Samuel Smith, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Samuel C. Smith currently serves as the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and as a Professor in the Department of Humanities at Liberty University. He previously served as Chair of the History Department.  A historian specializing in early American religious history, Dr. Smith has dedicated his academic career to the study of America’s colonial and religious heritage. Prior to joining Liberty University, he was a teacher and administrator in Christian schools, bringing extensive experience in education and academic leadership to his current role.

Past Professional or Notable Memberships

• American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
• Southern Historical Association
• Abbeville Institute
• American Society of Church History
• Center for Apologetics and Cultural Engagement at Liberty University

Courses

Book Publications

• Among the Deplorables: Confessions of a Populist Evangelical. (KDP, 2020)
• A Cautious Enthusiasm: Mystical Piety and Evangelicalism in Colonial South Carolina (University of South Carolina Press, 2013)
• The Papers of Henry Laurens, vol. 16.  C. James Taylor, ed.  Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2003.  [Editorial Assistant]
• Living on the Edge: The Archaeology of Cattle Raisers in the South Carolina Backcountry (With Richard Brooks and Mark Groover).  Columbia, S.C.: South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2000

Articles, Chapters, Review Articles

• “Southern American Evangelicalism,” The Oxford Handbook of Early Evangelicalism, edited by Jonathan Yeager (2022): 215-236. 
• “Critical Race Theory: Philosophy and Purpose,” Theology of Politics, Standing for Freedom Center, Liberty University (Spring 2022): 5-28. 
• Co-author with Ken Cleaver, “Engaging our Christian Heritage in its Broader Cultural Contexts: Interdisciplinary Engagement from History & Church History,” Faith and the Academy 2, no. 1 (Fall 2017): 48-50.
• “Antinomian Controversy: Inherent Righteousness,” Parts 1 and 2, in A Cautious Enthusiasm: Thoughts on Christianity and History [blog], (Summer 2015).
• “How Not to do History: Thomas Krannawitter’s Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President,” Journal of Faith and the Academy 3, no. 1 (Summer 2010).
• “‘That Feel and Touch of the Elbow’: William Gilmore Simms and the Whig Interpretation of History,” Simms Review 6, no. 1 (Summer 2008).
• “A Critique of Bonhoeffer Speaks Today: Following Jesus at All Costs,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 20 (Autumn 2007).
• “Robert Johnson,” in South Carolina Encyclopedia, Walter Edgar, ed. Columbia,  S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2007.
• “Henry Laurens: Christian Pietist,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 100  (April 1999).
• “Government & Politics,” chapter six in American Eras: The Colonial Era, 1600-1754, edited by Jessica Kross (Detroit: Gale Research, 1998).

Book Reviews

• Review of Inventing George Whitefield: Race, Revivalism, and the Making of a Religious Icon, by Jessica Parr.  The Journal of American History 103, no. 1 (June 2016): 176-177.
• Review of The Origins of Southern Evangelicalism: Religious Revivalism in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670-1760, by Thomas Little.  The Journal of Southern Religion 16 (2014): https://jsreligion.org/issues/vol16/smith.html.
• Review of An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern Europe, by Douglas H. Shantz.  Church History and Religious Culture 94 no. 1 (2014): 151-153.
• Review of Moonshiners and Prohibitionists: The Battle over Alcohol in Southern Appalachia, by  Bruce E. Stewart. Abbeville Review (April 2014): https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/moonshiners/.
• Review of “Faiths of the Founding Fathers,” by David Holmes in Journal of Faith and the Academy 2, no. 2 (Fall 2009).