Dr. Randall B. Smith – Catholic World Report

Articles by Dr. Randall B. Smith

About Dr. Randall B. Smith

Dr. Randall B. Smith is a full professor of Theology at a Catholic, liberal arts university. His book Reading the Sermons of Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide is available from Emmaus Press. And his next book, Aquinas, Bonaventure, and the Scholastic Culture at Paris: Preaching, Prologues, and Biblical Commentary will be available from Cambridge University Press in the fall.

What kind of relationship with God?

November 28, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 7

Editor’s note: This is the second part of a two-part essay. Read Part One here. One sometimes hears preachers exhort their congregations to enter into a “relationship” with God. I have no desire to diminish […]

What kind of relationship? On the “one”, the “many”, and things in the world

November 23, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 9

Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a two-part essay. Read Part Two here. Should we consider “relation” a transcendental property of Being? That may seem an odd question. The transcendental properties of Being are […]

From our house to “God’s house”

September 7, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith, Thomas Dougherty 6

If the recent coronavirus pandemic has revealed anything to us, it should be how badly we house many of our elderly. But “house” is perhaps not the right term. Instead of “housing” them, we too […]

Liberal Arts and the Pandemic

July 6, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 6

It’s a shame we’re not in the classroom these days, because the pandemic would be the perfect subject for discussion in a liberal arts university. Indeed, I would suggest it is precisely because of the […]

Wrestling with a Moral Dilemma

June 1, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 6

You are a soldier in Vietnam. You have met and fallen in love with a Vietnamese woman. The two of you have a child, although you are not legally married. Due to political reasons beyond […]

Distance education: It’s a long way from real education

May 12, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 23

Some people ask me what I think about teaching online. I ask them how they like watching Mass online. “Really, that bad?” they reply. “No, actually, if you can believe it,” I tell them, “it […]

Overwhelmed by quarantine possibilities

April 20, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 3

Each day brings with it, along with the bad news, ever more suggestions for what we can do with all our free time during the quarantine. I’m not sure where all the free time is […]

Our Titanic moment and the puncturing of illusions

April 15, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 12

“Man has nature whacked.” C. S. Lewis relates this comment made to a friend of his at the beginning of the final chapter in his book The Abolition of Man. The comment was ironic, reports […]

The Relevance of the Resurrection

April 12, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 17

Christ’s glorified body tells us that the promise of eternal life which Jesus’s death and resurrection has opened up for us results not in obliteration […]

Detail from 'Crucifixion' (c.1315) by Giotto di Bondone [WikiArt.org]

Good Friday, Death, and Christian Life

April 10, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 2

Mary weeps at the foot of the cross, and we weep with her. But we also must not stop there. For beyond the cross of […]