Education
Bob Jones University, B.S.
Reformed Theological Seminary, MDiv
Harvard Divinity School, Th.M.
Durham University (England), Ph.D.
About Dr. Smith
Dr. D. Blair Smith is the Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at RTS Charlotte.
Blair earned his Th.M. in Theology from Harvard Divinity School, where he wrote his thesis on “Athanasius’s Trinitarian Theology of Redemption, with Special Reference to the Holy Spirit.” He holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology (Patristics) at Durham University in England under Professor Lewis Ayres, one of the world’s leading patristic scholars. The working title of his dissertation is “The Fatherhood of God in Fourth-Century Pro-Nicene Trinitarian Theology.” During a portion of his doctoral studies, Blair served as a Research Visitor at The University of Notre Dame.
Blair is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and served for more than seven years as the Pastor of Adult Education at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD. He also served as a part-time associate Pastor at Michiana Covenant Presbyterian Church near South Bend, IN, preaching throughout the Great Lakes Presbytery of the PCA and ministering to graduate students at Notre Dame. Blair is married to his wife, Lisa, and they have six children.
Publications
BOOKS
Reformed Confessionalism, Blessings of the Faith series, ed. Jason Helopoulos (P&R forthcoming)
Our Father in Heaven: Rediscovering and Embracing the Fatherhood of God (Crossway forthcoming)·
A Commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith. editor along with John Fesko and John Muether (Crossway, forthcoming)
One God Almighty: The Biblical Doctrine of the Triune God, We Believe – Studies in Classic Biblical Doctrine series, eds. John McClean and Murray Smith (Lexham Press forthcoming)
Generation to Generation: Essays in Honor of Douglas F. Kelly, editor along with Matthew S. Miller (Mentor, 2023)
ARTICLES
· “Retrieving Autotheos: The Pro-Nicene Roots of the Aseity of the Son in John Calvin’s Trinitarian Thought,” co-written with Arthur Rankin (forthcoming)
· “Church History” in New Studies in Creationism, ed. Hans Madueme (P&R forthcoming)
· “Christ the Mediator” and “Adoption” in A Commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith, eds. John Fesko, John Muether, and Blair Smith (Crossway forthcoming)
· “God” in Early Christian Doctrine, eds. Michael Haykin and Michael Strickland (Lexham Press forthcoming)
· “Are Evangelicals Nicene Trinitarians? Evangelicalism’s Debt to Social Trinitarianism” in On Classical Trinitarianism: Retrieving Nicene Doctrine of the Triune God, ed. Matthew Barrett (IVP Academic, 2024)
· “The ‘Passive Activity’ of the Godward Life: The Grace of Christ and Spiritual Progress in Athanasius of Alexandria” in Generation to Generation: Essays in Honor of Douglas F. Kelly, eds. Matthew S. Miller and D. Blair Smith (Mentor, 2023)
· “Post-Reformation Developments,” in Covenant Theology, eds. John Muether, Nicholas Reid, and Guy Waters (Crossway, 2020)
· “Catholicity in Presbyterian Perspective” in volume 5, issue 2 (Fall 2020) of Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies
· “The Trinity and the Fourth Century” in volume 4, issue 2 (September 2019) of Reformed Faith and Practice: The Journal of Reformed Theological Seminary
· Review of Contemplation and Classical Christianity: A Study in Augustine by James Peter Kenney, Fides et Humilitas: The Journal of the Center for Ancient Christian Studies 4 (2018): 101-106.
· “The Pattern of the Father: Divine Fatherhood in Gregory of Nazianzus” in volume 2, issue 2 (Summer 2017) of Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
· “Trinitarian Relations in the Fourth Century” in volume 2, issue 1 (May 2017) of ReformedFaith and Practice: The Journal of Reformed Theological Seminary
· “A Vision for God, A Vision for Seminary” in volume 1, issue 2 (September 2016) of Reformed Faith and Practice: The Journal of Reformed Theological Seminary
· Review of Enns, Peter. The Bible Tells Me So? By Peter Enns, The Reformed Theological Review 75:3 (2016), 207-209.
· Review of The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture: What the Early Church Can Teach Us by Michael Graves, Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 34:1 (2016), 103.
· Review of Thomas F. Torrance and the Church Fathers: A Reformed, Evangelical, and Ecumenical Reconstruction of the Patristic Tradition by Jason Robert Radcliff. Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 34:1 (2016), 106.
· Review of Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome by Susanna Elm. Fides et Humilitas: The Journal of the Center for Ancient Christian Studies (2016), 120-124.
· Review of Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ by Rosaria Butterfield. http://www.reformation21.org/articles/openness-unhindered.php (March 2016).
· Review of Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships by James V. Brownson.
http://www.reformation21.org/articles/bible-gender-sexuality.php (July 2015).
· Review of Basil of Caesarea by Stephen M. Hildebrand. http://www.reformation21.org/articles/basil-of-caesarea.php (April 2015).
· Review of The Hole in our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung.
http://www.reformation21.org/articles/the-hole-in-our-holiness.php (December 2014).
· Trent: What Happened at the Council by John W. O’Malley. http://www.reformation21.org/shelf-life/trent-what-happened-at-the-council-1.php (August 2013).