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Zachary B. Smith, PhD

Associate Professor

Contact

College of Arts and Sciences
Theology
DHHC - Dowling Hall/Humanities Center - 209

Zachary B. Smith, PhD

Associate Professor

Dr. Zachary B. Smith joined the Creighton faculty in 2015 as a Resident Assistant Professor, and in 2017 became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology. He was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2020, and in 2021 received secondary appointments to Classical and Near Eastern Studies and the Department of Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine - Omaha.

As a historian of religions, he specializes in religions of the Mediterranean world (especially Judaism and Christianity) and in Christianity in America. Dr. Smith taught at Fordham University, Manhattan College, and The Cooper Union before coming to Creighton. He is the secretary/treasurer for the Religion and Bible Society of the Rocky Mountain-Great Plains Region and a member of the American Academy of Religion.

Department

Theology

Position

Associate Professor

Books

  • Brepols Publishers
    Philosopher-Monks, Episcopal Aughority, and the Care of the Self: The Apophthegmata Patrum in Fifth-Century Palestine. Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia 80 (Turnhout, Bel.: Brepols Publishers, 2018) 2018
  • Medieval Institute Publications (Western Michigan University)
    The Reception and Use of Monastic Literature: Text Creation and Community Formation. Christianities Before Modernity Series. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications (Western Michigan University), forthcoming (under contract).

Articles

  • Lexington Books: A Division of Rowman and Littlefield
    Becoming Gods. In Theology and Star Trek. Ed. Shaun Brown and Amanda MacInnis Hackney., p. 173-85 2023
  • Lexington Books: A Division of Rowman and Littlefield
    Use (the) Force: The Warrior-Monk in Star Wars. In Theology and the Star Wars Universe. Ed. Benjamin Espinoza., p. 25-36 2022
  • Purdue University Press
    Dissenting Literature and Social Formation in the Antique Mediterranean. In Authority and Dissent in Jewish Life. Ed. Leonard J. Greenspoon. Studies in Jewish Civilization 31., p. 25-44 2020
  • Paulist Press
    “Early Monastic Practices of Strategic Speech and Selective Silence to Limit Violence.” In Social Reconciliation in the Catholic Tradition. Ed. Jay Carney and Laurie Johnston. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, p. 62-81 2018
  • Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series
    "In Memoriam: Memory and Imitation in Augustine and Athanasius." In Augustine in Christian Thought, Life and Practice. Ed. John O’Keefe and Michael Cameron. Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series 15.
    15, p. 212-26 2018
  • Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series
    (with Ashley Young). "Jewish Identity and Religious Commitments in the American Midwest: Results of a Limited Study on Interfaith Upbringing." Religion and Globalization. Ed. Ronald A. Simkins and Zachary B. Smith. Journal of Religion & Society Supplement 16 (2018): 202-28
    16, p. 202-28 2018
  • Early Christianity
    "Of Firstfruits and Social Fixtures: How Didache 13 Uses Torah to Reform Roman Patronage." Early Christianity 8.2 (2017): 251-68
    8.2, p. 251-68 2017
  • Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series
    "Monks and Empire: Asceticism and Political (Dis)Engagement in Late Antiquity." Religion and Politics. Ed. Ronald A. Simkins and Zachary B. Smith. Journal of Religion & Society Supplement 14 (2017): 14-27
    14, p. 14-27 2017

Publications

  • Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series
    Simkins, Ronald A. Religion and the New Politics
    23 2021
  • Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series
    Simkins, Ronald A. Religion and Justice
    21 2020
  • Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series
    Simkins, Ronald A. Religion and Reform
    18 2019
  • Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series
    Simkins, Ronald A. Religion and Globalization
    16 2018
  • Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series
    Simkins, Ronald A. Religion and Politics
    14 2017

Editing and Reviews

  • Catholic University of America Press
    Clark, Elizabeth A. Colorful Lives and Living in Roman North Africa: Essays in Memory of Maureen A. Tilley. Ed. +Elizabeth A. Clark+ and Zachary B. Smith. 2023
  • Revue d'Histoire ecclésiastique
    Book Review: Wisdom on the Move: Late Antique Traditions in Multicultural Conversation. Essays in Honor of Samuel Rubenson. Edited by Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Thomas Arentzen, Hendrik Rydell Johnsen, and Andreas Westergren. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 161. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
    117, p. 16-18 2022
  • sehepunkte: Rezensions journal für die Geschichtswissenschaften
    “Paul C. Dilley: Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity.” 2021
  • Reading Religion
    Book Review: “Christianizing Egypt: Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity. By David Frankfurter. Princeton University Press, 2017.” 2018
  • Reading Religion
    Book Review: “Christianizing Egypt: Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity. By David Frankfurter. Princeton University Press, 2017.” 2018
  • Reading Religion
    Book Review: “Social Justice and the Legitimacy of Slavery: The Role of Philosophical Asceticism from Ancient Judaism to Late Antiquity. By Ilaria L. E. Ramelli. Oxford University Press, 2017.” 2017
  • Reading Religion
    Book Review: “The Greek Historia Monachorum in Aegypto: Monastic Hagiography in the Late Fourth Century. By Andrew Cain. Oxford University Press, 2016.” 2017
  • Theological Studies
    Book Review: Gregory the Great: Ascetic, Pastor, and First Man of Rome. By George E. Demacopoulos. University of Notre Dame, 2015.
    77, p. 959-60 2016

Presentations

  • "Apa Carion the 'Monk'?" Lived Religiousness in Antiquity Unit, Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, CA 2019
  • "Self-Violence and Othering Violence: The Legacies of Christian Holiness." History of Christianity Unit, Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA 2019
  • "Truth, Texts, and Community Formation in the Early Byzantine and Medieval Periods." Symposium on Religion and Justice, The Kripke Center, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 2019
  • "Blinding Words: Legal Tests as a Potential Framework for Ascetic Scholarship." Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Denver, CO 2018
  • "Authority, Dissent, and Social Formation in Late Antiquity." 31st Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 2018
  • "Contextualizing Cassian: A Challenge to Foucault's View of Obedience in Monasticism." North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL 2018
  • "Making Spaces for Making Men." "You Are Here" Interdisciplinary Conference, Department of English, Creighton University 2018
  • "Foucault's Monks: Reassessing Foucault's View of Subjectivity and Authority." AAR/SBL Rocky Mountain-Great Plains Regional Meeting, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 2018
  • "Early Monastic Practices of Strategic Speech and Selective Silence to Limit Violence." Social Reconciliation in the Catholic Tradition Conference, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 2017
  • "Who's Right, Which Rite, Why Write? Apophthegmata as Protreptic and Paraenetic." North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL 2017
  • "Between Two Worlds: Being Raised Jewish and Interfaith in the American Midwest." Symposium on Religion in Global Context, The Kripke Center, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 2017
  • "Speech, Silence, and Violence: Healing and Harm in the Egyptian Desert." North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL 2016
  • "In Memoriam: Memory and Imitation in Augustine and Athanasius." Symposium on Augustine in Christian Thought, Life, and Practice, The Kripke Center, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 2016
  • "Monks and Empire: Asceticism and Political Engagement in Late Antiquity." Symposium on Religion and Politics, The Kripke Center, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 2016

Other

  • Jewish Studies Research Grant

  • Faculty Research Support Grant

  • Course Adaptation Grant

  • Summer Faculty Research Fellowship

  • Kripke Center Research Grant