# How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now - Hardcover

by **James K. A. Smith** (Author)

**★** **_Publishers Weekly_** **starred review  
  
2023 Christian Book Award(R) Winner (Christian Living)****_Christianity Today_** **2023 Book Award Finalist (Christian Living & Spiritual Formation)  
  
****_Outreach_** **2023 Recommended** **Resource (Christian Living)  
  
A "Best Book of 2022,"** **_Englewood Review of Books  
_****  
"This incisive and eloquent volume will expand readers' minds."--****_Publishers Weekly_**  
**"A beautifully written book. . . . \[Smith\] offers a good, pastoral word to Christians today."--****_Christian Century  
_**  
Many Christians live a faith that is "nowhen." They are disconnected from the past or imagine they are somehow "above" the flux of history, as if every generation starts with a clean state. They lack an awareness of time and the effects of history--both personal and collective--and thus are naive about current issues, prone to nostalgia, or fixated on the end times and other doomsday versions of the future.  
  
Popular speaker and award-winning author James K. A. Smith explains that we must reckon with the past in order to discern the present and have hope for the future. Integrating popular culture, biblical exposition, and meditation, he helps us develop a sense of "temporal awareness" that is attuned to the texture of history, the vicissitudes of life, and the tempo of the Spirit.  
  
Smith shows that awakening to the spiritual significance of time is crucial for orienting faith in the twenty-first century. It allows us to become indebted to the past, oriented toward the future, and faithful in the present.

### Back Jacket

**The Spiritual Significance of Time  
**  
Many Christians live a faith that is "nowhen." They are disconnected from the past or imagine they are somehow "above" the flux of history, immune to it, as if self-starters from clean slates in every generation. They lack an awareness of time and the effects of history--both personal and collective--and thus are naive about current issues, prone to nostalgia, and fixated on the end times.  
  
In _How to Inhabit Time_, popular speaker and award-winning author James K. A. Smith shows that awakening to the spiritual significance of time is crucial for orienting faith in the twenty-first century. He helps us develop a sense of "temporal awareness" that is attuned to the texture of history, the vicissitudes of life, and the tempo of the Spirit.  
  
"This book has helped me--genuinely. James Smith has helped me think about the subject of time in a fresh way. I greatly enjoyed the distilled wisdom, the broad philosophical engagement, the connecting of Scripture, tradition, and culture. Truly this book is a gift which has engaged my awareness of how we are called to live the gifts which are our lives. My hope and prayer is that the impact of this book on how we live--on the times of our lives--will be exponentially more than the time it took to read it."  
\--**The Most Rev.** **Justin Welby**, Archbishop of Canterbury  
  
"James K. A. Smith shows us that time is a gift waiting to be redeemed, and a central conviction of this book is that 'the Lord of the star fields' is intimately attuned to our haunted, beautiful histories. Dwelling with these lucid, winsome meditations on 'spiritual timekeeping' was like listening in on a lively conversation between St. Augustine, Gustavo Gutiérrez, James Baldwin, and Marilynne Robinson, while Pink Floyd's _Dark Side of the Moon_ played in the background."  
\--**Fred Bahnson**, author of _Soil and Sacrament_  
  
"James K. A. Smith's inspired work examines time not as hourglass sand running hopelessly through our fingers but as a divine gift that we can capture just enough to recognize the pearl of life that time shapes. A thoughtful and engaging book."  
\--**Sophfronia Scott**, author of _The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton_

### Author Biography

**James K. A. Smith** (PhD, Villanova University) is a popular speaker who has written many books, including _On the Road with Saint Augustine_, _You Are What You Love_, _Desiring the Kingdom_, and _Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?--_all _Christianity Today_ Book Award winners. He is professor of philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he holds the Gary and Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology and Worldview. He is editor in chief of _Image_, a quarterly journal at the intersection of art, faith, and mystery. Smith has written for the _New York Times_, the _Wall Street Journal_, _USA Today_, and the _Washington Post_.

**Number of Pages:** 208

**Dimensions:** 0.9 x 8.6 x 5.8 IN

**Publication Date:** September 20, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 24.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 24.99 USD | In stock |

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- How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now - Hardcover

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