Brian Smith

  Brian Smith

 

Education

  • A.B. in History and Classical Culture, Fordham University
  • M.A. in Political Science, Columbia University
  • M.Div. in Theology, Woodstock College
  • S.T.M. in Sacred Theology and Ethics, Union Theological Seminary
  • Ph.D. Political Science, Yale University

 

Current Courses Taught

  • REL 221  Comparative World Religions
  • REL 231  History of Christian Theology and Ethics
  • REL 321  Ethics and International Affairs
  • REL 322  Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspectives
  • REL 332  Comparative Religious Ethics
  • REL 442  The Problem of God in Comparative Perspective
  • REL 451, 452   Year -Long Senior Seminar

 

 

 

Awards and Honors

  • Faculty/Staff Mentor award for promoting in and out of classroom learning experiences, 2012
  • May Bumby Severy Award for Teaching Excellence, Ripon College, 1997 and 2003
  • First Place Award for Professional Books, The Catholic Press Association, (The Catholic Church and Democracy in Chili and Peru), 1998
  • Summer Research Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1995
  • Research Grant, U.S. Institute for Peace, 1990-91
  • Senior Class Teaching Award, Ripon College, 1990 and 2005

 

 

Recent Publications and Presentations

  • “Teaching the Devout Student: Faith and Scholarship in the Classroom,” Teaching Theology and Religion 16, 2(April 2013):132 – 149.
  • Brian H. Smith, “Religion, Politics, and the State in a Stepaneque Perspective,” in Problems Confronting Contemporary Democracies: Essays in Honor of Alfred Stepan, eds. Douglas Chalmers and Scott Mainwaring. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012, pp. 339-80)
  • Book review of Paul Freston, Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2001) in “Political Science Quarterly,” Winter 2003
  • Religious Politics in Latin America, Pentacostal vs. Catholic, 1998
  • The Catholic Church and Democracy in Chili and Peru, 1997
  • More Than Altruism: The Politics of Private Foreign Aid, 1990
  • The Church and Politics in Chile: Challenges to Modern Catholicism, 1982

 

 

 

Areas of Interest

  • Comparative religions
  • Comparative religious ethics
  • Religion and politics in global perspective
  • International charities
  • Religion in Latin America