desiring the Kingdom. At the core, Smith argues, “[W]e are, primarily and at root, affective animals whose worlds are made more by the imagination than by the intellect—that humans are those desiring creatures who live off stories, narratives, images, and the stuff of poises” (xii). Smith’s stated goal is “the renewal of practice” (xvii). If the end of worship is action (going into the world) then we must “recruit our imagination” (6). Our imagination is what will grab our hearts as we go out into the world on the missio Dei. Love and our affections are at the center of his proposal (7).Imaging the Kingdom splits into two neat parts. Part one reviews French theorists Mzerleau-Ponty and Bourdieu laying the foundation for his liturgical anthropology. Part two offers a more “tangible discussion” that the “theoretical toolbox” from part one furnishes (xvii). Part one is technical and more in depth as Smith explores Ponty and Bourdieu as a foundation for the more practical concerns of part two. I would encourage the average reader not to become discouraged as you read through. You may not catch everything, but these chapters are important as Smith connects all the links in part two.One key take away. Smith argues again and again that many of our actions are not thought decisions, but more like embodied reflections of what we love (see below and also 106). For example,“We don’t ‘decide’ our way into every action. Our being-in-the-world is characterized by inclinations that propel us to all sorts of action ‘without thinking’” (79-80).“That emotional perception of a situation is not merely a hardwired, biological reflex; it is an acquired habit, a product of a passional orientation that has been learned in and through paradigmatic stories. And those stories and narratives that prime and orient my very perception of the world tap into deep wells of my embodied unconscious. I learn these stories with my body” (39).I was reading Imagining the Kingdom as much of the unrest erupted over Michael Brown and Eric Garner’s death and this point struck me as a reason for the tension especially among Christians on both sides who might speak of racial reconciliation, but when it comes down to the grit of getting it down cannot agree and do not understand. There’s a story and narrative behind all of this that as Smith says primes the response we give to situations like this, and so to move past talk we must understand these stories and narratives and also enter each other’s habituation process. That’s why talking about racism being a gospel issue isn’t enough unless it is accompanied by embodied habitation together.That is a great transition into part two. Smith says, “[M]undane routines conscript us into a larger story that begins to shape who we are, what we love, and hence what we do. Our hearts traffic in story” (108). It is not enough, therefore, to have grand plans to change the world. It must start with our very ordinary daily activities. Smith goes on,“Our identity and love are shaped ‘liturgically’ precisely because liturgies are those rituals and practices that constitute the embodied stories of a body politic. . . . Liturgies are compressed, repeated, performed narratives that, over time, conscript us into the story they ‘tell’ by showing, by performing” (110).This mundane liturgical task must be taken up by the church in the church so that she can send out Christians to take up their “creational and re-creational calling—to bear God’s image for and to all of creation” (151). That is how we re-story the world. By going out, living, and working with Christian imagination. Smith says,“We don’t just need teachers and preachers and scholars and ‘doctors’ of the church to tell us what to do; if the gospel is going to capture imaginations and sanctify reception we need painters and novelists and dancers and songwriters and sculptors and poets and designers whose creative work shows the world otherwise enabling us to imagine differently” (163).I cannot recommend Imagining the Kingdom highly enough. It’s a much needed corrective for the Church especially in our current climate where secular liturgies often are more formative. Christians have failed to tell and live our story in a way that’s believable and affective.

It has been about six weeks since I have finished this book and I am still not sure how to write about it.The general thrust of the book, that discipleship must be rooted in practice (liturgy) not just knowledge, I think is helpful and hard to counter. And I think it is important for Christians to really interact with the philosophical work at the beginning (even if it is a bit rough going at times.)The second half is oriented not in the theory, but in the working out of the theory (although I am hesitant to call it practical because that seems a bit too trite).My problem with the book is not really the book itself, but my own ability to make sense of the book. I am low church, not reformed, a part of a mega-church, with an intellectual (and introverted) bent. The coherence of Smith's vision makes theoretical sense to me, but practically in my background I am struggling with how that would really work out. I think I get his points about the Sunday morning worship but I am not influential in my church body so I can't really do anything about our worship (I would love it to be more focused on the sacraments, but that isn't going to happen soon.) I get his points about focusing catechesis on practice not knowledge (and when I teach my nieces and soon my daughter I will really try to make that the central place.) But my world is not as coherent and unified as Smith's vision of the world. So I am at a bit of a loss. I will try to read the first book in the series later this summer and re-read this again sometime in the fall and see if it makes more sense to me then.

I really like James K. A. Smith's work generally. I find his arguments quite convincing. This is probably because I read Alexander Schmemann's "For the Life of the World" 25 years ago and I have been steeped in an sacramental worldview ever since.If I could give it 3.5 stars, that's about where I'd put it. This book was much harder slogging than "Desiring the Kingdom". Far too much of the book was spent laying groundwork through explicating the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Pierre Bourdieu and their theoretical models of habituation and formation. In the preface, Smith notes that he had intended volumes 2 and 3 of this Cultural Liturgies series to be scholarly monographs, but due to the cross-over popularity of the first volume with pastors and educators, he had decided to broaden this appeal of this volume as well. Sadly, I don't think that he accomplished that.The last part of this book is certainly brilliant and ties in well with the first book. Individuals not well versed in Merleau-Ponty, Bourdieu, and modern French philosophy may have a hard time getting to the last part of the book. I know I did.I had hoped to find more material that I could translate pastorally and practically. I will certainly draw upon ideas in part 2 for inspiration in that regard.

I've now read five of Smith's books. From time to time, I also read his essays. He is a gifted wordsmith.Since I've written elsewhere about my main concern over what Smith has to say about liturgy, let me add that Imagining the Kingdom has many brilliant insights. And ones I largely agree with.Smith does a better job clarifying his thesis in this book than he did in Desiring the Kingdom. I remain disappointed that he does not address the formative role that mindfully engaged (mindfully is crucial here) meditation on Scripture has for spiritual health.

Great book, nice balance of academic and practical thought

This is almost several books in one. Its main message is that effective religious education is not achieved by intellectual means, teaching people what to believe, but by creating an environment involving physical and social experience that stimulates the imagination and shapes desires. People acquire religion not by being convinced of its truth in their minds but by experiencing it with all their senses, forming habits of worship, and being part of a community of faith. This is a simple and important message, but the author seems to need to wrap it up in complicated theory with phrases such as "liturgical anthropology" and discussing the theories of various philosophers. He is (by his own admission in the preface and introduction) trying to address ordinary readers and his fellow academics at the same time, and this somehow doesn't work. Perhaps I'm too much of a simple soul, but while agreeing with the main point of the book I found myself wondering what all the philosophical fuss was about.

I loved the imagery Smith appropriately used to communicate his argument; We are compelled, not simply convinced. 5 stars for this compelling and deeply needed commentary on modern worship.

Excellent book, full of insight.

good book.