Curriculum Vitae

R. Scott Smith, Ph.D.

Biola University, 13800 Biola Avenue, La Mirada CA 90639

(909) 499-1096 (cell); (562) 906-4570 (Biola)

E-mail: scott.smith@biola.edu

Education: 

University of Southern California , Fall 1995 to Summer 2000

Ph.D., Religion and Social Ethics, August 2000

MA, Religion and Social Ethics, May 1998

Dissertation Topic: “Whose Virtues? Which Language?  A Critique of MacIntyre’s and Hauerwas’s ‘Wittgensteinian’ Virtue Ethics” (chair: Dr. John (“Jack”) Crossley, with Drs. John Orr and Dallas Willard)

Biola University, Talbot School of Theology, Spring 1991 to Spring 1995 

MA, Philosophy of Religion and Ethics

California State University at Hayward, Fall 1975 to Spring 1980

BA, Political Science; option in Public Affairs and Administration

Professional Experience: 

Biola University, MA Christian Apologetics Program, Summer 2000 to Present

Professor of Ethics and Christian Apologetics

University of Southern California , Fall 1995 to Spring 2000

Assistant Lecturer, Expository Writing Program

Scholarly Publications:

Monographs:

  1. Virtue ethics and moral knowledge: philosophy of language after MacIntyre and Hauerwas (Ashgate/Routledge, 2003)
  2. Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church (Crossway, 2005)
  3. Naturalism and Our Knowledge of Reality: Testing Religious Truth-claims (Ashgate/Routledge, 2012)
  4. In Search of Moral Knowledge: Overcoming the Fact-Value Dichotomy (InterVarsity Press, 2014).
  5. Authentically Emergent: In Search of a Truly Progressive Christianity (Cascade Books, 2018)
  6. Exposing the Roots of Constructivism: Nominalism and the Ontology of Knowledge (Lexington, 2023).

Chapters:

  1. “Language, Theological Knowledge, and the Postmodern Paradigm.” In Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern Times, ed. Paul K. Helseth, Millard J. Erickson, and Justin Taylor (Crossway, 2004).
  2. “Christian Postmodernism and the Linguistic Turn.” In Christianity and the Postmodern Turn, ed. Myron Penner (Brazos Press, 2005).
  3. “Postmodernism and the Priority of the Language-World Relation.” In Christianity and the Postmodern Turn, ed. Myron Penner (Brazos Press, 2005).
  4. “Reflections on McLaren and the Emerging Church.” In Passionate Conviction: Contemporary Discourses on Christian Apologetics, ed. Paul Copan and William Lane Craig (Broadman & Holman, 2007).
  5. “Emergents, Evangelicals, and the Importance of Truth: Some Philosophical and Spiritual Lessons.” In Evangelicals Engaging Emergent, ed. William Henard (Broadman & Holman, 2009).
  6. “Is Man the Measure? Truth and Postmodernism in Perspective.” In Loving God with Your Mind: Essays in Honor of JP Moreland, ed. Paul Gould and Richard Davis (Moody Press, 2014).
  7. “Nonfoundationalism, Postfoundationalism, and the Truth of Scripture.” In The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures, ed. D.A. Carson (Eerdmans, 2016).
  8. “The Scientific Naturalist Juggernaut – and What to Do about It.” In A New Kind of Apologist, ed. Sean McDowell (Harvest House, 2016).
  9. “Rethinking the Fact-Value Split: A Place for Religion in the Public Square?” In Multiculturalism and the Convergence of Faith and Practical Wisdom in Modern Society, ed. Ana-Maria Pascal (IGI Global, 2016). Repr. in Open Government: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, ed. Information Resources Management Association (Information Science Reference/ IGI Global, 2020).
  10. “Physicalism and Sanctification.” In Christian Physicalism, eds. Joshua Farris and Keith Loftin (Lexington Books, 2018).
  11. “Taking Philosophical Naturalism Seriously: Naturalism, Intentionality, and Knowledge.” In The Naturalness of Belief: New Essays on Theism’s Rationality, eds. Paul Copan and Charles Taliaferro (Lexington Books, 2018).
  12. “The Nominalist Foundations of Constructivist Dignity.” In The Inherence of Human Dignity: Foundations of Human Dignity, Vol. 1, by Barry Bussey and Angus Menuge (Anthem Press, 2021): 201-16.

Articles:

  1. “Some Conceptual Problems for Hauerwas’s Virtue Ethics” In Philosophia Christi (3:1), 2001.
  1. “Hauerwas and Kallenberg, and the Issue of Access to an Extra-Linguistic Realm.” In Heythrop Journal (45:3), 2004.
  1. “Post-Conservatives, Foundationalism, and Theological Truth: A Critical Evaluation.” In Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (48:2), 2005.
  1. “Some Suggestions for Brian McLaren (and his Critics).” Criswell Theological Review, N.S. 3:2, spring 2006. Reprinted also in CS Lewis Institute magazine, 2006.
  1. “Plantinga’s Externalism, Intentionality, and Our Knowledge of Reality” Philosophia Christi (9:2), 2007.
  1. “Joel Green’s Anthropological Monism: Biblical, Theological, and Philosophical Considerations.” Criswell Theological Review (7:2), 2010: 19-36.
  1. “Intentionality and Our Fashionable Philosophies.” Philosophia Christi (12:2), 2010.
  1. “Finitude, Fallenness, and Immediacy: Husserlian Replies to Westphal and Smith.” Philosophia Christi (13:1), 2011: 105-26.
  1. “Could We Know Reality, Given Physicalism? Nancey Murphy’s Views as Test Case,” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (64:3), 2012: 170-80.
  1. “Craig’s Nominalism, Essences, and Implications for Our Knowledge of Reality.” Philosophia Christi (15:2), 2013.
  1. “Craig’s Nominalism and the High Cost of Preserving Divine Aseity.” European Journal for Philosophy of Religion (9:1), 2017: 87-108.
  1. “Toward a More Biblical (and Pneumatological) Model for Integration, Teaching, and Scholarship.” Christian Scholars Review (XLVII: 1), 2017.
  1. “Craig, Anti-Platonism, and Objective Morality.” Philosophia Christi (19:2), 2017: 331-43.
  1. “Social Justice, Economics, and the Implications of Nominalism.” The Independent Review 24:1 (2019).
  1. “Tropes and Some Ontological Prerequisites for Knowledge.” Metaphysica 20:2 (2019): 223-37.
  1. “Craig’s Anti-Platonism, Lowe’s Universals, and Christ’s Penal Substitutionary Atonement.” TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology 5(2), 2021: 20-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v5i2.55993
  2. “Propositions: Who Needs Them? Craig’s Nominalism Revisited,” Philosophia Christi 24:2 (2022).
  3. “Can Critical Theory, and Critical Race Theory, Ground Human Dignity, Justice, and Equality?” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 26:2 (2022): 70-85.

Book reviews:

  1. Natural & Divine Law: Reclaiming the Tradition for Christian Ethics, by Jean Porter (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999). In Philosophia Christi (3:2), 2001.
  1. Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context, by Stanley Grenz and John Franke (Westminster John Knox, 2000). In Philosophia Christi (5:2), 2003.
  1. Ethics as Grammar: Changing the Postmodern Subject, by Brad J. Kallenberg (University of Notre Dame Press, 2001). In Philosophia Christi 7:2, 2005.
  1. The Knower and the Known: Physicalism, Dualism, and the Nature of Intelligibility, by Stephen Parrish (St. Augustine’s Press, 2013). In Philosophia Christi (18:2), 2016.
  1. Brian McLaren in Focus, by Scott Burson. (Abilene Christian University Press, 2016). In The Asbury Journal (spring 2018): 215-17.
  1. Questioning Your Doubts: A Harvard PhD Explores Challenges to Faith. By Christina Powell. (Intervarsity Press, 2014). Dharma Deepika: A South Asian Journal of Missiological Research 21:1 (2018): 93-94.

Shorter Essays:

  1. “A Response to Brian Ingraffia’s Review of Myron B. Penner, ed., Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: Six Views.” Christian Scholars Review (XXXVI: 1), 2006.
  1. “Emerging Church.” Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, ed. George Kurian (Blackwell, 2009).
  1. “Postmodernism.” Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, ed. George Kurian (Blackwell, 2009).
  1. “Do My Beliefs Fit the Christian Worldview?” Worldview Study Bible (Holman, 2018).
  1. “A Spiritual Issue with the ‘Disappearance of Moral Knowledge,’” Evangelical Philosophical Society, online essay, Sept. 24, 2019.

More “Popular” Essays:

  1. With Jana Harmon. “That’s Just Your Interpretation: Truth and ‘Emergent’ Christian.” Areopagus Journal (May-June 2008): 24-32.
  1. “Emergents and the Rejection of Body-Soul Dualism,” Christian Research Journal (Sept.-Oct. 2009).
  1. “Are Emergents Rejecting the Soul’s Existence?” Knowing and Doing (CS Lewis Institute magazine), fall 2009.
  1. “Do the New Atheists Own the Market on Reason?” at Patheos.com, May 4, 2012.
  1. “Evolution’s Achilles’ Heel?” Christian Research Journal (Sept. 2012).
  1. Sandy Hook Revisited: Something Gun Rampages Should Teach Us (and Richard Dawkins), at Patheos.com, Dec 23, 2013.
  1. “Does Darwinian Evolution Actually Undermine Education?” Biola Magazine (Winter 2014).
  1. “God and Relationships on the ‘New Kind’ of Christianity: A Doctrinal Update on Brian McLaren and Other Emergents,” Christian Research Journal (39:4, 2016). God and Relationships on the “New Kind” of Christianity
  1. “Where is the Presence and Power of the Lord? Revisiting the Fullness of Christ in Ephesians” at Patheos.com, Dec. 2016.
  1. “A Philosophical Influence from the Scientific Revolution on Scientific Judgment.” In God and Nature, summer 2018.
  1. “Emergent Christians and the ‘New’ Social Justice.” Christian Research Journal (online exclusive), April 25, 2019.
  1. “Why Are Progressive Christians Attracted to Universalism? How a Distorted View of God Distorts Our View of Good.” Credo Magazine, Jan. 3, 2020.
  1. “Critical Theory and Abortion as an Act of Oppression,” Christian Research Journal, 2021

Academic Presentations and Invited Lectures:

  1. Society of Christian Philosophers, Jan. 1995, Pacific Regional Meeting: “MacIntyre and Tradition-Dependent Rationality”
  2. American Academy of Religion, March 1998, Western Regional Meeting: “Hauerwas and the Christological Problem”
  3. American Academy of Religion, March 1999, Western Regional Meeting: “MacIntyre, Hauerwas, and Language: Implications for Christian Virtue Ethics”
  4. Society of Christian Philosophers, April 1999, Pacific Regional Meeting: “MacIntyre and the Failure of Language Usage to Secure Meaning and Understanding”
  5. Evangelical Philosophical Society, Nov. 1999, National Meeting: “Four Conceptual Problems for Hauerwas’s Virtue Ethics”
  6. American Academy of Religion, April 2000, Western Regional Meeting: “MacIntyre and Hauerwas, and the Problem of Access”
  7. Society of Christian Philosophers, April 2001, Pacific Regional Meeting: “MacIntyre and the Issue of Epistemic Access”
  8. Evangelical Philosophical Society, Nov. 2001, National Meeting: “Crucial Considerations for Grenz’s Linguistic Theology”
  9. Biola University, Talbot School of Theology, Oct. 2002, Invited Lecturer: Postmodernism and youth ministry, Christian Education TTCE 661 class
  10. Evangelical Philosophical Society, Nov. 2002, National Meeting: “Grenz, Hauerwas, & Kallenberg, & the Problems with Linguistic, Embodied Apologetics”
  11. Biola University, Talbot School of Theology, Nov. 2002, Invited Lecturer: postmodern epistemology, TTPH 544, Epistemology
  12. Evangelical Philosophical Society, May, 2003, Western Regional Meeting: “Searle’s Naturalism as a Construction of Language”
  13. Biola University, Torrey Honors Institute Context Lecture 12, 2003, “Should We Talk as Nancey Murphy Talks?”
  14. Evangelical Philosophical Society, Nov. 2003, National Meeting: “Should We Talk as Nancey Murphy Talks?”
  15. American Academy of Religion, March 2004, Western Regional Meeting: “Should We Talk as Nancey Murphy Talks?”
  16. Evangelical Theological Society, Nov. 2004, National meeting: “Post-Conservatives, Foundationalism, and Theological Truth: A Critical Evaluation”
  17. Evangelical Theological Society, April 2006, Far Western regional Meeting: “Brian McLaren, the Emerging Church, and the Issue of Foundationalism”
  18. Evangelical Philosophical Society, April 2006, Far Western Regional Meeting: “Christian Physicalism and Personal Identity: The Case of Timothy O’Connor”
  19. National Faculty Leadership Conference (by Christian Leadership Ministries), June 2006, Washington, DC area: “Can Naturalism Give Us Knowledge? A Look at Some Ontological Requirements for Knowledge”
  20. Evangelical Theological Society National Meeting, Nov 2006: “Can Naturalism Give Us Knowledge? A Look at Some Ontological Requirements for Knowledge”
  21. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2006: “A Few Issues for Craig’s Fictionalism and Conceptualism”
  22. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2006: Panel member, EPS-Postmodern Study Group Panel Discussion; paper: “Finitude, Fallenness, and Presence: Husserlian Responses to James K.A. Smith and Merold Westphal”
  23. Evangelical Philosophical Society Far Western Regional Meeting , April 2007: “Michael Tye’s Direct Realism and Our Knowledge of Reality”
  24. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2007: “Intentionality, Craig’s Conceptualism or Nominalism, and Our Knowledge of Reality”
  25. Evangelical Theological Society National Meeting, Nov 2007: “Where is the Emerging Church Heading?”
  26. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2008: “Naturalism (and Physicalism) and Knowledge”
  27. Evangelical Theological Society National Meeting, Nov 2008: “The Emergent Church and Physicalism”
  28. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2009: “Constructivism and Some of Our Fashionable Philosophies”
  29. Evangelical Theological Society National Meeting, Nov 2009: “McLaren’s Ethics”
  30. Evangelical Philosophical Society Far West Regional Meeting Apr 2010: “Joel Green’s Anthropological Monism: Biblical, Theological, and Philosophical Considerations”
  31. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2010: “Relationships, Murphy, & the Turn to Physicalism — A Critical Examination”
  32. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2011: “Craig’s Nominalism, Essences, and Implications for Our Knowledge of Reality”
  33. Evangelical Philosophical Society Far West Regional Meeting, Apr 2012: “Evolution’s Achilles Heel?”
  34. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2012: “Craig’s “Nominalism” Extended: Implications for Our Being Morally Virtuous”
  35. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2012: Respondent to three presentations in review of my book, Naturalism and Our Knowledge of Reality
  36. Oklahoma Baptist University Philosophy Forum (invited lecture), Sept. 19, 2013: “Reflections on Our Situatedness…and Implications for Hearing God’s Voice Today”
  37. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2013: “Craig’s Anti-Platonist Theory of Reference, God’s Aseity, and Our Knowledge of Reality”
  38. Evangelical Theological Society Far Western Regional Meeting, April 2014: “The Spirit, Integration in Christian Education, and Cessationism”
  39. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2014: “Craig’s Nominalism and the Gospel, Scripture, and More”
  40. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2014: Respondent to three presentations in review of my book, In Search of Moral Knowledge
  41. EPS Session at the American Academy of Religion National Meeting, Nov 2014: “The Inability of Naturalism to Explain Moral Knowledge”
  42. University of British Columbia, Oct 2015: “Of Facts, Values, and Other Modern Myths: Can Scientific Naturalism Explain Ethics?”
  43. University of British Columbia, Oct 2015: “Facts, Values, and Other Modern Myths: The Prospects of Postmodernism for Ethics”
  44. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2015: “Thinking about Particulars”
  45. Evangelical Theological Society National Meeting, Nov 2015: “Updates on McLaren and the Emergents: God, Relationships on the ‘New Kind’ of Christianity”
  46. Evangelical Philosophical Society Far West Regional Meeting, Apr 2016: “Rethinking the Fact-Value Split”
  47. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2016: “Nominalism and the History of Constructivism in Western Philosophy”
  48. Evangelical Philosophical Society Far West Regional Meeting, Apr 2017: “Nominalism and the Practice of Science”
  49. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2017: “Nominalism and Moral Knowledge”
  50. Evangelical Theological Society National Meeting, Nov 2018: “Making Philosophical Connections: Christians and the Social Justice Movement”
  51. Evangelical Philosophical Society Far West Regional Meeting, Mar 2019: “Justice, Dignity, Equality, and the Image of God – Philosophical Issues”
  52. Poster Presentation, Biola University’s Celebration of Scholarship: “Are the Emergents Yesterday’s News?” April 16, 2019
  53. Crossing the Lines: Interdisciplinary Christian Conversations about Difference Conference, Pt. Loma University, Oct 22, 2019: “To What Extent Should Christians Embrace Critical Theory in Social Justice?”
  54. Panelist & chair, Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2020, on William Lane Craig’s Views of the Atonement and Nominalism. Paper: “Craig, Nominalism, and the Penal Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement.”
  55. Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting, Nov 2021: “A Phenomenological Assessment of Craig’s Nominalist Alternatives to Platonism”
  56. Evangelical Theological Society National Meeting, Nov 2021: “Social Justice: Can Critical Theory Ground Human Dignity, Equality, and Justice?”
  57. Evangelical Philosophical Society Far West Regional Meeting, Apr 2022: “Critical Theory, Identities, and Rights”
  58. Evangelical Theological Society National Meeting, Nov 2022: “Why Human Dignity and Rights Need Essences: Rawls, Critical Race Theory, and the ‘New Dignity’ Jurisprudence”
  59. Biola University, Talbot School of Theology, Jan. 25, 2023, Invited Lecturer: Math and Abstract Objects, BBST 465, Mathematics and Integration
  60. Moral Argument Academic Conference at Houston Christian University, March 3, 2023: “Moral Knowledge, Nominalism, and the Fact-Value Split”

Memberships:

American Philosophical Association (APA)

Society of Christian Philosophers (SCP)

Evangelical Philosophical Society (EPS): Secretary-Treasurer since November 2000

Evangelical Theological Society (ETS)

Grants & Awards:

Acton 2018 Mini-Grant on Free Market Economics, summer 2018

Biola University’s Research & Development Grants – I have been awarded this grant in spring 2006, summer 2006, summer 2007, and summer 2014.

Award for Excellence in Scholarship for 2007-08, Biola University

William W. Bass Memorial Scholarship Award, 1992-93 (as Talbot student)

References:

  1. J. P. Moreland, Ph.D., Philosophy of Religion and Ethics, Biola University
  2. Craig Hazen, Ph.D., Professor of Comparative Religions, Biola University (my department chair)
  3. Scott Rae, Ph.D., Philosophy of Religion and Ethics, Biola University
  4. John (“Jack”) Crossley, Ph.D., retired, School of Religion, University of Southern California
  5. Angus Menuge, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Concordia University, WI
  6. Paul Copan, Ph.D., Pledger Chair of Philosophy, Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL.