Part of me thinks the stakes are quite high for James K. A. Smith’s Awaiting the King. That’s partly because of the cultural and political climate in which we find ourselves. Attached to that is the seeming “attack approach” that Smith has taken to Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option (which is unfortunate because I’m pretty sure they’re closer to one another than Smith would admit). Beyond that, Smith has gained some real credibility with those outside of academic circles through You Are What You Love, a book I’ve been outspoken about for sure.
In this recent video, Smith makes some sense of how Awaiting the King developed as the third book in his Cultural Liturgies series.
And here, Smith draws some lines of connection between You Are What You Love and Awaiting the King.