The Devil Reads Derrida and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts [Paperback]

James K. A. Smith (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 163 pages
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (June 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802864074
• ISBN-13: 978-0802864079
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #535,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James K.A. Smith teaches philosophy and theology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, having previously taught at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He has been a visiting professor at Fuller Seminary, Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and Regent College in Vancouver, BC. Originally trained in philosophical theology and contemporary French philosophy, Smith's work is focused on cultural criticism informed by the Christian theological tradition. His more popular writing has also appeared in magazines such as the Christian Century, Christianity Today, First Things, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wise, Ironic, and Insightful Essays, November 12, 2009

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T. T. Turner II "Everyday Liturgy" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Devil Reads Derrida and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts (Paperback)

The Devil Reads Derrida: And Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts presents James K.A. Smith's diverse popular writings in an anthologized format. Navigating his way through Christian college politics, American politics, postmodern philosophy, contemporary poetry, and cinema (among other areas), Smith presents a comprehensively Reformed way of looking at culture in general.

Though the essays and articles are separated by time, audience, and topic, the common strain in all of Smith's writings is the Reformed idea of delight: as Christians we should delight in creation in all of its "creat-ivity," as catalysts for divine experience and thought. Writing from a view of culture that is high, Smith sees popular culture as something of some value that pushes us toward the delight of greater value: an appreciation of art over all of history, not just the past year or so.

Smith is not into top ten lists, the "new," the happening, or the relevant. He instead is into what lasts, the strains of art and narrative that permeate Western culture and artistic tradition from Homer to Harry Potter.

Into this Reformed cultural outlook Smith also throws his nuanced and energetic Anabaptist politics of pacifism and political skepticism. From what other viewpoint could one write about Jim Wallis and the Sojourners crowd espousing a type of leftist Christendom? Yet from Smith's well thought perspective his political viewpoints weave into his unsung mantra: "critique everything."

In the end, The Devil Reads Derrida presents one of the first Christian cultural critiques written for a general audience that is thoroughly postmodern in its stance, one that breaks the rules of modernist thinking by delighting in the beauty of what most consider rubbish, like the movie American Beauty, and critiquing both the Religious Right and Religious Left as being two heads of the same Constantinian beast. Only in such a postmodern world does the popular and the elite mix effectively, as in Smith's capstone essay: "The Devil Reads Derrida: Fashion, French Philosophy, and Postmodernism" when the worlds of Derrida and The Devil Wears Prada combine to form a persuasive argument for the necessity of a postmodern outlook.

So reader be ready: Postmodernism, Reformed thought, and Little Miss Sunshine will be flying at you from all directions, joined by other high and low cultural icons to form a concise critique of delight and beauty.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Playful yet though provoking, February 21, 2010

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Bill Rusin (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Devil Reads Derrida and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts (Paperback)

JAK Smith has a wonderful ability to coin phrases that capture the imgination. This book really is a primer for understanding Smith's thinking in a broad range of areas. It is a book to be read slowly and perhaps with others. His paper "Are Men Really Wild at Heart" is typical in showing Smith's sharp mind at work. He is willing to critique the popularlist CHristian literature, recognising the good in it and pointing out areas of concern. "Teaching Calvinists to Dance: Why I am Reformed and Pentecostal" is a very helpful paper in a context where Christians of differing traditions come together.
A great read!