Robert O. Smith

Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Authentic Diversity, Justice, and Public Church

Dr. Robert O Smith in the LSTC Chapel.

An icon of an envelope.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Critical Race Theory
  • Native American & Indigenous Studies
  • American Studies
  • Religion & Politics
  • Christian Zionism
  • Postsecularity & Political Theology

EDUCATION

  • B.A., Oklahoma State University
  • M.A., Luther Seminary
  • M.Div., Luther Seminary
  • Ph.D., Baylor University

Biography

Rev. Robert O. Smith, PhD (he/him/his), serves LSTC as Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Dean Smith is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and an ordained Minister of Word & Sacrament in the ELCA.

A broadly experienced minister, theologian, and administrator, Smith is an interdisciplinary scholar who deploys the methodological lenses of critical race theory, decolonial theory, and political theology to better understand the historical sources of contemporary political dynamics. His pathbreaking work on the political ideology of Christian Zionism exemplifies this approach: Smith is the author of More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism (Oxford, 2013) and editor, with Göran Gunner, of Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison (Fortress, 2014).

More recently, Dean Smith has co-researched and -written three books on the history of critical race theory (CRT) with Aja Y. Martinez, a professor of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Drawing on archival, ethnographic, historical, and theological analysis, these books reframe CRT’s origins in legal studies while positioning the movement as a vital tool for analyzing and confronting contemporary theological and social developments.

Dean Smith graduated from Luther Seminary with the MDiv and an MA is Islamic Studies. He earned his PhD in Religion, Politics & Society at Baylor University. He has served in many ministerial contexts, including campus ministry, ELCA Global Mission, and as an Associate to the Bishop of the Northern Texas–Northern Louisiana Synod. Previously, he served as a history professor at the University of North Texas and as founding director of the University of Notre Dame’s Jerusalem Global Gateway.

Select Publications

  • Aja Y. Martinez and Robert O. Smith. The Origins of Critical Race Theory: The People and Ideas That Created a Movement (New York University Press, 2025).
  • Aja Y. Martinez and Robert O. Smith. Harmony & Harassment: A New Critical Race Theory Story (University of California Press, 2026).
  • Robert O. Smith and Aja Y. Martinez. CRT Attacked!: The New Right’s Holy War and the Prophetic Witness of Critical Race Theory (Penn State University Press, 2026).
  • Robert O. Smith.More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism (Oxford University Press, 2013).
    • Foreword from Martin E. Marty
    • Reviewed in The American Historical Review; Journal of American History; Politics & Religion; Church History; Teologinen Aikakauskirja (Finnish Journal of Theology)
  • Göran Gunner and Robert O. Smith, eds., Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison (Fortress Press, 2014)

Academics

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