Rev. Robert O. Smith, Ph.D. (he/him/his), serves Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) as Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Smith is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

A broadly experienced minister, theologian, and administrator, Smith is an interdisciplinary scholar who deploys the methodological lenses of critical race theory, decolonial theory, and political theology to better understand the historical sources of contemporary political dynamics. His pathbreaking work on the political ideology of Christian Zionism exemplifies this approach: Smith is the author of More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism (Oxford, 2013) and editor, with Göran Gunner, of Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison (Fortress, 2014).

More recently, Smith has co-researched and co-written three books on the history of critical race theory (CRT) with Aja Y. Martinez, a professor of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Drawing on archival, ethnographic, historical, and theological analysis, these books reframe CRT’s origins in legal studies while positioning the movement as a vital tool for analyzing and confronting contemporary theological and social developments.

Smith graduated from Luther Seminary with an M.Div. and an M.A. in Islamic Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion, Politics & Society at Baylor University. He has served in many ministerial contexts, including campus ministry, ELCA Global Mission, and as an Associate to the Bishop of the Northern Texas–Northern Louisiana Synod. Previously, he served as a history professor at the University of North Texas and as the founding director of the University of Notre Dame’s Jerusalem Global Gateway.

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