You Are What You Love

The Spiritual Power of Habit

By: James K.A. Smith

Narrated by: Claton Butcher

You are what you love. But you might not love what you think.

In this book, award-winning author James K. A. Smith shows that who and what we worship fundamentally shape our hearts. And while we desire to shape culture, we are not often aware of how culture shapes us. We might not realize the ways our hearts are being taught to love rival gods instead of the One for whom we were made. Smith helps listeners recognize the formative power of culture and the transformative possibilities of Christian practices. He explains that worship is the "imagination station" that incubates our loves and longings so that our cultural endeavors are indexed toward God and his kingdom. This is why the church and worshiping in a local community of believers should be the hub and heart of Christian formation and discipleship.

Following the publication of his influential work Desiring the Kingdom, Smith received numerous requests from pastors and leaders for a more accessible version of that book's content. No mere abridgment, this new book draws on years of Smith's popular presentations on the ideas in Desiring the Kingdom to offer a fresh, bottom-up re-articulation. The author creatively uses film, literature, and music illustrations to engage listeners and includes new material on marriage, family, youth ministry, and faith and work. He also suggests individual and communal practices for shaping the Christian life.

©2016 Brazos Press (P)2016 Baker Publishing Group

A must read for contemporary Christians.

Smith offers a beautiful, coherent and relevant discourse on how it is love and our orientation as Lovers, that animates the human person. By extension we can see that it is our love our embodied passion for Christ and his Kingdom, that orients the Christian in the world. This book can help the Christian understand how and why to shift their own walk in ways that help orient and continually reorient the Christian in ways that order the passion and the reason towards Christ and his coming kingdom.

Another perspective inside out. A lot to consider

Unique thoughts on motives and our actions or lack of action. What is our vision?

Love is all you need!

Great book! It’s amazing how much we tend to get things wrong. But we need to live and let love shine through.

Overrated

I had high expectations for this book because of so many recommendations and high reviews, but it was disappointing. If you’ve already been thinking and learning about liturgical living, you probably won’t get anything new out of this book. It was also surprising that he used crude examples to make his points. I didn’t see the movie “American Beauty” when it came out for a reason and didn’t expect to get a detailed plot summary in a supposedly Christian book. Yuck

This book is okay...

I am very compelled by two things in this book: first, that we are what we love, and second, that we are creatures of habits. Furthermore, I am curious about the concept of counter liturgies. I laud the attempt to counter Cartesian thought, which assumes humans are "thinking things." It is necessary to note that this book relies heavily on Augustinian thought, with it discussion of the order of loves and emphasis on marriage. It also is deeply influenced by substitutionary atonement and original sin. Furthermore, it knowingly ascribes to stereotypical, patriarchical gender roles, and denounces other views of not only gender, but heteronormative families. For all of these reasons, it is a three star for me.