My name is David B. Smith. I started studying theology when I was fourteen as an act of survival. I desperately needed to know if God could love and use a person like me. Since then, I’ve been on a pilgrimage toward a deeper understanding of what it means to live into hope amid a broken and fearful world.
I am a Minister of Word & Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), a Doctoral Candidate in Church History at the Faculty of Protestant Theology and Research Associate at the Center for Dependency & Slavery Studies (BCDSS) of the University of Bonn, Germany. Before moving to Germany, I served churches and nonprofits in various capacities across the eastern United States, including posts in North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Most recently, I was Interim Associate Pastor for Youth and their Families at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, PA. After taking a brief leave from my doctoral studies and returning to the U.S., I served as a Resident Chaplain at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in 2021.
I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Religion & Philosophy from Montreat College, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Ecumenical Studies from the University of Bonn. I also studied social work at Rutgers University through the MDiv/MSW partnership. These days, my academic work lives at the intersections of church history, ecumenics, queer studies, and Christian social ethics.
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