Tag Archives: james k a smith

James K A Smith: Speech and Theology (Review)

Posted on December 2, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

This is the old Jamie Smith, before he went full-blown NPR.  This book is quite brilliant, actually.  I fully endorse it. Phenomenology:  I am no longer concerned with the thing, but how the thing appears to me.  We are concerned … Continue reading →

Posted in American Evangelicalism, Book Review, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How not to be secular (review)

Posted on June 29, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

Smith gives us a roadmap of Charles Taylor’s analysis of modernity. On most accounts, Smith’s treatment excels and the reader is well-equipped to analyze both Taylor’s work and (post)modernity in general. The book suffers from an unfocused conclusion and Smith’s … Continue reading →

Posted in American Theology, Book Review, Philosophy | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Review: Thinking in Tongues

Posted on March 5, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

This is from James KA Smith’s earlier days, before he became NPR’s token Christian thinker.  This book is actually good, which pains me to say.  Smith seems unbalanced in many ways since writing this book.  I think it is Trumpphobia … Continue reading →

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You are what you love (review)

Posted on January 17, 2017 by J. B. Aitken

What we love and desire forms the space for what we know. And so James K. A. Smith reads Augustine’s key phrases in the Confessions. Smith writes: ““In some sense, love is a condition for knowledge” (Smith 7). I love … Continue reading →

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Van Til and a “thrown” world

Posted on May 1, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

Van Tillians love to say there are no “uninterpreted facts.”  All facts are already “pre-interpreted by God.” Now, when you get them to explain just what a “pre-interpreted fact” looks like, that ends much of the discussion.  But I think … Continue reading →

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A Tale of Two Metaphysics

Posted on February 14, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

To wax hippie and postmodern for a moment, this is a “journey” of a post, more than a philosophical one.  Every year I go back and forth between analytic philosophy and continental philosophy.  This seems to correlate with my reading … Continue reading →

Posted in Autobiography, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Through Hegel, Fire, and Sword

Posted on December 5, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

(With proper acknowledgments to Lewis Ayres for the title). Consistency in life and doctrine is a mark of the gospel.  The godly man  does not flit from doctrine to doctrine.   That represents an unstable mind.  However, consistency of doctrine is … Continue reading →

Posted in Autobiography, Fathers, theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments