Catholic University Honors Seminary Professor for Scholarship and Leadership

Mark S. Smith, Princeton Theological Seminary’s Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, has been named recipient of the Catholic University of America’s 2020 Johannes Quasten Medal for Excellence in Scholarship and Leadership in Religious Studies.

When he receives the award on January 27, 2020, Smith will deliver a lecture entitled “‘What Has Canaan and Babylon to Do with Israel?’: The Problem of Ancient Near Eastern Divinity in the Biblical Godhead.” The lecture will take place in Catholic University’s Caldwell Auditorium at 5:00 p.m.

Before his tenure at Princeton Seminary, Smith taught at New York University, Saint Paul Seminary, Saint Joseph’s University, and Yale University. In addition to authoring 16 books and co-authoring four others, he published over 120 other publications. He has served as president and vice-president of the Catholic Bible Association and as an editor for the Catholic Biblical Quarterly and the Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series. He earned master’s degrees from Catholic University of America, Harvard Divinity School and Yale University and a doctorate as well from Yale. With his wife, the archaeologist Elizabeth Bloch-Smith, Smith is currently finishing the first of two volumes of a commentary on the Book of Judges for the Hermeneia series.

Established in 1985 as the only academic award given by the Catholic University of America’s School of Theology and Religious Studies, the Quasten Medal is named after Rev. Johannes Quasten, "a professor of religious studies who taught at Catholic University for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1970,” according to the Catholic University website. Quasten, known for his four-volume Patrology, a standard reference in the field of ancient church history and historical theology, published more than 100 books.

Very Rev. Mark Morozowich, dean and associate professor of liturgical studies and sacramental theology at the Catholic University of America, will present Smith with the Quasten medal.