Smith-Christopher 11/23/05
Title: "Peace Studies at LMU"
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As a Professor of Theological Studies specializing in the Old Testament, Daniel Smith-Christopher, Ph.D., asserts his great passion in academia is peace studies. His newest project, a book for Abingdon Press, is about reading the Bible specifically for the causes of peace and justice.
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As a Professor of Theological Studies specializing in the Old Testament, Daniel Smith-Christopher, Ph.D., asserts his great passion in academia is peace studies. “This is a time that Christians in this country need to do some serious soul searching on whether their attitudes and behavior promote violence or peace," he says. "And it is an ecumenical question -- directed at my Protestant brothers as well as my Catholic brothers.”
In the classroom, Professor Smith-Christopher seeks to generate dialogue on the subject through courses such as "War and Peace in the Old Testament" and "Prophecy and Social Justice," classes that go beyond what is typically covered in a Bible studies setting.
He is currently working on a book for Abingdon Press on reading the Bible specifically for the causes of peace and justice. Aimed at a lay audience, Smith-Christopher says it represents a new challenge. “I am in the interesting position of writing a book to make as convincing an argument as possible, but at the same time try to limit my instinct to cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’ with a footnote.”
The project offers “a sense of opportunity to get on paper things that I have been concerned about and talking about and have not had the chance to try and present in a complete, direct and simple form: Just exactly what I think about war and peace in the Christian context, and my defense of the notion that non-violence is the way of Jesus.”
Peace studies has been a consistent thread in Smith-Christopher's life. He served as a volunteer with the Quaker movement in Israel/Palestine from 1986 to 1988, and currently directs LMU's Peace Studies program.
Professor Smith-Christopher says the source of his commitment to peace studies is that with few exceptions, “I see no sign whatsoever that we have been making serious progress on the notion that peace-making is a central Christian responsibility."