Jonathan Z. Smith's 2003 Aronov Lecture

At 7 pm on Tuesday, September 23, 2003, Prof. Jonathan Z. Smith of the University of Chicago presented the Department of Religious Studies second annual Aronov Lecture. His hour-long lecture was entitled, "God Save this Honorable Court: Religion and Civic Discourse." The talk focused on two recent court cases in which the Court's decisions exemplify the scholar of religion's task of making the familiar appear strange and the exotic appear local.

Prior to the lecture, Prof. Smith dined with members of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, including Dean Robert Olin and Associate Dean for Humanities and Fine Arts Jonathan Michaelsen. Of interest is that Associate Dean Michaelsen's late father, Robert Michaelsen, was the Department Chair who first hired Smith, in the mid-1960s, at the University of California, Santa Barabra, where he briefly taught before joining the faculty at the University of Chicago.

An animated question and answer session followed Smith's hour-long lecture. During the question session he addressed topics in an informal and engaging manner, ranging from the relation of his work to that of Hans-Georg Gadamer, to relevance of his work in the undergraduate classroom, to the recent place Alabama has had in the national news spotlight regarding various legal decisions on the Ten Commandments monument in Montgomery.

Around 9 pm the lecture--which overfilled Smith Hall's large lecture hall, requiring additional chairs to be brought in and students to sit in the aisles (making it by far the best attended public lecture the Department has sponsored in recent history)--gave way to an hour-long reception and book signing.

If you are interested in reading samples of Smith's work, see the following online essays: "Differential Equations: On Constructing the 'Other'" and "The Necessary Lie: Duplicity in the Disciplines."

To everyone who attended, and also to everyone who helped to make this event possible--especially including Betty Dickey and Donna Martin--the Department expresses its thanks.

Watch the Lecture

To watch an earlier version of this lecture, presented in January 3, 2003, as the University of California at Santa Barbara's "Ninian Smart Lecture," see the following link. Please note that you will require Real Player to play this hour-long lecture, as well as a high speed internet connection.

See Prof. Smith's Relating Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion (University of Chicago Press, 2004), the last chapter of which is the Aronov Lecture he presented at the University of Alabama.

See Prof. Kurtis Schaeffer's Spring 2004 REL 490 Senior Seminar, which focuses on Smith's work.

Prof. Smith's visit to Tuscaloosa was made possible by the Department of Religious Studies's Aaron Aronov Endowment in Judaic Studies.

The Aronov Lecture is an annual Fall, public lecture, in which a nationally-known scholar of religion is invited to address issues of wide, cultural relevance.

In 2003 Prof. Martin Jaffee, of the University of Washington, inaugurated this annual lecture series (see an article). In response to Jaffee's engaging lecture, the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies each wrote replies and the entire collection--including Jaffee's Aronov Lecture--was published in the Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion in the Spring of 2004.

Plans are now getting underway for the 2004's Third Annual Aronov Lecture, with an initial invitation being extended to a nationally-known scholar of religion.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos courtesy of Betty Dickey

Prof. Jonathan Z. Smith, of the University of Chicago, delivering the 2003 Aronov Lectue (photo kindly provided by Niko Corley, Photo Editor, Dateline Alabama)


Prof. Jonathan Z. Smith (r) speaks with Prof. Michael Murphy, Chair of the Department of Anthropology, during the reception in the Natural History Museum that followed Prof. Smith's engaging public lecture. Interestingly, Prof. Murphy was an undergraduate student of Smith's at UC Santa Barbara in the late-1960s


Earlier in the day Prof. Smith met with Katherine Lee, reporter for the Tuscaloosa News, in the Department lounge in Manly Hall (photo courtesy of Donna Martin)


Religious Studies majors Kim Davis (l) and John Parrish (r) join Prof. Tim Murphy during the post-lecture reception


Religious Studies students Drew Elmore (l) and Josh McDonough (r) along with Profs. Smith and Murphy


John Parrish, Kim Davis, Kyle Stephens, Prof. Russell McCutcheon, and Josalyn Randall during the reception


Prof. Maarten Ultee (Department of History) and Prof. Kurtis Schaeffer (l and r, foreground) with Prof. Smith in the background


Prof Smith (middle); Prof. Steve Jacobs, foreground left


Prof. Mark McCormick (middle) of Stillman College, speaking with Prof. Steve Jacobs; Prof. Catherine Roach (r) and Prof. Tim Murphy (l)