Jonathan Z. Smith, religion scholar, dies at age 79
Smith raised fundamental questions about the nature of religion.
Jonathan Z. Smith. Photo Courtesy Chicago Maroon.
Jonathan Z. Smith, a historian and theorist of religion widely admired for his analytic rigor in comparing religions, died December 30 of lung cancer. He was 79.
Smith authored numerous books and served as the editor of The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion. He spent his entire career at the University of Chicago. Though trained in the study of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity, he amassed formidable knowledge on topics such as ritual, Hellenistic religions, Maori cults, and the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.
He was an eccentric scholar with a mane of unruly white hair, a beard, large glasses, and an outsized personality.
