APPOINTMENTS
Emory University Department of Religion, 1987-current; tenured 1994
Harvard Divinity School Visiting Professor, African Amer. Studies, 1990, 1993
Lexington Theological Sem. Visiting Professor, Spring 1987
Kentucky State University Asst. Professor, Whitney Young College, 1983-1987
Pacific School of Religion Adjunct Instructor, 1981-1982
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Graduate Theological Union, 1987
Philosophical & Systematic
Theology, and Philosophy of Religion
(Diss.) The Biblical Shape of
Black Experience: Essay in Philosophical Theology
M.T.S. (Master of Theological Studies) Virginia Theological
Seminary, 1977
Concentration: Biblical Languages
and Literature
B.A. St. John's College, Annapolis, 1975
Humanities and Sciences (Western
classics and "great books" curriculum)
FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS
Book Award for Excellence, American Academy of Religion,
for Conjuring Culture,
1994
Senior Research Fellow, Center for the Study of
World Religions, Harvard, Fall
1993
Fellow, W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American
Research, Harvard, Summer
1990
Fellow, Fund for Theological Education (FTE) Dissertation
Year, 1985-1986
Fellow, FTE Doctoral Study of Religion for Black
North Americans, 1979-81
BOOKS
Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of Black
America
New York: Oxford Univ. Press,
1994; 304 pp. Awarded 1994 American
Academy of Religion Award for
Excellence
Curing Violence, Theophus
H. Smith and Mark I. Wallace, eds.
Sonoma, Ca.: Polebridge Press
(Westar Institute), 1994
Introduction by Smith & Wallace,
pp. xvii-xxvi; Chap.11, Smith, "King & the Black
Religious Quest to Cure Racism,"
pp. 230-51
"Howard Thurman" in A New Handbook of Christian
Theologians, Donald Musser,
Joseph Price, eds. (Nashville:
Abingdon, 1996), pp. 440-48
"Spirituality" in Encyclopedia of African-American
Culture & History. Jack
Salzman, David Smith, Cornel
West, eds. NY: Simon & Schuster Macmillan,
1996, p. 2549
"Ethnography-as-Theology: Inscribing the African
American Sacred Story" in
Theology Without Foundations:
Religious Practice and the Future of
Theological Truth, Stanley
Hauerwas, Nancey Murphy, Mark Nation, eds.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994,
pp. 117-139
"After Teaching: Wisdom"
Against the Grain: New Approaches
to Professional Ethics. Ed., Michael
Goldberg. Valley Forge, Penn.,
Trinity Press International, 1993: pp. 97-122
"From Cure of Souls to Curing Culture: The Prospect
for Ritual Leadership in the
Black Religious Tradition." Virginia
Seminary Journal XLV:1 (April 1993):
2-12
"The Spirituality of Afro-American Traditions"
Christian Spirituality: Post-Reformation
and Modern. World Spirituality: An
Encyclopedic History of the
Religious Quest, vol.18. Louis Dupre, Don E.
Saliers, eds. NY: Crossroad,
1989: pp. 372-414
PAPERS PRESENTED (selections)
"After Violence I:
'Futuring' the End of Victimization"
presented to the Interdisciplinary
Studies Program of Virginia Technical Institute,
Blacksburg, Va., 1/31/99
After Violence II:
The End of Victimization Encoded in The Transformation
of Time Consciousness"
presented to the Person, Community
and Religious Practices (PCRP)
Department of the Emory Graduate
Division of Religion (GDR), 11/30/98
"'I Don't Read Such Small Stuff as Letters:'
Phenomenology of African American Engagement with
the Bible"
presented to the Interdisciplinary
Research Project: African Americans and the
Bible conference at Union Theological
Seminary, New York, 4/8/99
"Convergences between African American Experiences
and Gandhi"
presented to the Indian Cultural
Exchange (Emory student assoc.) on the
occasion of the Gandhi Jayanti
(birth anniversary), 11/12/97
"How We Ended Racism: Futuring 'The Beloved Community,'"
presented to the Episcopal Diocese
of Atlanta, Annual Convention, 11/97
'African Heritage Christianity':Transhistorical Breakthrough
via Eastern Orthodoxy,"
presented to North American Religions
section of the American Academy of
Religion, San Francisco, 11/97
"Violence Conversion as State Policy:
A Religious Studies Approach
to Amnesty Trials/Truth & Reconciliation
Commissions," presented at the
Carter Presidential Center, 4/16/97
"Improvisational Black Studies: A Field Theory Approach"
Marquette University conference:
"Integrating Black Studies into the Core
Curriculum of
a Catholic University," 11/30/90
"Emancipation Proclamations:
Black Freedom Projects as Theological
Improvising with Biblical Narrative"
presented at the American Academy
of Religion, Chicago, 11/18/88
WORKS IN PROGRESS
"Manifesting the Nonviolent God: A Phenomenology
of Interfaith Authenticity"
Monograph on the criteria for
constituting a genuine interfaith vs. interreligious
communality, in theory and practice,
based on nonviolent imperatives
"Towards a Multicultural Classics Curriculum"
Monograph correlating western
classics with women's and ethnic studies
curr- cula in
the arts and sciences via multiple centers of discourse (v.
Afrocentrism)
"Working the Spirits: The Will-to-Transformation
in African American Vernacular
Art," Souls Grown Deep;
William Arnett, ed. (independent press; forthcoming
1999)
RESEARCH &TRAINING PROGRAMS
Member of the Advisory Board for the Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R), an international scholarly society dedicated to explore the relationship between religion and violence in the generation and maintenance of culture; and convenor of our June 3-5 1999 conference at Emory University, "Violence Reduction in Theory & Practice: From Primates to Nations"
Member of the Law & Human Rights Program, Emory University Law School, and specifically engaged in our reconciliation project with commissioners of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission commenced on 11/17/98 to plan post-commission conferences and activities
Founding director (1991-98), Atlanta Chapter, National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI-International), an international consulting & training organization based in Washington, D.C. and specializing in diversity issues, prejudice reduction, and intergroup conflict resolution
SERVICE & LEADERSHIP
Consultant to the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black and the annual conference on "African Americans and Ancient Christianity," most recently convened on February 11-14, 1999 at St. Mary of Egypt Eastern Orthodox Church, Kansas City, Mo.
Teacher and community member of the international Reevaluation Counseling Communities (RC), a peer counseling community involving local classes, support groups, workshops, and consultations, headquartered in Seattle, Washington
Consultant to the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta on intergroup reconciliation, diversity issues and interfaith coalition-building; member, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Atlanta
APPENDED: A Biographical Sketch
Theophus (Thee)
Smith is a native Atlantan, an associate professor in the Religion Department
at Emory University, and the author of Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations
of Black America (Oxford, 1994) and coeditor of Curing Violence
(Polebridge, 1994). While raised in the black church (Baptist), Professor
Smith is now a lay Episcopalian.
His educational
background includes the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, St. John's
("great books") College in Annapolis, Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal)
in Alexandria, and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.
Professor Smith's academic training and interests span the fields of religious
studies, cultural studies, theological studies, African American spirituality,
and religion and violence studies. He is also engaged in issues of multiculturalism
and the college curriculum, including a combined emphasis on Black Studies
and Western classics. Professor Smith's works-in-progress include a new
book on religion and violence, alongside the development of new social
change and interfaith reconciliation models to aid in the contemporary
quest for violence-free societies. Professor Smith has recently convened
Thurman Reconciliation Initiatives (TRI), a new research and consulting
partnership that provides "faith-based resources for conflict transformation
and social change." 9/99