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On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts
★ Publishers Weekly starred reviewOne of the Top 100 Books and One of the 5 Best Books in Religion for 2019, Publishers WeeklyChristianity Today 2020 Book Award Winner (Spiritual Formation)Outreach 2020 Resource of the Year (Spiritual Growth)Foreword INDIES 2019 Honorable Mention for ReligionThis is not a book about Saint Augustine. In a way, it's a book Augustine has written about each of us. Popular speaker and award-winning author James K. A. Smith has spent time on the road with Augustine, and he invites us to take this journey too, for this ancient African thinker knows far more about us than we might expect.Following Smith's successful You Are What You Love, this book shows how Augustine can be a pilgrim guide to a spirituality that meets the complicated world we live in. Augustine, says Smith, is the patron saint of restless hearts--a guide who has been there, asked our questions, and knows our frustrations and failed pursuits. Augustine spent a lifetime searching for his heart's true home and he can help us find our way. "What makes Augustine a guide worth considering," says Smith, "is that he knows where home is, where rest can be found, what peace feels like, even if it is sometimes ephemeral and elusive along the way." Addressing believers and skeptics alike, this book shows how Augustine's timeless wisdom speaks to the worries and struggles of contemporary life, covering topics such as ambition, sex, friendship, freedom, parenthood, and death. As Smith vividly and colorfully brings Augustine to life for 21st-century readers, he also offers a fresh articulation of Christianity that speaks to our deepest hungers, fears, and hopes.
251 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2019
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December 10, 2019
Smith's premise here is exciting; a journey with Augustine through his Confessions to address our modern needs and questions. And for the most part he executes well on that promise. However, he brings a whole lot of other friends (the snobby French philosophical kind that roll their eyes at you because you've never seen that avant-garde film down at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema). And those other friends speak loudly throughout the book and say they are just ruminating with you on what Augustine shared, but in the end you wish you had more time with the Saint, more time in his works, and less time with Camus or Heidegger.
The message of the book is helpful, and I am sure that the well-educated philosophically inclined reader will thoroughly enjoy this book. But for the road traveller in me, I wish we could have heard more from Augustine, visited more of his places and had better companions than the heady over-thinkers.
The message of the book is helpful, and I am sure that the well-educated philosophically inclined reader will thoroughly enjoy this book. But for the road traveller in me, I wish we could have heard more from Augustine, visited more of his places and had better companions than the heady over-thinkers.
February 1, 2021
This is a unique and delightful book that rings with relevance for today.
Read
May 28, 2022Augustine's "Confessions" was a seminal book for me, a brilliant book addressed directly to God. James A. K. Smith offers a personal introduction to the North African theologian who changed the way we think about God, time, love, and the human heart.
July 19, 2019
Poignant, personal, and beautiful. The chapters on ambition, sex, fathers, and death (odd combination, I know) made an indelible impression on me as I read.
December 22, 2019
Smith presents the reader with a beautiful roadmap to some of life's most important and difficult experiences, using Augustine as our guide. He interacts with many important contemporary thinkers, and shows how Augustine not only helps us think about and properly approach life and our living experience of it, but he also shows how Augustine answers many of the existential questions that gave been asked by contemporary thinkers. You don't have to agree on every point to be able to recognize that this is an excellent book that should be read by all.
March 21, 2023
Smith is an enticing writer that draws readers along a journey with Saint Augustine. He beautifully illustrates how our lives do not bring novelty to the day to day, but only modernity. By pointing this out at the beginning of the book, Smith is able to connect the life of people today to Augustine’s fourth century journey to faith. A great and valuable read.
October 28, 2020
Beyond the biblical writers, Augustine has arguably shaped Christian theology more than anyone else. His life also serves as an enduring template for Christian conversion and sanctification. In "On the Road with Saint Augustine," James K.A. Smith looks to Augustine to help modern readers work through key themes or values of the human drama, such as freedom, sex, ambition, friendship, and death. Augustine wrestled with these concepts in his own life - from his parents' urging him to ascend to the heights of the late Roman hierarchy to his struggle with the flesh ("Lord, make me chaste - but not yet"), to his search for intellectual enlightenment that led him from pagan philosophy to the Word of God. Augustine speaks to believers today as he also spoke to the thinkers that Smith uses as interlocutors - Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida (there is a heavy dose of existentialism throughout). As he always does, Smith employs pop culture references to illustrate his points. This not only serves as a good introduction to Augustine - it also serves as a good introduction to James K.A. Smith whose other works (such as his Cultural Liturgies trilogy) might be a bit too heady to dive into. Highly recommended!
September 2, 2020
Reading On the Road with Saint Augustine was like settling in to savor a bite of rich dessert. Throughout the chapters, I felt moved and desirous of lingering over the ways Augustine’s spirituality speaks to our deepest longings. Couple favorite quotes:
“There is delight in the sojourn when we know where home is.”
“Joy is arriving at the home you’ve never been to.”
“Augustine’s refugee spirituality is an account of what the Christian life feels like. The disciple as much as anyone finds herself in between, on the way, fatigued yet hopeful...conversion is not an arrival at our final destination; it’s an acquisition of a compass.”
Additionally, James K.A. Smith’s chapters on Mothers, Fathers, and Death were particularly moving for me.
“There is delight in the sojourn when we know where home is.”
“Joy is arriving at the home you’ve never been to.”
“Augustine’s refugee spirituality is an account of what the Christian life feels like. The disciple as much as anyone finds herself in between, on the way, fatigued yet hopeful...conversion is not an arrival at our final destination; it’s an acquisition of a compass.”
Additionally, James K.A. Smith’s chapters on Mothers, Fathers, and Death were particularly moving for me.
November 16, 2019
The postmodern prophet and rock star, Bono Vox laments, “I have run I have crawled I have scaled these city wall, these city walls, only to be with you. But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” U2 isn’t the only one tapped into the inner drive and existential angst of the ages. Augustine had them beat by 1,600 years! “Oh Lord, you have created us for yourself but our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”
James K.A. Smith is on a similar quest and is eager to share the fruit of his efforts in his most recent book, On the Road With Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. Smith’s work is an invitation to meet Augustine on the path that will lead to the culmination of his hope, dreams, and desires.
Readers are in for a treat, especially the ones who have caricatured Augustine as a stuffy academician who puffs on a pipe, panders to the educated elite, and pontificates with an accent. Smith notes, “The Christian gospel, for Augustine, wasn’t just the answer to an intellectual question (though it was that); it was more like a shelter in a storm, a port for a wayward soul, nourishment for a prodigal who was famished, whose own heart had become, he said, ‘a famished land.’”
The most endearing feature of Smith’s work is the emphasis on what he refers to as a “refugee spirituality.” Such an approach is desperately needed in our day, especially when most people seem content in the here and now and are satisfied with temporal trinkets: “Imagine a refugee spirituality,” writes Smith, “an understanding of human longing and estrangement that not only honors those experiences of not-at-homeness but also affirms the hope of finding a home, finding oneself ... it’s about knowing how to make the journey, how to adopt the posture of the refugee who travels light.” Tragically, many American Christians are so burdened with temporal trinkets, they cannot even envision such a pursuit.
Smith traces the Augustinian path and focuses on several fascinating subjects that every pilgrim must wrestle with: freedom, ambition, sex, and death to name a few. On the Road With Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts is a treasure map of sorts. Readers will see a totally new side of the Bishop of Hippo. Thoughtful readers will be prodded and poked. But they will also be encouraged and edified. They will be forced into a corner and challenged to weigh these heavenly realities and ultimately find their rest in God and the gospel of His Son.
Highly recommended!
James K.A. Smith is on a similar quest and is eager to share the fruit of his efforts in his most recent book, On the Road With Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. Smith’s work is an invitation to meet Augustine on the path that will lead to the culmination of his hope, dreams, and desires.
Readers are in for a treat, especially the ones who have caricatured Augustine as a stuffy academician who puffs on a pipe, panders to the educated elite, and pontificates with an accent. Smith notes, “The Christian gospel, for Augustine, wasn’t just the answer to an intellectual question (though it was that); it was more like a shelter in a storm, a port for a wayward soul, nourishment for a prodigal who was famished, whose own heart had become, he said, ‘a famished land.’”
The most endearing feature of Smith’s work is the emphasis on what he refers to as a “refugee spirituality.” Such an approach is desperately needed in our day, especially when most people seem content in the here and now and are satisfied with temporal trinkets: “Imagine a refugee spirituality,” writes Smith, “an understanding of human longing and estrangement that not only honors those experiences of not-at-homeness but also affirms the hope of finding a home, finding oneself ... it’s about knowing how to make the journey, how to adopt the posture of the refugee who travels light.” Tragically, many American Christians are so burdened with temporal trinkets, they cannot even envision such a pursuit.
Smith traces the Augustinian path and focuses on several fascinating subjects that every pilgrim must wrestle with: freedom, ambition, sex, and death to name a few. On the Road With Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts is a treasure map of sorts. Readers will see a totally new side of the Bishop of Hippo. Thoughtful readers will be prodded and poked. But they will also be encouraged and edified. They will be forced into a corner and challenged to weigh these heavenly realities and ultimately find their rest in God and the gospel of His Son.
Highly recommended!
May 23, 2023
In this collection of lessons, James Smith applies Augustine's wisdom to many of the desires and struggles we face today, such as purpose, restlessness, belonging, brokeness, etc. It was fascinating to read how one who lived so many years ago still struggled with many of the same things we do today and could offer help from his journey that is still applicable. Overall a good book - too many snippets of wisdom to include them all in a Goodreads review, but I gleaned much from this one.
March 19, 2022
What a great journey that was! Smith is that one guy who introduces you to a friend of his of whom you've heard about, but never really got to know up close and now you're joining their walk eager to find more about them and what really "drives" them!
James Smith's "sacramental" prose is astonishing and the way he builds the flow of the journey around his personal 'Augustinian' itinerary spices the content of an already flavourful book. The conversation between Augustine and various existentialist philosophers, the thoughtful yet sublime exposition of a Christianity that is an encounter with the Father of the Prodigal Son, of a love story that is not only a "catchphrase", of a grace that finds and frees you ...
We travel to cultivate our most private instinct, which is that of eternity. This is the impetus of the book and Augustine is there to guide us, to share with us the wisdom he gained along the way.
--
I particularly liked this quote because it speaks so clearly about the importance of liturgies and the rhythms that come with it: Rituals are not solutions. They don’t “fix” things. They are how we live with what we can’t fix, channels for facing up to our finitude, the way we try to navigate this vale of tears in the meantime.
James Smith's "sacramental" prose is astonishing and the way he builds the flow of the journey around his personal 'Augustinian' itinerary spices the content of an already flavourful book. The conversation between Augustine and various existentialist philosophers, the thoughtful yet sublime exposition of a Christianity that is an encounter with the Father of the Prodigal Son, of a love story that is not only a "catchphrase", of a grace that finds and frees you ...
We travel to cultivate our most private instinct, which is that of eternity. This is the impetus of the book and Augustine is there to guide us, to share with us the wisdom he gained along the way.
--
I particularly liked this quote because it speaks so clearly about the importance of liturgies and the rhythms that come with it: Rituals are not solutions. They don’t “fix” things. They are how we live with what we can’t fix, channels for facing up to our finitude, the way we try to navigate this vale of tears in the meantime.
October 21, 2019
Read it in one go on a plane. Apt?! This is a gentle, compassionate walk through how St. Augustine exhorts us to "be" in our journey through life and spirituality. I found it a little trite at times (not Augustine's fault! Probably the genre) and disagreed with some philosophical, theological, and psychological points, but overall I found it motivating, calming, enlightening, and soothing. Impressive considering where I was reading it. (TRAPPED IN A CYLINDER HURTLING 700 MILES PER HOUR OVER A VAST EXPANSE OF WATER WITH NO LANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES OH YEAH AND WITH HUNDREDS OF STRANGERS.)
Also! One of the best parts of this book was Smith's ability to weave together so many ideological and artistic movements and people throughout history. He creates a beautiful intellectual world and I just loved how he saw ideas bumping into and influencing other ideas throughout history. I am going to go back and add several works to my to-read list.
Also! One of the best parts of this book was Smith's ability to weave together so many ideological and artistic movements and people throughout history. He creates a beautiful intellectual world and I just loved how he saw ideas bumping into and influencing other ideas throughout history. I am going to go back and add several works to my to-read list.
April 23, 2024
Smith discusses life's biggest questions--evil, injustice, grief, and death--through the lens of Augustine and his Confessions.
September 18, 2020
This is my third read of this book, finishing it today on September 17, 2020. This time, two other women joined me for this summer on a weekly bases to discuss one chapter each week. It was so rich with the insights of a retired English professor and a librarian. My only regret is that we reached the end the book. "On The Road With Saint Augustine - A Read-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts"
kept me interested, ruminating some of the depths of Augustine, while reading parts of Augustine's "Confessions" (new translation by Henry Chadwick, Oxford World's Classics) as the author provided notes to the chapter, section and paragraphs. To read these together was quite the delight.
James K A Smith also provided beautiful colored paintings of Augustine. "Undergirding this book is a three-week journey in the footsteps of Augustine in Italy in March 2017. The trip was a series of epiphanies for me..."
Smith received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1999 from Villanova University, which is a Catholic university founded by the Augustinian order. He is also a Protestant and is currently a professor at Calvin University.
From March 21, 2020
This would rank as one of my favorite all time books. Maybe it is because I am drawn to St Augustine's theology and Smith does a fantastic job of relating this to "The Confessions". James K. A. Smith brought many thing together for me in understanding relationships but not just that but by including a bit of the teachings of Charles Taylor which lead me back to reread a section of another of Smith's book "How (Not) To Be Secular" about the Nova Effect: Fragilization from Cross-Pressures which I found extremely helpful. Toward the end of "On the Road...", I was brought to tears when Smith vulnerably shared some of his past with his readers. It was quite the book! So I reread it again just after I read it for the first time.
kept me interested, ruminating some of the depths of Augustine, while reading parts of Augustine's "Confessions" (new translation by Henry Chadwick, Oxford World's Classics) as the author provided notes to the chapter, section and paragraphs. To read these together was quite the delight.
James K A Smith also provided beautiful colored paintings of Augustine. "Undergirding this book is a three-week journey in the footsteps of Augustine in Italy in March 2017. The trip was a series of epiphanies for me..."
Smith received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1999 from Villanova University, which is a Catholic university founded by the Augustinian order. He is also a Protestant and is currently a professor at Calvin University.
From March 21, 2020
This would rank as one of my favorite all time books. Maybe it is because I am drawn to St Augustine's theology and Smith does a fantastic job of relating this to "The Confessions". James K. A. Smith brought many thing together for me in understanding relationships but not just that but by including a bit of the teachings of Charles Taylor which lead me back to reread a section of another of Smith's book "How (Not) To Be Secular" about the Nova Effect: Fragilization from Cross-Pressures which I found extremely helpful. Toward the end of "On the Road...", I was brought to tears when Smith vulnerably shared some of his past with his readers. It was quite the book! So I reread it again just after I read it for the first time.
January 10, 2021
This book was a timely read for me. I am more confident to begin reading Augustine's works because of the way that Smith helps the reader understand who he was. He makes Augustine feel scarily relatable. One of the most impactful portions of the book for me was how Smith illustrates the prodigal son story in light of Augustine’s. I was not expecting to personally benefit from this book as much as I did. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to see how the gospel is the answer, and it always has been.
Some of my favorite quotes are:
“Do we tell ourselves we’re ‘just going’ in order to guard against the disappointment of never arriving? Do we call the road ‘home to avoid the pain of never being welcomed?”
“We find rest because we are found; we make it home because someone comes to get us.”
“The wayward son is not defined by his prodigality but by the welcome of a father who never stopped looking, who is ever scanning the distance, and who runs to gather him up in embrace.”
“Friendship is staying close enough to put a hand on their shoulder while giving them enough room to feel the weight.”
“Am I learning in order to grow, learning in order to know who and how to love? Or am I learning in order to wield power, get noticed, be seen as smart, be ‘in the know’?”
“When you’ve realized that you don’t even know yourself, that you’re an enigma to yourself, and when you keep looking inward only to find an unplumbable depth of mystery and secrets and parts of yourself that are loathsome, then Scripture isn’t received as a list of commands: instead, it breaks into your life as a light from outside that shows you the infinite God who loves you at the bottom of the abyss.”
“God doesn’t give us an answer, he gives us himself.”
Some of my favorite quotes are:
“Do we tell ourselves we’re ‘just going’ in order to guard against the disappointment of never arriving? Do we call the road ‘home to avoid the pain of never being welcomed?”
“We find rest because we are found; we make it home because someone comes to get us.”
“The wayward son is not defined by his prodigality but by the welcome of a father who never stopped looking, who is ever scanning the distance, and who runs to gather him up in embrace.”
“Friendship is staying close enough to put a hand on their shoulder while giving them enough room to feel the weight.”
“Am I learning in order to grow, learning in order to know who and how to love? Or am I learning in order to wield power, get noticed, be seen as smart, be ‘in the know’?”
“When you’ve realized that you don’t even know yourself, that you’re an enigma to yourself, and when you keep looking inward only to find an unplumbable depth of mystery and secrets and parts of yourself that are loathsome, then Scripture isn’t received as a list of commands: instead, it breaks into your life as a light from outside that shows you the infinite God who loves you at the bottom of the abyss.”
“God doesn’t give us an answer, he gives us himself.”
November 13, 2019
My favourite so far of everything I've read by James K A Smith. Beautifully written, a great introduction to Augustine and a wonderful demonstration of how life with God can satisfy the deepest of human desires.
January 15, 2022
There is so much to say, and to say positively, about this book. Smith's intellectual and philosophical chops are self evident; his wisdom is tried and hard-won. I recommend it, heartily, to everyone. There still remains, however, a mist over the book--a sort feeling, mood, impact, that I'm not sure I can name.
Augustine's genius as a theologian and life as a saint were catalyzed by his relationship with Saint Ambrose in Milan, as a student. Augustine's father died when he was only seventeen, leaving Augustine with a raw, father-shaped wound when he arrived to study under the Italian bishop. Ambrose became, then, both a academic mentor and a surrogate father to Augustine. The impact that Ambrose had on Augustine cannot be overstated. Ambrose, Smith argues, loved Augustine *into* his genius; Ambrose loved Augustine *into* his sainthood.
That's the mist, I think: that we love each other *into* who we are made to be by God and for His purposes. St. Anselm's maxim of "Faith seeking understanding," finds harmony with Smith's insight, typified by Augustine's relationship with Ambrose, that we are loved into understanding. This is a book and a word for our Deconstructionist generation. Propositional pursuits of God will likely leave you empty-handed. Therefore, cast off your cloak of rationalism, and put on and experience the garment of Love, whose name is Jesus Christ. There is no comfort, in life or death, in the hands of propositions. We are held and healed only by the wounded and risen hands of Jesus.
Ultimately, James Smith was loved into this book and, having read this book, I want to love people into the understanding that only in Thrice-Holy Father, Son, and Holy Ghost do we find true and lasting belonging, care, and rest.
***
"The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and be loved."
- St. Augustine, Confessions.
"Christianity is not an intellectual system, a collection of dogmas or moralism. Christianity is instead an encounter, a love story."
- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
"How to die is a question of how to live, but how to live is a matter of knowing how to love: how to find a love that isn't haunted by fear, a love that is stronger than death--figuring out how to love rightly and live lightly with all the mortal beauties of creation without despising or resenting their mortality either."
- Smith, pg. 211.
Augustine's genius as a theologian and life as a saint were catalyzed by his relationship with Saint Ambrose in Milan, as a student. Augustine's father died when he was only seventeen, leaving Augustine with a raw, father-shaped wound when he arrived to study under the Italian bishop. Ambrose became, then, both a academic mentor and a surrogate father to Augustine. The impact that Ambrose had on Augustine cannot be overstated. Ambrose, Smith argues, loved Augustine *into* his genius; Ambrose loved Augustine *into* his sainthood.
That's the mist, I think: that we love each other *into* who we are made to be by God and for His purposes. St. Anselm's maxim of "Faith seeking understanding," finds harmony with Smith's insight, typified by Augustine's relationship with Ambrose, that we are loved into understanding. This is a book and a word for our Deconstructionist generation. Propositional pursuits of God will likely leave you empty-handed. Therefore, cast off your cloak of rationalism, and put on and experience the garment of Love, whose name is Jesus Christ. There is no comfort, in life or death, in the hands of propositions. We are held and healed only by the wounded and risen hands of Jesus.
Ultimately, James Smith was loved into this book and, having read this book, I want to love people into the understanding that only in Thrice-Holy Father, Son, and Holy Ghost do we find true and lasting belonging, care, and rest.
***
"The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and be loved."
- St. Augustine, Confessions.
"Christianity is not an intellectual system, a collection of dogmas or moralism. Christianity is instead an encounter, a love story."
- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
"How to die is a question of how to live, but how to live is a matter of knowing how to love: how to find a love that isn't haunted by fear, a love that is stronger than death--figuring out how to love rightly and live lightly with all the mortal beauties of creation without despising or resenting their mortality either."
- Smith, pg. 211.
March 15, 2021
Can a long dead North African bishop help us answer the questions on the road of life? Questions about existence, friendship, mothers, fathers, justice, death, etc.? Yes, he can, but more accurately, the God of Augustine can. He is the one who meets us on this journey and is with us until he brings us home.
I listened to the audio version whilst driving, which was fitting. I especially liked the chapters on friendship, enlightenment, and justice. Augustine's wisdom is still very pertinent.
Now I want to re-read the Confessions and tackle The City of God.
I listened to the audio version whilst driving, which was fitting. I especially liked the chapters on friendship, enlightenment, and justice. Augustine's wisdom is still very pertinent.
Now I want to re-read the Confessions and tackle The City of God.
April 21, 2023
Everyone needs to read this.
June 1, 2024
This book has some profound thoughts and ideas. I liked how Smith took the life of an ancient church Father and applied it to our modern world and experiences. Who knew St. Augustine was so relatable?He lost me sometimes, but that might be my fault more than his.
March 10, 2020
Is it possible for philosophical prose to relax you? After reading this, I'm shocked that such a thing might just be possible. Reading this book was like sitting in a calm meadow, overlooking a vast and picturesque landscape, being shepherded in truths for the soul. (I'd have said a beach, but beaches stress me out. They are the opposite of relaxing. Seriously? How does anyone relax with so much sand and salt flying around?)
James K.A. Smith uses the life and theology of Augustine, specifically in his Confessions, to guide us through the defining aspects and figures of life--from mothers and fathers and friendship, to ambition, freedom and finally, death and homecoming. The chapters on freedom, ambition, friendship and death were especially strong.
Honestly, this was a special read. Augustine talked so much of the true home to come that I could feel my anxiety lifting as I thought of the order, security, and restfulness with God to come. When my heart feels restless with anxiety over the disorder of life--pretty much a daily, if not hourly occurrence--I hope to better reflect on the home to come after this read. I'm but a refugee in a foreign land, looking for a home, looking to exhale from the pain and struggle of stressful wandering.
James K.A. Smith uses the life and theology of Augustine, specifically in his Confessions, to guide us through the defining aspects and figures of life--from mothers and fathers and friendship, to ambition, freedom and finally, death and homecoming. The chapters on freedom, ambition, friendship and death were especially strong.
Honestly, this was a special read. Augustine talked so much of the true home to come that I could feel my anxiety lifting as I thought of the order, security, and restfulness with God to come. When my heart feels restless with anxiety over the disorder of life--pretty much a daily, if not hourly occurrence--I hope to better reflect on the home to come after this read. I'm but a refugee in a foreign land, looking for a home, looking to exhale from the pain and struggle of stressful wandering.
March 9, 2020
Wonderful - so grateful for James K. A. Smith's contextualization of this spiritual father (Saint Augustine) for my generation. I really enjoyed his integration of so many threads: Augustine's biography, age-old philosophical queries, rich and vibrant theology, and relevant cultural references (such as Wes Anderson, Kelly Clarkson and Ta Nehisi-Coates, to name a few). He clearly understands the angst of my generation - mainly because it's not unique to my generation at all.
Though this book was more toward the "intellectual" end of the spectrum of my post-grad reading endeavors, I also found it deeply encouraging and moving - I sniffled my way through many of these chapters, especially "Mothers" and "Fathers;" also found a new sense of peace with my own mortality in "Death."
Highly recommend!
Though this book was more toward the "intellectual" end of the spectrum of my post-grad reading endeavors, I also found it deeply encouraging and moving - I sniffled my way through many of these chapters, especially "Mothers" and "Fathers;" also found a new sense of peace with my own mortality in "Death."
Highly recommend!
September 26, 2019
James K.A. Smith's new book on Augustine is not just helpful, it isn't just needful, it is beautiful, and it is healing. In typical Smithian fashion, we are introduced to some sort of modern and well known story and piece of pop culture and find Kerouac's 'On the Road' to be our starting point. Smith reminds us of the common hunger we all seem to have for The Road, for the journey of life, but how in that we have seemingly forgotten about a destination and find ourselves more focused on the journey itself and the stops and sights on the way. There is no idea of home, just the path we travel until we drop somewhere along it. Its here that we're taken back in time to find an African saint, Augustine, who found himself in the same position on The Road that we often find ourselves today. Restless. Homesick. Frustrated. Uneasy. A life that is filled with consumption of all sorts of new and marvelous things that don't seem to quench any sort of thirst. What in the world do we have in common with the life of a North African 1600 years in the past? Apparently a lot.
Smith masterfully takes the writings of Augustine and weaves them together to form an introduction to life, touching on our own feelings as a refugee searching for a home in this world, our desire for freedom, the pulse of ambition in our hearts, the desire for sex and intimacy, our relationships with our mothers and our fathers, a need for friendship, a search for enlightenment, a thirst for justice, how we learn to live through learning how to die, and a desperate need to find ourselves in the overall story of this existence.
But this is not a biography. It isn't even history. Smith does not write this to make Augustine a saint, nor a hero. I'm not even really convinced that his goal is to make Augustine a pastor. More than anything Smith makes Augustine into your friend. In reading this book Augustine has become someone who isn't trying to school me on theology as much as he is someone who wants to share how God has shaped his life. Augustine isn't someone that wants to solve all of my problems (he admittedly has enough of his own to deal with), but someone laughs and jumps with me in times of blessings, and who sits beside me in times of grief and simply says "It's okay man, I've been struggling with that myself" with his arm on my shoulder.
I can't think of any low points in this book, though there were certainly some high points that hit me where I needed to be poked. Smith's chapters on ambition and sex both pushed me hard to ask the questions "Why do I do what I do? Why do I want what I want? Where does my contentment really originate from?" In his chapter on justice I was challenged to face evil in a better way, not looking for answers, but being comforted in God's overcoming and absorbing evil. Worst of all, Smith left me silently sobbing in a coffee shop as I read through the chapter on fathers. As a father myself with plenty of my own daddy issues, Smith gracefully brought me before Augustine who reopened the wounds, but did so to provide better treatment and healing than I had before.
Without a doubt this book is a necessary one as we all could benefit from friendship with a 1600 year old North African.
This book was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Smith masterfully takes the writings of Augustine and weaves them together to form an introduction to life, touching on our own feelings as a refugee searching for a home in this world, our desire for freedom, the pulse of ambition in our hearts, the desire for sex and intimacy, our relationships with our mothers and our fathers, a need for friendship, a search for enlightenment, a thirst for justice, how we learn to live through learning how to die, and a desperate need to find ourselves in the overall story of this existence.
But this is not a biography. It isn't even history. Smith does not write this to make Augustine a saint, nor a hero. I'm not even really convinced that his goal is to make Augustine a pastor. More than anything Smith makes Augustine into your friend. In reading this book Augustine has become someone who isn't trying to school me on theology as much as he is someone who wants to share how God has shaped his life. Augustine isn't someone that wants to solve all of my problems (he admittedly has enough of his own to deal with), but someone laughs and jumps with me in times of blessings, and who sits beside me in times of grief and simply says "It's okay man, I've been struggling with that myself" with his arm on my shoulder.
I can't think of any low points in this book, though there were certainly some high points that hit me where I needed to be poked. Smith's chapters on ambition and sex both pushed me hard to ask the questions "Why do I do what I do? Why do I want what I want? Where does my contentment really originate from?" In his chapter on justice I was challenged to face evil in a better way, not looking for answers, but being comforted in God's overcoming and absorbing evil. Worst of all, Smith left me silently sobbing in a coffee shop as I read through the chapter on fathers. As a father myself with plenty of my own daddy issues, Smith gracefully brought me before Augustine who reopened the wounds, but did so to provide better treatment and healing than I had before.
Without a doubt this book is a necessary one as we all could benefit from friendship with a 1600 year old North African.
This book was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
October 10, 2020
One of the reviewers of this book here mentioned Bono's lyric, "I still haven't found what I'm lookin' for", and that is certainly consistent with the restless heart-longing that Jamie Smith taps into and interprets in the works of existentialist postmodern philosophers and artists, and well before them, St. Augustine. I couldn't help thinking of another U2 lyric: "She's running to stand still." For me, that line pretty much sums up not only our cultural moment but the human condition. We are busy, running off in all directions. All that business, all that pursuit, all that frenetic activity is in pursuit of rest, of stillness. We run away from home to find something that feels more like what we suspect home ought to feel like.
I enjoy Smith's writing and I had the pleasure (along with my wife and some friends) of attending a lecture where Smith gave a nut-shell talk about this book. As someone who loves Augustine, and who finds Camus honest about humanity in our time in ways many Christian writers are not, I really loved this book. I highly recommend it for Christians who want to understand not only the cultural waters we are swimming in, but also who want to become aware of how much we share with that culture. And I recommend it for those who are honestly seeking truth or home or rest or something to fulfill the deep longings that are difficult to put into words. Such a good book.
I enjoy Smith's writing and I had the pleasure (along with my wife and some friends) of attending a lecture where Smith gave a nut-shell talk about this book. As someone who loves Augustine, and who finds Camus honest about humanity in our time in ways many Christian writers are not, I really loved this book. I highly recommend it for Christians who want to understand not only the cultural waters we are swimming in, but also who want to become aware of how much we share with that culture. And I recommend it for those who are honestly seeking truth or home or rest or something to fulfill the deep longings that are difficult to put into words. Such a good book.
December 30, 2021
The truth is that I didn't really want to like this book very much. The choice of dialogue partners in postmodern and existential philosophers felt wearisomely trendy but in a slightly dated kind of a way (and it probably was); the 'on the road' metaphor felt like it appealed to a very specific subset of my contemporaries; the pop culture references had the same sort of hipster chic eccentricity (Smith listened to them before they were famous; in fact, they're still not famous) that wound me up in his summary of Charles Taylor. But the truth is that I still really enjoyed it. Actually, it's probably worth being a bit more specific: there were whole chapters that left me a bit irritated (most of part one - although there were some exceptional moments: 'Jesus is the shout of God, the way the Father runs out to meet us.'). But then there were chapters that I loved: the chapters on friendship, ambition, and freedom for a start. I still think Smith tries too hard to be trendy, and I still think Camus and Derrida were a bit overdone (with Camus, it slightly felt like he ran out of material as the book went on: The Stranger kept coming back but without much further insight). But the real truth is, he won me over. I enjoyed this book, I can think of people I would love to read chapters, and I'll come back to it again.
March 17, 2022
As for many of us, St. Augustine has been the travel companion for James K.A. Smith through various seasons. I’m eager to revisit Confessions, especially by way of Sarah Ruden’s translation, after having read this book. Her contemporary translation seemed well-matched by Smith’s insights into our own moment.
Smith’s prose is precise and friendly, and his reflections are tender and poignant.
He frames the entire book with 20th century philosophers such as Heidegger & Sartre, which felt unwieldy at times for me, but nevertheless offered some fresh insight into how we might receive Augustine as modern readers. The middle chapters where Smith wends his way through themes that pervade all our lives (such as death, family, justice, etc.) are the highlight for me. His chapter on Monica & motherhood left me in tears (and it reminded me of Natalie Carnes’s similar work on motherhood & Confessions!)
All in all, I am left with a greater wonder and courage for the pilgrimage of the Christian life in its many detours. And I have been reminded of a welcome travel companion in the journey.
Smith’s prose is precise and friendly, and his reflections are tender and poignant.
He frames the entire book with 20th century philosophers such as Heidegger & Sartre, which felt unwieldy at times for me, but nevertheless offered some fresh insight into how we might receive Augustine as modern readers. The middle chapters where Smith wends his way through themes that pervade all our lives (such as death, family, justice, etc.) are the highlight for me. His chapter on Monica & motherhood left me in tears (and it reminded me of Natalie Carnes’s similar work on motherhood & Confessions!)
All in all, I am left with a greater wonder and courage for the pilgrimage of the Christian life in its many detours. And I have been reminded of a welcome travel companion in the journey.
September 14, 2020
This is the first time I’ve read any of James K A Smith’s writings. This was an outstanding read. Definitely the read of my year. So refreshing, honest and clear. If you’re journeying in hopes of connecting your everyday life to the larger reasons for living, you will be drawn in by both James and Augustine. If you are already further along on the journey of faith James uses Augustine as a tuning fork. Sounding out the clear note of faith beyond simply faith in self. Definitely a book to reread regularly.
July 29, 2025
James K.A. Smith draws wisdom from Augustine to create a rich theology/philosophy of life. He tackles ethical questions, theological and philosophical questions and tells great stories that make the book engaging and thoughtful. This book is not 'hard-to-read' in the sense that big, abstract words were used. No. Ideas were presented in a clear and chewable fashion. Many sections, in fact, really moved my heart to worship and to feel, which I really appreciated. This is overall a great read.
May 4, 2020
I enjoy Smith's prose. He is an excellent writer and this book doesn't disappoint.
By far my favorite chapters in this volume were on 'Ambition', 'Fatherhood', and 'Death'.
With that being said this book is wonderful in certain places and then average in others. I didn't always know where Smith was taking us. I enjoyed the insights into Augustine's life but I wish Smith would have come down in some more concrete ways through out the book.
By far my favorite chapters in this volume were on 'Ambition', 'Fatherhood', and 'Death'.
With that being said this book is wonderful in certain places and then average in others. I didn't always know where Smith was taking us. I enjoyed the insights into Augustine's life but I wish Smith would have come down in some more concrete ways through out the book.
November 25, 2024
damn good.
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