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Acting Dean of Theology

Daniel A. Smith, PhD
My goal in teaching is to help people understand the New Testament and the origins of Christianity in ways that are both historically sensitive (so, not anachronistically) and culturally engaged (so, not ethnocentrically).

Students who study Religion and Theology at Huron University College have the unique opportunity to engage directly in an inclusive and collegial learning community, with challenging questions about religion – not only big questions like faith, history, and justice, but also hard questions about religion and its place in society, politics, and culture. Our faculty are experienced and knowledgeable, and even though they are engaged in their own research, which often takes them around the world, they really care about their students.

 

Daniel A. Smith, PhD teaches in the areas of New Testament and Christian Origins. His research focuses on the Synoptic Gospels, especially the Sayings Gospel Q. Dan is the author of several articles published in scholarly journals, most recently in Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses and the Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum (Journal of Early Christianity). His second book, Revisiting the Empty Tomb: The Early History of Easter (Fortress Press, 2010) won the F. W. Beare Award from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and has appeared in French translation, as Nouvelle visite au tombeau vide: les premiers récits de Pâques (Cerf, 2013). Dan is a member of the Society for New Testament Studies and serves as the co-chair of the Q Section in the Society of Biblical Literature.

Summary of Research:

 

Areas of Research

  • Early Christian literature and history
  • Synoptic Gospels
  • The Sayings Gospel Q
  • Passion & Resurrection Narratives and their history of reception 

Current Projects 

  • Reader’s guide & synopsis, plus companion website with short research essays by student and expert contributors: The Death and Resurrection of Jesus – Text and Reception (Bloomsbury)
  • Commentary on Jude and 2 Peter (International Critical Commentary series, T & T Clark)

Books

  • Nouvelle visite au tombeau vide : Les premiers récits de Pâques. Translated by Charles Ehlinger. Lectio Divina 260. Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2013.
  • Revisiting the Empty Tomb: The Early History of Easter. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010.
  • The Post-Mortem Vindication of Jesus in the Sayings Gospel Q. Library of New Testament Studies 338. London; New York: T. & T. Clark International, 2006.

Edited Volumes

  • Prayer in the Sayings Gospel Q – Gebet im Spruchevangelium Q. Edited by Daniel A. Smith and Christoph Heil. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 1. Reihe. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck [at press].
  • Built on Rock or Sand? Q Studies – Retrospects, Introspects and Prospects. Edited by Christoph Heil, Gertraud Harb, and Daniel A. Smith. Biblical Tools and Studies 34. Leuven: Peeters, 2018.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

“The Sayings Gospel Q in Marcion’s Edition of Luke.” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 94/3 (2018): 481-503.

“Marcion’s Gospel and the Synoptics: Proposals and Problems.” Pages 129-173 in Jens Schröter, Tobias Nicklas, and Joseph Verheyden, with Katharina Simunovic, eds., Gospels and Gospel Traditions in the Second Century: Experiments in Reception. BZNW 235. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018.

“Excursion, Incursion, Conquest: A Spatial Approach to Mission in the Synoptics.” In John S. Kloppenborg and Joseph Verheyden, eds., The Gospels and Their Stories in Anthropological Perspective. WUNT 409. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018.

“From Parable to Logion: Oral and Scribal Factors in the Composition of Q.” Pages 73–97 in Christoph Heil, Gertraud Harb, and Daniel A. Smith, eds., Built on Rock or Sand? Q Studies – Retrospects, Introspects and Prospects. BTS 34. Leuven: Peeters, 2018.

“‘Not Done in a Corner’ (Acts 26:26): Space, Territory, and ‘Public Speaking’ in Luke-Acts.” Pages 83–100 in Joseph Verheyden and John S. Kloppenborg, eds., Luke on Jesus, Paul and Christianity: What Did He Really Know? BTS 29. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.

“Marcion’s Gospel and the Resurrected Jesus of Canonical Luke 24.” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 21/1 (2017): 41–62.

“The Disappearance of Jesus in Q: A Response to Harry Fleddermann.” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 92/2 (2016): 310–322.

“What Difference Does Difference Make? Assessing Q’s Place in Christian Origins.” Pages 183–211 in William E. Arnal, Richard S. Ascough, Robert A. Derrenbacker, and Philip A. Harland, eds., Scribal Practices and Social Structures among Jesus Adherents: Essays in Honour of John S. Kloppenborg. BETL 285. Leuven: Peeters, 2016.

Articles on “Afterlife,” “Assumption,” “Heaven,” “Resurrection.” Pages 17–19, 100, 397–398, 809–810 in Eric Orlin, Lisbeth S. Fried, Jennifer Wright Knust, Michael L. Satlow, and Michael E. Pregill, eds., The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. London; New York: Routledge, 2016.

“‘But You Will Be Thrown Out’ (Q 13:28): The Spatial Dimensions of Q’s Apocalyptic Rhetoric.” Pages 145–168 in Markus Tiwald, ed., Q in Context I: The Separation between the Just and the Unjust in Early Judaism and in the Sayings Source. Bonner Biblische Beiträge 172. Göttingen: V&R Unipress; Bonn: Bonn University Press, 2015.

“The Construction of a Metaphor: Reading Domestic Space in Q.” Pages 33–55 in Dieter T. Roth, Ruben Zimmermann, and Michael Labahn, eds., Metaphor, Narrative, and Parables in Q. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 315. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014.

“‘Look, the Place Where They Put Him’ (Mark 16:6): The Space of Jesus’ Tomb in Early Christian Memory.” HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 70 (2014). http://www.hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/2741

“‘Pray to Your Father [who is] In Secret’ (Matthew 6,6): Considerations about Divine Presence and Sacred Space.” Pages 653–64 in Donald P. Senior, ed., The Gospel of Matthew at the Crossroads of Early Christianity. BETL 243. Leuven: Peeters, 2011.

“Between Philadelphia and Philoxenia: Finding Space in Scriptural Reasoning for ‘Hospitable’ Readings in Biblical Studies.” Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 9/1 (2011). http://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/back-issues/vol-9-no-1-december-2010-the-fruits-of-scriptural-reasoning/between-philadelphia-and-philoxenia/

“Seeing a Pneuma(tic Body): The Apologetic Interests of Luke 24:36–43.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 72/4 (2010): 752–72.

“Matthew and Q: The Matthean Deployment of Q and Mark in the Apocalyptic Discourse.” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 85/1 (2009): 99–116.

“The Resurrection of Jesus and Christian Origins: Q and Other Flies in the Ointment.” Foundations and Facets Forum (3rd series) 1/2 (2007): 147–69.

“Revisiting the Empty Tomb: The Post-Mortem Vindication of Jesus in Mark and Q.” Novum Testamentum 45/2 (2003): 123–37.

“The ‘Assumption’ of the Righteous Dead in the Wisdom of Solomon and the Sayings Gospel Q.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 29/3 (2000): 287–99.

VIEW DR. SMITH’S RESEARCH