Robert Smith, Jr. holds the Charles T. Carter Baptist Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School where he teaches Christian Preaching. Previously he served as the Carl E. Bates Associate Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. A popular teacher and preacher, he received Southern’s 1996 Findley B. Edge Award for Teaching Excellence. An ordained Baptist minister, he served as pastor of the New Mission Missionary Baptist Church in Cincinnati, OH for twenty years. He earned his Ph.D. while serving as pastor.

He is a contributing editor for a study of Christian ministry in the African American church, Preparing for Christian Ministry, and co-editor of A Mighty Long Journey.   In addition, he has served as an editor of Our Sufficiency Is of  God:  Essays on Preaching in Honor of Gardner C. Taylor (Mercer University Press, Macon Georgia: 2010).   He has written the book, Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life (B&H Publishing Group, Nashville: 2008), which was selected as the winner of the 2008 Preaching Book of the Year Award by Preaching magazine and 2009 Preaching Book of the Year Award by Christianity Today’s preaching.com.

In 2010, Preaching magazine named Doctrine That Dances one of the 25 most influential books in preaching for the last 25 years. His book, The Oasis of God: From Mourning to Morning—Biblical Insights from Psalms 42 and 43 was published in the spring of 2015. He has spoken at more than 100 universities, colleges, and seminaries in the United States, Great Britain, Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. His research interests include the place of passion in preaching, the literary history of African American preaching, Christological preaching, and theologies of preaching. At Beeson, Smith teaches Christian Preaching and other electives in homiletics. He received Beeson Divinity School’s “Teacher of the Year Award” in 2005. He and his wife, Dr. Wanda Taylor-Smith, Ph.D., are the parents of four adult children (one in heaven).