Faculty Profile
In July 2011 Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology from the University of Nottingham under the direction of Professor Philip Goodchild. A revised version of the dissertation was published in 2013 by Palgrave Macmillian entitled A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature: Ecologies of Thought. It constructs a theory of nature that is adequate to the scientific practices of ecology and derived from philosophical and theological sources or materials.
Before coming to La Salle, Dr. Smith was a research fellow at DePaul University’s Institute for Nature and Culture and taught as an adjunct in the Departments of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Environmental Studies. Because he had received his B.A. from DePaul, it was a rewarding experience returning to teach there; and subsequently he was happy to find a like-minded institution in La Salle, with its heavy emphasis on social justice and an education that forms the whole person.
Dr. Smith’s main research interests are philosophical theology (thinking about the divine using philosophical means), philosophy of religion (and philosophies that consider specific religions, i.e., philosophies of Christianity and philosophies of Islam in particular), and philosophy/theology of nature/environmental theory. Dr. Smith is the translator of François Laruelle's "Future Christ: A Lesson in Heresy" (Continuum, 2010), co-translator with Nicola Rubczak of François Laruelle's "Principles of Non-Philosophy" (Continuum, 2013), co-translator with Drew S. Burk of "Struggle and Utopia at the End Times of Philosophy" (Univocal Publishing, 2012), and the co-editor with Daniel Whistler of "After the Postsecular and the Postmodern: New Essays in Continental Philosophy of Religion" (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010) and co-editor with John Mullarkey of "Laruelle and Non-Philosophy" (Edinburgh UP, 2012). His next project will be a monograph introduction to the non-philosophy of François Laruelle, and his long term project has the working title "Summa Non-Theologica". Dr. Smith is also interested in critical animal studies, philosophy/religion and film, and political theology.
Areas of Expertise
Philosophical theology/philosophy of religion
Environmental theory
Political theology
Education
Ph.D. and M.A., Philosophical Theology, University of Nottingham
B.A., Philosophy, DePaul University
Teaching
Exploring Religion
Contemporary Religious Thought
Modern Catholicism
Publications
‘”Who do you say that I am?”: Secular Christologies in Contemporary French Philosophy’. Analecta Hermeneutica 4 (2013). ‘Laruelle and the Messiah before the Saints’. Postmodern Saints of France. Edited by Colby Dickinson. New York and London: Bloomsbury 2013. ‘The Speculative Angel’. Speculative Medievalisms: Discography. Edited by the Petropunk Collective. New York: Punctum Books, 2013. ‘The Ethical Relation of Bodies: Thinking with Spinoza Towards an Affective Ecology’. Spinoza Beyond Philosophy. Edited by Beth Lord. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012. ‘The Judgment of God and the Immeasurable: Political Theology and Organizations of Power’. Political Theology 12.1 (2011): pp. 69-86. ‘What Can Be Done with Religion?: Non-Philosophy and the Future of Philosophy of Religion’. After the Postsecular and the Postmodern: New Essays in Continental Philosophy of Religion. Edited by Anthony Paul Smith and Daniel Whistler. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010. ‘Believing in this World for the Making of Gods: On the Ecology of the Actual and the Virtual’. SubStance 38.3, (April 2010): pp. 101-112.
Books
A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature: Ecologies of Thought. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.