James Bryan Smith Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of The Good and Beautiful Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

James Bryan Smith is a theology professor at the Wichita Kansas-based Friends University. Earlier on, he got his masters in Divinity at the Yale University Divinity School and later on went to the Fuller Seminary for his doctorate in Ministry.
Bryan Smith also works at Friends University as the director of the Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation. The man was heavily involved in the founding of the Richard J. Foster spiritual renewal ministry.

He has been ordained as a minister for the United Methodist Church and over the years served in various local churches in various capacities.

He is the author of more than ten works most notably “Hidden in Christ, The Apprentice Series, The Good and Beautiful Series, Devotional Classics, Room of Marvels, and Embracing the Love of God. He is also a much sought-after speaker in matters of spiritual formation and transformation of the Christian.

Bryan Smith has always been passionate about contributing to the lives of Christians who have a desire to conform to the teachings of Jesus. As such, he has become a gifted speaker and leader who provides nourishment to many weary Christians who need to take advantage of his skills as a Christian elder.

Smith is a leader of several Christian organizations including the Apprentice Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation. This is an organization that was intended to provide a creative track for people to grow closer to God and promote deep conversations.
He also runs “Things Above,” a popular weekly podcast where he curates spirit-lifting conversations focusing on mind discipleship. Some of his most popular podcast topics have been “Practicing Patience,” “Epiphanies from a Guitar,” “The Gift of Pain,” and “Seeing Beauty.”
Each episode comes with a glorious thought as he usually aims to provide something that is praiseworthy and excellent, true, beautiful, and good to fill the minds of his listeners with heavenly truths.

According to James Bryan Smith, the Gospel is all about our eternal destiny in addition to being a tool for changing our lives today. His most popular works are the “Good and Beautiful Series,” in which he provides a transformative approach to discipleship.
He does this by emphasizing the role of focusing on God, what it means to live in a community as part of the kingdom of God, and what it means to be a Christian. He is also known to be a proponent of journaling as part of a Christian’s spiritual journey.
By engaging with his works, Christians ought to journal and record their reflections and thoughts as God transforms their relationship with him and their community.

James Bryan Smith’s novel “The Good and Beautiful God” tells of how we often have ideas about God that may not be true. For instance, we believe God is angry with us, he wants us to try harder, blesses us when we are good, and punishes us when we are bad.
James Smith asserts that most of the time our thoughts determine how we live and who we are. He says that for a Christian the most important thing is what a person thinks about God as this is how spiritual transformation begins.
Making use of the gospels, the author invites us to test our ideas to see if they match with what Jesus says about God’s nature and about us too. Once you discover the truth in the word, Smith takes you on a spiritual journey that includes certain activities aimed at making these new narratives real in your mind, body, and soul.

At the end of each chapter, there is an opportunity for engaging in spiritual practices and soul training to reinforce biblical messages in your heart and mind. Given that people learn best by learning in small group discussions and community, you get discussion group questions at the end of each chapter that you can practice on.

It is a transformative, loving, and deep work that will help you dive deep into the word, including lessons on how Jesus lived and the kingdom he promised.

“The Good and Beautiful Community’ is the second novel of the “Good and Beautiful” series by James Bryan Smith. It is a work in which the author helps Christians know how to live with others well just as Jesus whom we apprentice lived.
As Apprentices, we are to do good full-time rather than part-time as most Christians often do. We are supposed to continuously be in contact with God and his kingdom and be women and men in whom Christ dwells.

Smith says that there are many opportunities in which we as Christians can make an impact in the world we live even though we often get it wrong and emphasize social justice over personal faith or vice versa.

In this work, the author shows us how to have both spiritual formation and community engagement as part of our spiritual walk. Yet again he comes up with new spiritual practices that root true and new narratives about the world and God in our souls.
His humility and insight will lead you to lead us to live in beautiful and authentic ways as a community of believers in Christ.

James Bryan Smith’s work “The Good and Beautiful Life” is a work in which the author teaches the character of Christ.

He begins by asserting that all people want to be happy rather than ruin their lives. However, the big problem is that many people buy into the false notions of success and happiness.

Many of these tend to be self-centered decisions which often lead us into bad habits that result in vices such as judging, anger, worry, lying, and lust that are usually ruinous. Ultimately, Christians often find themselves heading toward self-destruction despite their beautifully packaged life.

He makes use of the Sermon on the Mount and provides a guide on how to replace false beliefs with Jesus’s perspective on how to live so that we can have life in the kingdom of God rather than striving for the perishable goodies of the temporal world.