Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Formation, Education, Liberation

The first edition of Desiring the Kingdom has been widely used in a variety of educational settings. In this substantial revision, popular speaker and award-winning author James K. A. Smith rearticulates his core argument--that human beings are lovers shaped by liturgies--for a new context.

Smith helps us recognize the way cultural practices form--and deform--us. At the heart of Desiring the Kingdom is an account of Christian assimilation to rival gospels. In this new edition, Smith shows how cultural phenomena from the Apple Store to Instagram, from the football stadium to the frat house, immerse us in the liturgies of neoliberalism, turning us into consumers who confuse happiness with acquisition and consumption. When we fail to see cultural practices as liturgies, we end up turning the church into a “den of robbers” with the best of intentions, often in the name of “relevance."

This makes Smith’s account of Christian worship and education urgent. Reframing worship as a pedagogy of desire, Smith reframes "liberal arts” education as liberating. A holistic education will also be critical, teaching us to see through the smoke screens of ideology, liberating us from our unconscious captivation to idols. The goal is an education in character that, far from producing mere moral conformity, teaches us to want what God wants for the world.