Desiring the Kingdom

Smith's Desiring the Kingdom presents a philosophical anthropology that reconceptualizes human beings as fundamentally liturgical animals rather than primarily thinking beings. Drawing heavily on Augustine, Merleau-Ponty, and Pierre Bourdieu, Smith argues that humans are constituted by desires and loves that are shaped through embodied practices and rituals. This work intervenes in contemporary discussions about worldview formation, secularization, and religious education by challenging intellectualist assumptions prevalent in both Christian philosophy and broader cultural theory.

The monograph's central thesis contends that what ultimately orients human life toward particular visions of flourishing is not primarily ideas or beliefs but pre-cognitive desires formed through habitual practices. Smith develops this argument through three interconnected claims. First, he establishes that humans are essentially desiring creatures whose fundamental orientation is toward some conception of the good life. Second, he demonstrates how these desires are shaped liturgically through repetitive, embodied practices that work on the imagination before they engage reason. Third, he argues that secular institutions, particularly shopping malls and universities, function as liturgical formations that shape desires toward immanent rather than transcendent ends.

Smith's analysis of competing liturgies proves particularly significant for understanding contemporary secularization. Rather than viewing secularization as merely the decline of religious belief, he presents it as the redirection of human desire through alternative liturgical practices. His phenomenological readings of everyday spaces reveal how consumer capitalism and educational institutions form desires that implicitly exclude transcendent reference. This approach shifts debates about God's relevance from the cognitive level of belief to the affective level of desire and practice.

The work's contribution to discussions about God lies in its reconfiguration of how religious commitment functions. By arguing that love for God emerges through liturgical formation rather than intellectual assent, Smith challenges both rationalist defenses of theism and critiques that focus solely on propositional content. His emphasis on the formative power of Christian worship practices suggests that arguments about God's existence may be less determinative than the embodied practices that shape ultimate desires. This liturgical anthropology provides resources for understanding why intellectual arguments often fail to produce religious conversion and why secular liturgies effectively redirect human desire away from transcendent ends.