Liturgy In James Edward Smith's Desiring The Kingdom

When considering the idea of liturgy, most will cite various religions and religious practices, and rightfully so, however, James Edward Smith makes apparent in Desiring the Kingdom that liturgical practices can be found in more aspects of everyday life than one would initially think. He brings forth a more secular outlook on typically religious rhetoric, establishing his belief that all forms of liturgy are essential to influencing and shaping an individual. Liturgy consists of tradition, customs, beliefs, values, and expectations. These are the same fragments that often make up the core of one of life’s most acquainted rites of passage: university.
It is safe to say that any University has its set of traditions, customs, etc. that are sacred

BC is adherent about ingraining the idea of being a “man or woman for others,” this being one of the schools most customary missions for its students. With that being said, students are cognizant of the fact that the majority of this mental “seasoning” process notoriously occurs during freshman orientation. Often presented in a series of speeches from various persons, powerpoints after powerpoints, and video collages, BC is adamant about instilling this pedagogy into the student minds while they are the most impressionable as they will be in their college career. In this way, BC plants the seed so that the actions and thought processes of students will, hopefully, be reminiscent of this mission. The idea of being a “man or woman for others” is reflective of BC’s Catholic origins. A common theme in Catholicism is selflessness, having the desire to put another human being before oneself, just as Jesus once did. Without being direct, orientation encourages students to have the passion to be altruistic, and ultimately, live like Jesus. All of this is significant due to the high chance, as Smith advocates, that it is influencing the telos, or goals, dreams, and interest of students. For example, a BC student will attend for four years, earn a degree, and later accumulate mass amounts of income, but due to the “men and women for others” ideology, he or she will have aspirations to be charitable and give back to the world. Although this will not always be the case for every student, the fact that the idea is enforced throughout a student’s entire college experience ensures BC hope that more students than not will graduate with a clear vision of its version of “the good life”: having the desire to help