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Timothy L. Smith

Timothy Lawrence Smith (April 13, 1924 – January 20, 1997) was a historian and educator, known as the first American evangelical historian to gain notoriety in research and higher education.

Early life and education[edit]

Smith was born April 13, 1924^[1]inCentral, South Carolina,^[2] the son of Nazarene ministers.^[3] He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees^[4] from the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa student, and his doctoral degree in history from Harvard University^[2] under Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr.^[5][6]

Career[edit]

He has been described as "the first evangelical historian in the U.S. to make it in the secular research university."^[7]

Smith began his teaching career at the Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) in 1949 and left in 1954 to take a position at East Texas State University.^[8] During his time at ENC, he was the first director of Quincy School Department-sponsored College Courses, Inc., after which fellow Eastern Nazarene history professor Charles W. Akers transformed it into Quincy Junior College and served as its first full-time director.^[8] He later went on the teach at the University of Minnesota before becoming director of the American Religious History doctoral program^[9] and Chair of the Education Department at the Johns Hopkins University,^[7][10] where he taught for 25 years.^[7]

Smith received numerous awards and honors, and served as president of both the American Society of Church History,^[4] and the Society of Religious Historians.^[2] He was also an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene, and pastored churches in Massachusetts, Maine, and Colorado.^[7]

Published works[edit]

A prolific author who published in nearly every historical journal, Smith's best-known and most-praised work is his 1957 book Revivalism and Social Reform,^[11] formed from his dissertation from Harvard,^[5] which received the Brewer prize from the American Society of Church History.^[2] Smith also wrote a history of the Church of the Nazarene, Called Unto Holiness, which Smith considered his most outstanding accomplishment.^[7]

Legacy[edit]

Smith retired to Burke, Virginia but died at age 72 in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 20, 1997, after several strokes.^[2]

The Wesleyan Theological Society at Northwest Nazarene University established a book award in honor of Smith and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop in 1999, and presents an award annually.^[12] The 2008 recipient of the award, Randall J. Stephens, currently teaches at the Eastern Nazarene College, as well.^[13]

Notes and references[edit]

External links[edit]

• Nazarene.org: Historiography of Timothy L. Smith
• Nazarene.org: Smith's work online
• Christianity Today Smith Obit