Department of Religious Studies

Professor Jonathan Z. Smith will deliver the Gates Lectures for 2002. On Wednesday, October 9 at 8:00 p.m. in ARH 102, Dr. Smith, the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor of the Humanities at the University of Chicago will present "Here, There, and Anywhere: Generalizing Ancient Religions." On Thursday, October 10 at the Convocation in Herrick Chapel, Professor Smith will present "God Save This Honourable Court: Religion and Civic Discourse."

Jonathan Z. Smith received his Ph.D. in History of Religions from Yale University. Dr. Smith teaches at the University of Chicago, and is the Program Coordinator of the Religions and the Humanities programs, and of the Early Christian Literature program. He is the author of Map in not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions, Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown, To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual, and Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity' as well as numerous scholarly articles. In addition to his theoretical contributions to the field of the history of religions, he has also written on the importance of liberal arts education for contemporary American society.