James K. A. Smith
Senior Fellow
James K. A. Smith is a professor of philosophy at Calvin College, where he holds the Gary and Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology and Worldview. Trained as a philosopher with a focus on contemporary French thought, Smith has expanded on that scholarly platform to become an engaged public intellectual and cultural critic. An award-winning author and widely-traveled speaker, he has emerged as a thought leader with a unique gift of translation, building bridges between the academy, society, and the church.
The author of many influential books, Smith also regularly writes for magazines and newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Slate, First Things, Christianity Today, Books & Culture, and The Hedgehog Review. He serves as editor-in-chief of Image Journal.
Speaker’s Bureau
Dr. Smith has spoken at several Trinity Forum Evening Conversations on topics such as: public theology, spiritual formation, and cultural liturgies.
“Moving Beyond Conflict: Science and Faith in Harmony” June 18, 2018
“Reforming Public Theology” December 4, 2017
“The Vanishing American Adult” June 13, 2017
Publications and Scholarly Work
- On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real World Spirituality for Restless Hearts (2019)
- All Things Hold Together in Christ (2018)
- Awaiting the Kingdom: Reforming Public Theology (2017)
- Cultural Liturgies Boxed Set (2017)
- Evolution and the Fall (2017)
- You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (2016)
- Who’s Afraid of Relativism?: Community, Contingency, and Creaturehood (2014)
- How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (2014)
- Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works (2013)
- Discipleship in the Present Tense: Reflections on Faith and Culture (2013)
- The Fall of Interpretation, 2nd Edition: Philosophical Foundations for a Creational Hermeneutic (2012)
- After Modernity?: Secularity, Globalization, and the Reenchantment of the World (2012)
- Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning (2011)
- Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition (2010)
- Science and the Spirit: A Pentecostal Engagement with the Sciences(2010)
- Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy (2010)
- Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (2009)
- The Devil Reads Derrida: And Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts (2009)
- Hermeneutics at the Crossroads (2006)
- Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (2006)
- Jacques Derrida: Live Theory (2005)
- Introducing Radical Orthodoxy Mapping a Post-secular Theology (2004)
- 101 Key Terms in Philosophy and Their Importance for Theology (2004)
- Speech and Theology Language and the Logic of Incarnation (2002)