Over the course of a career of more than forty years, Jonathan Z. Smith was among the most important voices of critical reflection within the academic study of religion, distinguishing himself as perhaps the most influential theorist of religion of the last half century. Among his significant body of work are essays and lectures on teaching and the essential role of academic scholarship on religion in matters of education and public policy. The interviews and essay published here display something of the dynamic, thinking-on-his feet liveliness that Smith brought to questions about the study of religion, his theoretical preferences, and his methods of teaching. With refreshing candidness and clarity, Reading J.Z. Smith offers an often provocative introduction to discussions on issues that still dominate the complex and continually changing critical conversations in the academic study of religion.

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Willi Braun is an associate professor of religion and the director of the interdisciplinary program of religious studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton. His areas of interest are the writings and social formation of Christianities in the Roman Empire, theories of mythmaking, and the use of the category “religion” in the study of religion. He is the editor (with Russell T. McCutcheon) of the Guide to the Study of Religion. He has been a long-time editor of the international journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.

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