I really enjoyed James Smith’s book, Desiring the Kingdom, so I look forward to this new book, Imagining the Kingdom. 

He has an interview in Christianity Today and he brings up the whole idea of allegiances again. Everything in life is liturgy, according to Smith. It’s about our loyalties.

His claim is we are defined by what we worship rather than what we think, know, or believe. It comes from the Augustinian thought, “We are what we love.”

The interviewer asks a question starting with, “Secular rituals shape us just as much as sacred ones. You say that ‘the Devil has all the best liturgies.’”

Smith’s reply is that rituals and practices that form our lives spill out well beyond the sanctuary. Many secular liturgies try to get us to love some other kingdom and some other goals.

Smith has been instrumental in shaping my thinking all along about the KING and his KINGDOM. I look forward to his new book.