Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works (Cultural Liturgies)

How does worship work? How exactly does liturgical formation shape us? What are the dynamics of such transformation? In the second of James K. A. Smith's three-volume theology of culture, the author expands and deepens the analysis of cultural liturgies and Christian worship he developed in his well-received Desiring the Kingdom. He helps us understand and appreciate the bodily basis of habit formation and how liturgical formation--both "secular" and Christian--affects our fundamental orientation to the world. Worship "works" by leveraging our bodies to transform our imagination, and it does this through stories we understand on a register that is closer to body than mind. This has critical implications for how we think about Christian formation.

Professors and students will welcome this work as will pastors, worship leaders, and Christian educators. The book includes analyses of popular films, novels, and other cultural phenomena, such as The King's Speech, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, and Facebook.

• Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology (Cultural Liturgies)
• Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies)
• You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit
• How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor
• Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor
• Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us
• A Secular Age
• A More Profound Alleluia: Theology and Worship in Harmony (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies)
• Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life
• Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing (Resources for Reconciliation)