James Hutchinson Smylie (October 20, 1925 – January 5, 2019) was Professor of

Church History __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual ...

Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education Union Presbyterian Seminary is a Presbyterian seminary in Richmond, Virginia. It also has a non-residential campus in Charlotte, North Carolina and an online blended learning program. History As a result of efforts undertaken together by the ...

and author of books on American church history and

presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Career

Smylie was born in

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

, where his father was a pastor. He was educated at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, where he graduated BA in 1946, and at

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of ...

, where he was awarded his BD in 1949 and master's degree in 1950. He served as a Presbyterian minister in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, 1950–1952, and married Elizabeth Roblee at that time. From 1952 until 1962, he taught at Princeton Theological Seminary, initially while working on his PhD there, which was completed in 1958. He began his work at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (now Union/PSCE) in 1962, becoming full professor in 1968, and remained there until retiring in 1996. His doctoral dissertation was on the subject of ''American Clergymen and the Constitution of the United States of America, 1780-1796'' and his interests broadened from that topic to include church-state relations, human rights, and the impact of Presbyterian theology on American political thought.

Works

For 28 years Smylie edited the ''Journal of Presbyterian History'' on behalf of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia. Additionally he wrote the following books. * * * * * * *

References

The Presbyterian Outlook, August 2009
1925 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century Presbyterians 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers 21st-century Presbyterians American historians of religion American academic journal editors American Presbyterians Historians from West Virginia Historians of Christianity Presbyterians from West Virginia Princeton Theological Seminary alumni Princeton Theological Seminary faculty Washington University in St. Louis alumni Writers from Huntington, West Virginia 20th-century American male writers {{christianity-historian-stub