Smith, Gary Scott 1950–

PERSONAL:

Born 1950. Education: Grove City College, B.A., 1972; Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, M.Div., 1977; Johns Hopkins University, M.A., 1979, Ph.D., 1981. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, basketball, weight lifting, travel, hiking.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Grove City College, 100 Campus Dr., Grove City, PA 16127. E-mail—gssmith@gcc.edu.

CAREER:

Historian and educator. Grove City College, Grove City, PA, 1978—, professor of history, department chair, and coordinator of humanities core.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Named Professor of the Year, Grove City College, 2000; Pennsylvania Professor of the Year, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2001; fellowship research grants, Earhart Foundation, 2001-02 and 2004-05.

WRITINGS:

The Seeds of Secularization: Calvinism, Culture, and Pluralism in America, 1870-1915, Christian University Press (Grand Rapids, MI), 1985.

(Editor, with W. Andrew Hoffecker) Building a Christian World View, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing (Phillipsburg, NJ), Volume 1: God, Man, and Knowledge, 1986, Volume 2: The Universe, Society, and Ethics, 1988.

(Editor) God and Politics: Four Views on the Reformation of Civil Government: Theonomy, Principled Pluralism, Christian America, National Confessionalism, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing (Phillipsburg, NJ), 1989.

The Search for Social Salvation: Social Christianity and America, 1880-1925, Lexington Books (Lanham, MD), 2000.

Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of scholarly articles to periodicals and of chapters to books.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gary Scott Smith, a professor of history at Grove City College, is the author of Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush. Smith "draws on extensive archival research to describe how faith helped shape presidential character, political philosophy and the interplay between beliefs and policies," remarked Thomas O'Boyle in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The author examines the religious practices of eleven U.S. Presidents, including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan. He writes that Jefferson, branded as an atheist by his political opponents, was actually a student of the Bible, that Woodrow Wilson believed dancing to be sinful, and that Franklin Roosevelt often interrupted meetings in the Oval Office to contact his home church. Smith pays particular attention to what he calls "civil religion," which promotes social justice and character building, noting that Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan "above others, understood how to invoke religion to reinforce cherished ideals and strengthen America's commitment to core values, delivering speeches that were essentially sermons, and providing moral leadership," O'Boyle observed. Steve Young, reviewing Faith and the Presidency in the Library Journal, praised the author's scholarship, noting "the wealth of source material and historical detail he has amassed on a fascinating and important topic."

Smith told CA: "I became interested in writing because of the fascinating books I read, the desire to express creativity, and the hope of providing people with greater knowledge and better understanding of people and historical events. Moreover, writing books about historical topics involves a great deal of detective work, which I enjoy.

"Because of my heavy teaching schedule, I do most of my writing during the summer and other breaks in the academic schedule. When working on a project, I typically write eight to twelve hours per day. I usually try to research a chapter of a book or an article in substantial detail before I begin to write. I craft a first draft of the article or chapter and then try to determine what information I still need to finish it. I normally do four or more drafts of each piece and ask colleagues to critique the next to the last version.

"My favorite book is Faith and the Presidency because it involved a lot of research in the archives of numerous presidential libraries, deals with a topic in which there is significant interest, and has afforded me numerous opportunities to speak to varied groups about its content.

"I hope my books will help people better understand and appreciate history and inspire readers to think about the larger issues they discuss."