Christian Smith, a sociologist of religion and culture, is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion [1] at the University of Notre Dame. Smith’s research focuses primarily on religion in modernity, adolescents, American evangelicalism, and culture. The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... This article, image, template or category should belong in one or more categories. ... The University of Notre Dame IPA: is a leading Catholic institution located in Notre Dame, Indiana, immediately northeast of South Bend, Indiana, United States. ... It has been suggested that Modern Times (history) be merged into this article or section. ... The Adolescents were a punk band in the 1980s. ... The word evangelicalism usually refers to a tendency in diverse branches of conservative Christianity. ... The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

Biography

Smith received his MA and PhD from Harvard University in 1990 and his BA from Gordon College in 1983. Smith was a Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 12 years before his move to Notre Dame. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... There are two colleges named Gordon College: Gordon College, a state-run public school in Barnesville, Georgia Gordon College, a private Christian liberal arts college in Wenham, Massachusetts This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public, coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. ... This article is about the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. ...

Bibliography

Author, co-author, and editor of numerous scholarly books, articles, book chapters, book reviews, and research reports, Smith was most recently awarded Christianity Today’s 2005 Distinguished Book Award for the book he co-authored with Melinda Lundquist Denton in 2005, Soul Searching: the Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. A complete listing of Christian Smith’s work can be found in his Curriculum Vita.[2] A selection of Smith’s books includes: Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ...

• Soul Searching: the Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (2005), with Melinda Lundquist Denton (Oxford)
• Moral, Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture (2003) (Oxford)
• The Secular Revolution (2003) (California)
• Christian America?: What Evangelicals Really Want (2000) (California)
• Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (2000), with Michael Emerson (Oxford)
• American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving (1998), with Michael Emerson, Sally Gallagher, Paul Kennedy, and David Sikkink (Chicago)
• Resisting Reagan: The U.S. Central America Peace Movement (1996) (Chicago)
• The Emergence of Liberation Theology: Radical Religion and Social Movement Theory (1991) (Chicago)

Theoretical Contributions

Smith’s larger theoretical agenda has been to move culture, morality, and identity to the center of sociological theorizing generally and the sociology of religion specifically. Smith’s early work on social movements emphasized not only structural political opportunities but also personal moral motivations for participation in social movement activism. In his work on American evangelicals, Smith developed a “subcultural identity” theory of religious persistence and strength in the modern world, and highlighted the immense cultural complexities within conservative Protestantism. The Secular Revolution emphasized the centrality of culture, agency, and moral vision by religiously hostile actors in the secularization of American public life. Moral, Believing Animals’ anthropology underscored the morally-oriented, narratological, and epistemically anti-foundationalist condition of human personhood. Smith’s more recent work on the religious and spiritual lives of U.S. adolescents emphasizes the interplay of broad cultural influences, family socialization, and religious motivations in forming teenager’s life outcomes. Behind and contributing to these sociological emphases are the philosophical works of Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre, a critical realist philosophy of social science, and an interpretive-hermeneutical understanding of sociology. The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... Morality refers to the concept of human ethics which pertains to matters of good and evil —also referred to as right or wrong, used within three contexts: individual conscience; systems of principles and judgments — sometimes called moral values —shared within a cultural, religious, secular, Humanist, or philosophical community; and codes... // Computer programming In object-oriented programming, object identity is a mechanism for distinguishing different objects from each other. ... The sociology of religion is primarily the study of the practices, social structures, historical backgrounds, development, universal themes, and roles of religion in society. ... Social movements are broader political associations focussed on specific issues. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. ... Evangelicalism, in a strictly lexical, but rarely used sense, refers to all things that are implied in belief that Jesus is the savior. ... Secularization is a contentious term because the concept of secularization can be confused with secularism, a philosophical and political movement that promotes the idea that society benefits by being less religious, whereas the opposing view is that the values and beliefs implicit in religions support a more moral and, therefore... The Adolescents were a punk band in the 1980s. ... This article belongs in one or more categories. ... For other people named Charles Taylor, see Charles Taylor (disambiguation). ... Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929 in Glasgow) is a Scottish philosopher known mostly for his contributions to moral philosophy. ... The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... Hermeneutics (Hermeneutic means interpretive), is a branch of philosophy concerned with human understanding and the interpretation of texts. ...

External links

• Christian Smith’s homepage [3]
• Interview with Christian Smith [4]
• Center for the Study of Religion [5]