H. Shelton Smith (1893–1987) was a scholar of Christianity who spent most of his career as a professor at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He received his B.A. from Elon College (now Elon University), was ordained as a minister by the United Church of Christ, and served in 1918–1919 as first lieutenant and chaplain with the American Expeditionary Force in France. He received his graduate training at Yale University and went on to serve as Associate Professor of Religious Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and Associate Professor of Religious Education at Yale University. Three years later, he was named Professor of Religious Education at Duke Divinity School, where he served from 1931 to 1963. In 1953 he was named James B. Duke Professor at Duke Divinity School. Smith was known as a fierce critic of liberal Christian trends that engaged in "a little deification of humanity." He was well known for his advocacy for civil rights for African-Americans.
Smith is also known as the founder of the North Carolina Council of Churches. Upon returning to the South in 1931, he initiated conversations with other religious leaders, including Episcopal Bishop Edwin A. Penick and Methodist Bishop Paul B. Kern, about the possibility of a state council of churches. Over the next four years, he met with individuals and groups about his vision of an “interdenominational agency to deal with problems of social justice, racial relations . . . or problems that confront the churches.” In 1935 he convened about 40 religious leaders from 13 denominations for what became the founding meeting of the North Carolina Council of Churches. He served as its first president and unpaid executive secretary and then moved quietly to the sidelines. Over the years, when help was needed with raising money or with bringing the issue of race back to the forefront of the Council’s agenda, Smith spoke out. But his main ongoing contribution was through supportive relationships with the Council’s leaders. In 1953, he was one of the three initial recipients, along with Bishop Penick and Moravian Bishop J. Kenneth Pfohl, of the Council’s Distinguished Service Award.
His published books include:
Smith, H. Shelton. (1941). Faith and Nurture. New York: Charles Scribners’ Sons.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1955). Changing conceptions of original sin: A study in American theology since 1750. New York: Charles Scribners’ Sons.
Smith, H. Shelton, Handy, Robert L., & Loetscher, Lefferts A. (Eds.). (1960–63).
American Christianity (Vols. 1-6). New York: Charles Scribners’ Sons.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1965). Horace Bushnell. New York: Oxford University Press.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1972). In His image, but...racism in southern religion, 1780–1910. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
His other publications include:
Smith, H. Shelton. (1929). Religious education tomorrow. International Journal of Religious Education, 5, 13-14.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1934). Let religious educators reckon with Barthians. Religious Education, 29, 45-50.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1935). A divided church in a divided world. Advance, 78, 524-525.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1936 a). The gospel for an age of good works. Advance, 78, 579-581.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1936 b). Is religious naturalism enough? Religious Education, 32, 107-111.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1938). The church and the social order in the old south as interpreted by James H. Thornwell. Church History, 7, 115-124.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1939). Theological reconstruction in religious education. Christendom, 4, 565-574.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1942–43). The supremacy of Christ in Christian nurture. Religion in Life, 12, 31-42.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1942, February). The dilemma of the progressive movement in Protestant nurture. Lecture given at Pacific School of Theology.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1944). As American Protestants have seen Jesus. Miriam Goldberg lectures given at Hebrew Union College.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1945). Christian faith and racial valuation. Theology Today, 2, 175-188.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1947, February). Faith and nurture in contemporary Protestant thought. Lecture given at Austin Presbyterian Seminary and Eden Theological Seminary.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1947). Christology and the Kingdom of God. Lecture given for the American Theological Society.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1949). Christian realism and the color Bar. Address given at Chapel Hill, N.C.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1949). A History of the independent Congregational Church, Charleston, South Carolina. Church History, 18, 119-120.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1950). Church and state in the United States. Church History, 19, 307-309.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1951 a). Literature and theology in colonial New England. Theology Today, 7, 556-568.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1951 b). Christian education: Do progressive religious educators have a theology? In S. Nash (Ed.), Protestant thought in the twentieth century: Whence and whither? (pp. 225–246).
Smith, H. Shelton. (1951, April). The doctrine of original sin: Its decline and revival in American thought. Levi Stone lectures given at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1952–53). George Albert Coe, re-valuer of values. Religion in Life, 22.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1954, August). The Christian faith and its communication. A series of nine lectures delivered at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Richmond, Virginia.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1955 a). Acts I:8: Sound recording. Presbyterian School of Christian Education.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1955 b). The new theology and the idea of progress. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Society of Church History, Washington, D.C.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1956–57). Moral crisis in a troubled south. Journal of Religious Thought, 14, 37-42.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1960). Southern schools: Progress and problems. Religious Education, 55, 150.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1962). American post-liberal Protestant mind. Duke Divinity School Bulletin, 27 (N), 120-128.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1963). Ministry of reconciliation. Duke Divinity School Bulletin, 28 (N), 184-187.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1973). A Christian America: Protestant hopes and historical realities. Duke Bulletin, 38, 58.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1973). Am I not a man and a brother: British missions and the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in west Africa and the west Indies, 1786–1838. Church History, 42, 290-291.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1976 a). Roll, Jordan, roll: The world the slaves made. Church History, 45, 264-265.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1976 b). Time on the cross: The economics of American Negro slavery. Church History, 45, 263-264.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1976 c). The problem of slavery in an age of revolution. Church History, 45, 262-263.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1976 d). Black power and Jimmy Carter. Christianity and Crisis, 36, 205-206.
Smith, H. Shelton. (1978). Valley of shame. Duke Bulletin, 43, 96-101.
Books and articles about H. Shelton Smith include:
Cully, Kendig Brubaker. (1959). Two decades of thinking concerning Christian nurture. Religious Education, 54, 481-489.
Henry, Stuart C. (1963). A miscellany of American Christianity: Essays in honor of H. Shelton Smith. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Kinoshita, Carol Krichi. (1965). Two theologies of evangelism and nurture: A study of the function of the church in the thought of Horace Bushnell and H. Shelton Smith. Unpublished master’s thesis, Golden Gate Baptist Theological School.
Steward, David S. (1968). Patterns of conversion: An interpretation of the recent work of Christian education theorists. Religious Education, 63, 259-269.
Miller, Randolph Crump. (1982). Religious education and theology. Birmingham, Ala.: Religious Education Press.
Thistlethwaite, Susan Brooks. (1982). H. Shelton Smith: Critic of the theological perspective of progressive religious education, 1934–1950. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Duke Divinity School.
Zikmund, Barbara Brown. (1990). H. Shelton Smith: Contagious Christian. Christian Century, 107F7-14, 151-152.
