Be Known at Oregon's Christian University

Religious Studies Department

At the crossroads of theological formation, service, and scholarship

Phil Smith

Photo of Phil SmithPhil Smith
Professor of Philosophy
Department Head
Telephone: 503-554-2657
E-mail: psmith@georgefox.edu

Classes Phil is Currently Teaching

Speciality: Ethical Theory

Education

B.A., George Fox University; M.A., Fuller Theological Seminary; Ph.D., University of Oregon. George Fox University 1982-




Phil Smith is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies.

Phil graduated from George Fox in 1977, after which he earned a Masters Degree from Fuller Seminary.  In the 1980s, while pastoring a Friends Church in Portland, he taught part-time at Fox.  He completed a Philosophy PhD at the University of Oregon in 1991 and has been full-time at GFU since 1992.

Phil teaches a wide range of philosophy and religion courses.  His research and writing projects are mostly in ethics: virtue theory and questions of war and peace.

Phil and his wife, Karen (also a GFC grad, 1977), have two grown sons, a daughter-in-law, and a grand-daughter.

Phil is an enthusiastic sports fan, particularly for Bruin athletics and baseball.  He has been a frequent member of the GFU “Ruins,” a team of runners in the Hood to Coast relay.  In 2008, he published a fantasy-adventure novel, The Heart of the Sea, as an ebook, so he hopes the ebook “wave of the future” really happens!