You Are What You Love

The Spiritual Power of Habit

By: James K.A. Smith

Narrated by: Claton Butcher

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

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 wonderful and timely book.

A few years ago I read desiring the kingdom. It was a bit too erudite for my taste. This is a much more approachable work, without being at all watered down. Very thankful.

A Needed Challenge

Smith challenges the way many of us "evangelicals" approach being and making disciples. He shows that we have overemphasized getting knowledge and have severely underemphasized developing new habits as disciples. Just as eating certain foods regularly tends to make us desire those foods, so the things habits by which we live strengthen what we want and need. What are the habits that characterize "the way of the Lord"? How do we practice "putting on Christ" so that we are more and more "conformed to the image of God's Son"?

Eye Opener

I really enjoyed this book. It opened my eyes to realize that I really wasn't at the level of love I should be for certain things in my life. But it also opened my eyes to the fact that I really was what I loved, but I wasn't really loving what I should love. I am now recalibration my Christian life and commitment to Christ and those around me (people and things).

A thought provoking read

For any serious thinker of the Christian Faith, this is a must read. James K. A. Smith causes the reader to get right at the core of what it means to love God and how the love translates within a fallen world. Challenging and insightful, "You Are What You Love" will move the reader towards honest introspection and a renewed commitment towards God.

Must read for hoisting, particularly liturgical

The book is fantastic. There's a bit of a tiff between folks of this camp and the benedictine option right now. I don't think the messages are incompatable.

The essential message of you are what you love is that your love is something that forms who you are, and that habits for your loves. As an example, I have a standing date night with my wife (personally). Sometimes I don't want to go: perhaps I'm tired, or we're broke, or have been fighting. We always go in date night, not because we always feel in love, but because I always want to love her. We have formed habits to pursue what we want to love.

An inspiring text for my journey back to Christ

This is remarkably practical, though I did not necessarily expect it to be...that was a welcome surprise. On the recommendation of a friend who knows that I am trying to reconnect with my faith, I found this book to be helpful, thought-provoking, and (dare I say) essential to my journey as a Christian.

Powerful!

It will make you rethink your approach to life! The idea of we are what we worship is powerful!

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?

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.