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

★ Publishers Weekly starred review
"This incisive and eloquent volume will expand readers' minds."--Publishers Weekly
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.
From the Back Cover
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