{"id":13226,"date":"2026-05-27T23:17:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=13226"},"modified":"2026-05-28T01:23:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T01:23:31","slug":"make-your-home-in-this-luminous-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/make-your-home-in-this-luminous-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"unnamed\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Into the Mystic<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Reformed philosopher James K. A. Smith\u2019s new book follows a path beyond knowledge into doubt, suffering, and wonder.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Review by Hayden Kvamme<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

In my early days of being a pastor, the silence in a hospital room could be suffocating. As I would sit there next to a family member, wondering how to make sense of what was happening, it could be frustrating to have little to add to the cacophony of medical machinery. My heart knew that the silence in the face of the uncertainty and suffering before me was theologically acceptable; but my mind still met this experience as a problem in need of fixing.<\/p>

In his new book,\u00a0Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark<\/em>, Reformed philosopher James K. A. Smith explores how our own epistemic and experiential \u201cdarkness\u201d (that is, uncertainty and suffering) can break us open to profound experiences of unknowing. These experiences in turn can set the conditions for a mystical experience of God\u2019s love. This awareness of being loved, according to Smith, can then cast out fear and doubt in a way apparent certainty cannot.<\/p>

Those familiar with Smith\u2019s work will recognize much in this argument. In his earlier\u00a0Cultural Liturgies<\/em>\u00a0series, Smith argues that human beings are best understood not by what we know or believe, but by what we desire and love. He makes the case that in liturgical Christian worship God forms us as heart-centered people by orienting our imaginations and desires toward the Kingdom of God through Scriptural story and embodied Christian practice. This formation is particularly important for Smith because of the clamor of\u00a0other<\/em>\u00a0cultural liturgies that vie for our attention, and thus devotion and formation.<\/p>

All of this informs Smith\u2019s approach in this latest book. In particular, Smith\u2019s former attention to the importance of art, poetry, and music in the formation of our imaginations and desires paves the way for Smith\u2019s attention here to the way these same artistic expressions can usher in experiences of what he calls \u201cgenerative unknowing.\u201d However, whereas the\u00a0Cultural Liturgies<\/em>\u00a0series expresses confidence in God\u2019s ability to form us collectively in communal worship,\u00a0Make Your Home<\/em>\u00a0complicates this picture by centering the unpredictability of mystery, suffering, and uncertainty, focusing less on our communal experience of Christian formation and more on our individually unique journeys of faith, suffering, and doubt. To do so, Smith speaks in a much less dry, academic, philosophical register, and in a much more personal one, rooted in his own experiences of \u201cdarkness.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

I felt my pulse quicken as Smith suggested that genuine mysticism \u201cruins your life.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Smith discloses that in his early forties he entered a season of dark depression, precisely when he was working on the Cultural Liturgies<\/em>\u00a0project. Smith opens up with vulnerability, admitting that only in early adulthood did he begin to unpack the implications of being abandoned by his father at age eleven. Simultaneously, as Smith encountered philosophy in his late teens and early twenties, he had become hungry for knowledge. Imagining uncertainty as a kind of \u201cland of possible knowledge,\u201d he wanted to conquer it, and was confident that, through philosophy, he could. Slowly, however, he recognized this posture toward philosophy as a kind of defense mechanism, especially against fear and pain. He began to see much of contemporary philosophy as a misguided attempt to \u201cthink our way\u201d out of humanity\u2019s messes. Again, for a reader of the\u00a0Cultural Liturgies<\/em>\u00a0series, this much sounds familiar.<\/p>

Nevertheless, in these earlier works on communal worship Smith suggests, if not a pathway to certainty, a reliable roadmap to orient oneself toward the Kingdom of God. While Smith leaves plenty of room for mystery there, one still finishes these books thinking, \u201cThere may not be a perfect approach to theological certainty, but at least Christian worship can reliably orient me toward love of God and neighbor.\u201d Again, Smith never says it quite like this. But to a reader of Smith\u2019s earlier work, it\u2019s clear that Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark<\/em>\u00a0charts a completely different course\u2014a course where courses disintegrate, a journey that undoes cartography. Or as Smith says in the introduction, \u201cWhat happens when the light goes out and the world goes dark? . . . This book is a testament to the failure of philosophy as I knew it.\u201d The uncertainty he describes is less intellectual and more experiential: \u201cWhat\u2019s happening to me?\u201d he recalls wondering in bewilderment; it was obvious to him that philosophy as he knew it couldn\u2019t answer this question, and nothing else in his experience could either.<\/p>

Instead he was consoled by the journeys recounted in the works of Christian mystical contemplatives like Meister Eckhart, St. Teresa of \u00c1vila, St. John of the Cross, and the anonymous fourteenth-century author of\u00a0The Cloud of Unknowing<\/em>. They became his \u201cphenomenologists of the dark.\u201d Their works made him aware of alternative pathways through the dark; poets, painters, composers, and filmmakers opened the gate that gave him the capacity to personally walk on the paths they\u2019d trodden.<\/p>

As Smith describes the journey, his account of his own trauma and pain is unsettling, even troubling. Yet there\u2019s also something inviting about the way he sets up the journey from solitude, through stillness, to unknowing, and wonder. In the early chapters, Smith aptly describes our contemporary \u201cdistraction industrial complex,\u201d especially occasioned by smartphones. But he also carefully describes the need in the quest for solitude not only to escape external distraction, but to conquer the myriad appetites and distractions of the inner life that threaten to follow us wherever we go, offering false balm for our pain and fear. For him, visual art, film, and music proved impactful in helping him quiet the noise within and without to experience true solitude and silence.<\/p>

As Smith describes it, unknowing can be scary. I felt my pulse quicken as Smith suggested that genuine mysticism \u201cruins your life.\u201d He describes this process in several ways, none of which sound pleasant. The generative womb of solitude becomes a grave of unknowing. The reader is cautioned to expect a kind of humiliation, annihilation, vexation, and death. As I read I noticed my jaw clenched, all the muscles in my face tight. \u201cI offer no\u00a0apologia<\/em>\u00a0for the mystical option,\u201d he writes. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean that the mystics are wrong. I have dangled at the end of that rope . . . You could probably say I gave up. Maybe the gentle mystics would say I let go. What I didn\u2019t realize is that I was learning something.\u201d<\/p>

That \u201csomething\u201d Smith goes on to describe as the mystics\u2019 refusal of self-grounding that culminates in a deep experience of utter dependence on a giver. Moreover, Smith points out, the mystics consistently characterize this giver as\u00a0loving<\/em>, even as Love. This experience of profound love that can\u2019t be made sense of paves the way for wonder, and opens up new worlds of communion\u2014with God, and with other human beings and all of creation. If my face had tightened in response to Smith\u2019s account of knowing, as I read Smith\u2019s account of utter dependence, my face finally let go. It was as if my body could sense Smith\u2019s invitation to himself:\u00a0stop trying to control the world and others through knowledge; assume a more receptive posture; attend to the Love already in your midst<\/em>. This is what Smith calls wonder.<\/p>

As a whole, I found Smith\u2019s account refreshing and hopeful, especially as an invitation to sit more deeply in my own experiences of suffering and uncertainty, personal and professional. I heard in the book Smith\u2019s permission to resist the urge to constantly distract myself from personal pain\u2014permission to trust that, if I\u2019m stuck on something, there\u2019s probably more to learn there. Likewise, Smith\u2019s account offered me a deeper kind of assurance that my absence of words in a hospital room says nothing about an absence of God among the beeping monitors and antiseptic smells. Quite the opposite\u2014the silences I share with my parishioners in those rooms become profound occasions for attention to the love of God in our midst. Sometimes uncertainty in the face of suffering is not a problem to be solved or even a decision tree to analyze my way through\u2014it\u2019s a dark room I might just need to sit in for a little longer, making my home, with God and others, in this luminous dark.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Hayden Kvamme\u00a0<\/strong>is a pastor in Rochester, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife and two kids. He graduated with his Masters of Divinity from Wartburg Seminary, where he completed his senior thesis on James K. A. Smith\u2019s\u00a0Cultural Liturgies<\/em>\u00a0series.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>by James K. A. Smith was published by Yale University Press on March 24, 2026.\u00a0Fare Forward<\/em>\u00a0appreciates their provision of a review copy. You can purchase your own copy\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reformed philosopher James K. A. Smith\u2019s new book follows a path beyond knowledge into doubt, suffering, and wonder. Review by Hayden Kvamme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":13229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-newsletter","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/unnamed.png?fit=1500%2C1383&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13226"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13238,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13226\/revisions\/13238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}