[Charles Alston Collins, Convent Thoughts, 1851]

Welcome to the homepage of James K.A. Smith, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Congregational and Ministry Studies at Calvin College.

My work is undertaken in the borderlands between philosophy, theology, ethics, aesthetics, science, and politics. Informed by a long Augustinian tradition of theological cultural critique--from Augustine and Calvin to Edwards and Kuyper--I'm most interested in bringing critical thought to bear on the practices of the church and the church's witness to culture.

This intersection is embodied in one of my passions: the 19th-century Pre-Raphaelites (and other "aesthetes" from the period, including William Morris, John Ruskin, and Oscar Wilde.) Their work will be featured in the little "gallery" at left.

From the links above, you can link to information on my research, teaching, and writing. [For those interested in our time in York, check out The Smith Family in York. For our trip to Cambridge, visit our Cambridge page, or see pictures of an excursion to Granada, Spain.]

Blogs: Fors Clavigera and What I'm Reading

• New article: "The Enduring Significance of Augustine of Hippo: A Correspondence," Comment magazine (June 2008).
• "Abundance for All: What's Right with the Prosperity Gospel?," Catapult magazine, vol. 8, num. 10 (May 2008).
• "Epistemology for the Rest of Us: Hints of a Paradigm Shift in Abraham's Crossing the Threshold of Revelation," in Philosophia Christi 10 (December 2008). [Permission has been granted by the editorial office of Philosophia Christi to post this contribution. To subscribe to Philosophia Christi, please click www.epsociety.org/store Philosophia Christi is the peer-reviewed journal of the Evangelical Philosophical Society (www.epsociety.org)]
• "Teaching a Calvinist to Dance," Christianity Today (May 2008).
• Listen to my interview with Krista Tippett on the NPR program Speaking of Faith. The episode is called "Evangelicals Out of the Box"

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