Talk:H. Shelton Smith

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I was a student at Duke Divinity School from 1955-58. Sitting "under" Dr. H. Shelton Smith was a highlight of my undergraduate and graduate life. Most academicians, like most politicians and preachers, follow the "party line" of their tribe. Therefore, we were shocked, and I was thrilled, to read Dr. Smith's book, ''Faith and Nurture," published in 1941. He literally ripped to shreds the humanistic theology of the religious education movement that dated back to the nineteenth century.  People like George Albert Coe robbed three generations of Sunday School children and youth from the rudimentary ethos of the Bible and Dr. Smith took them to task.  Few knew that in the early days of professional staff in nurturing ministry, their official title was "Director of Relgious Education" or "DRE," not "Director of Christian Education or "DCE." The writers of Methodist theology in biblical material refused to use the biblical term, "Kingdom of God" and used the term "democracy of God." Coe wrote in his book, "The Psychology of Religion," "Religion is the discovery of persons."

Someone needs to write a definitive biography of H. Shelton Smith. He was a prophet, a prognostictor and a man of prescient wisdom.

Donald W. Haynes, Duke Div class of 1958Donald W. Haynes (talk) 00:58, 27 May 2019 (UTC)