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http://www.aarweb.org/Programs/Awards/Book_Awards/default.asp

Book Awards

In order to give recognition to new scholarly publications that make significant contributions to the study of religion, the American Academy of Religion offers Awards for Excellence. These awards honor works of distinctive originality, intelligence, creativity and importance; books that affect decisively how religion is examined, understood, and interpreted.

Awards for Excellence are given in four categories. In addition, there is a prize for the Best First Book in the History of Religions.

The awards are chosen by the Book Awards Jury:

Richard Amesbury (Chair of Juries)
Gustavo Benavides (Chair, History of Religions Jury)
Allison P. Coudert (Textual Studies Jury)
Steven Engler (Analytical-Descriptive Studies Jury)
Oliver Freiberger (Historical Studies Jury)
Tao Jiang (History of Religions Jury)
Richard Kieckhefer (Historical Studies Jury)
Pamela Klassen (Analytical-Descriptive Studies Jury)
Frank J. Korom (History of Religions Jury)
Kathryn Lofton (Historical Studies Jury)
Kathryn McClymond (Textual Studies Jury)
Peter Ochs (Constructive-Reflective Jury)
Andrew Rippin (Textual Studies Jury)
Mayra Rivera (Constructive-Reflective Studies Jury)
Manuel A. Vasquez (Analytical-Descriptive Studies Jury)
Stephanie Gray (Staff Liaison)

For eligibility requirements and awards processes please see the appropriate page:

Awards for Excellence in the Study of Religion

Best First Book in the History of Religions

The Awards for Excellence in the Study of Religion and the Best First Book in the History of Religions are given each year during the Annual Meeting.

AAR Book Award Recipients

2012

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Pamela E. Klassen Spirits of Protestantism: Medicine, Healing, and Liberal Christianity University of California Press, 2011

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Elliot R. Wolfson A Dream Interpreted within a Dream: Oneiropoiesis and the Prism of Imagination Zone Books, 2011

Historical Studies

	Thomas A. Tweed America’s Church: The National Shrine and Catholic Presence in the Nation’s Capital Oxford University Press, 2011

Textual Studies

	David M. Freidenreich Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law University of California Press, 2011

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Ronit Ricci Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia Chicago University Press, 2011

2011

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Amira Mittermaier Dreams that Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination University of California, 2011

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Willie James Jennings The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race Yale University Press, 2010

Historical Studies

	Johan Elverskog Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011

Textual Studies

	Ross Shepard Kraemer Unreliable Witnesses: Religion, Gender, and History in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean Oxford University Press, 2011

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Andrew Nicholson Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History Columbia University Press, 2010

2010

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Kimberley Christine Patton Religion of the Gods: Ritual, Paradox, and Reflexivity Oxford University Press, 2009

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Mark Johnston Saving God: Religion after Idolatry Princeton University Press, 2009

Historical Studies

	Robert Ford Campany Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China University of Hawai’i Press, 2009

Textual Studies

	Benjamin D. Sommer Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel Cambridge University Press, 2009

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Joseph Kip Kosek Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy Columbia University Press, 2009

2009

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	G. John Renard Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood University of California Press, 2008

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Andrew F. March Islam and Liberal Citizenship: The Search for an Overlapping Consensus Oxford University Press, 2008

Historical Studies

	Stuart B. Schwartz All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World Yale University Press, 2008

Textual Studies

	Shaul Magid From Metaphysics to Midrash: Myth, History, and the Interpretation of Scripture on Lurianic Kabbala Indiana University Press, 2008

Best First Book in the History of Religions (Co-winners)

	Benjamin Lazier God Interrupted: Heresy and the European Imagination between the World Wars Princeton University Press, 2008

	Christian Lee Novetzke Religion and Public Memory: A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India Columbia University Press, 2008
	Best First Book Shortlist: Rachel Wheeler To Live Upon Hope: Mohicans and Missionaries in the 18th Century Northeast, Cornell University Press, 2008 M. Cecilia Gaposchkin The Making of Saint Louis: Kingship, Sanctity and Crusade in the Later Middle Ages, Cornell University Press, 2008 Mark David Baer Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe, Oxford University Press, 2008

2008

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Leor Halevi, Vanderbilt University Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society Columbia University Press, 2007

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Mark C. Taylor, Columbia University After God University of Chicago Press, 2007

Historical Studies

	Benjamin J. Kaplan, University College, London Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2007

Textual Studies

	Wendi L. Adamek, Barnard College The Mystique of Transmission Columbia University Press, 2007

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Emma J. Anderson, University of Ottawa The Betrayal of Faith: The Tragic Journey of a Colonial Native Convert Harvard University Press, 2007

2007

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	David Frankfurter, University of New Hampshire Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History Princeton University Press, 2006

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	John D. Caputo, Syracuse University The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event Indiana University Press, 2006

	John Clayton (deceased), Boston University Compiled by Anne Blackburn and Thomas Carroll Religions, Reasons, and Gods: Essays in Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions, 2006

Historical Studies

	Catherine Albanese, University of California, Santa Barbara A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion Yale University Press, 2006

	Caroline Walker Bynum, Institute for Advanced Study Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006

Textual Studies

	Kristofer Schipper, Library of the Western Belvedere and Franciscus Verellen, École Française d'Extrême-Orient, eds. The Taoist Canon:A Historical Companion to the Daozang University of Chicago Press, 2004

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Leela Prasad, Duke University Poetics of Conduct: Oral Narrative and Moral Being in a South Indian Town Columbia University Press, 2006

2006

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Jonathan Z. Smith Relating Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion University of Chicago Press, 2004

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Dan Arnold Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion Columbia University Press, 2006

Historical Studies

	Daniel Boyarin Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Ebrahim Moosa Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

2005

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Syracuse University Diaspora of the Gods: Hindu Temples in an Urban Middle-Class World Oxford University Press, 2004

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Robert A. Orsi, Harvard Divinity School Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars who Study Them Princeton University Press, 2004

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Sylvester A. Johnson, Florida A&M University The Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity: Race, Heathens, and the People of God Palgrave Macmillian Press, 2004

2004

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	David H. Brown, Smithsonian Institution Santería Enthroned: Art Ritual and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion University of Chicago Press, 2003

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Jeffrey Stout, Princeton University Democracy and Tradition Princeton University Press, 2004

Historical Studies

	Alan Bray The Friend University of Chicago Press, 2003

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Edward Slingerland, University of Southern California Effortless Action: Wu-wei Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal of Early China Oxford University Press, 2003

2003

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Paul Christopher Johnson, Princeton University; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of Missouri, Columbia Secrets, Gossip, and Gods: The Transformation of Brazilian Candomblé Oxford University Press, 2002

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Susan Neiman, Einstein Forum, Potsdam, Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy Princeton University Press, 2002

Historical Studies

	Norman J. Girardot, Lehigh University The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge's Oriental Pilgrimage University of California Press, 2002

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Ananda Abeysekara, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Colors of the Robe: Religion, Identity, and Difference University of South Carolina Press, 2002

2002

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Ariel Glucklich, Georgetown University Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul Oxford University Press, 2001

Historical Studies

	Grant Wacker, Duke University Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture Harvard University Press, 2001

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Mary Keller, University of Stirling The Hammer and the Flute: Women, Power, and Spirit Possession The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002

2001

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Susan Friend Harding, University of California, Santa Cruz, The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics Princeton University Press, 2000

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Peter S. Hawkins, Boston University Dante's Testaments: Essays in Scriptural Imagination Stanford University Press, 1999

	J. J. Clarke, Kingston University The Tao of the West: Western Transformations of Taoist Thought Routledge, 2000

Historical Studies

	Leigh Eric Schmidt, Princeton University Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment Harvard University Press, 2000

	Jacqueline I. Stone, Princeton University Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism University of Hawai'i Press, 1999

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Jason David Beduhn, Northern Arizona University, The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000

	Jonathan Klawans, Boston University Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism Oxford University Press, 2000

2000

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Bruce Lincoln, University of Chicago Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	David Novak, University of Toronto Covenantal Rights: A Study in Jewish Political Theory Princeton University Press, 2000.

Historical Studies

	Sally M. Promey, University of Maryland Painting Religion in Public: John Singer Sargent's Triumph of Religion at the Boston Public Library Princeton University Press, 1999.

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Robert Baum, Iowa State University Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia Oxford University Press, 1999.

1999

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Elizabeth A. Johnson Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints New York: Continuum Publishing Group, 1998.

Historical Studies

	David Frankfurter Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Charles D. Orzech Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.

1998

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Manuel A. Vasquez The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997

Historical Studies

	Thomas A. Tweed Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami New York: Oxford University Press, 1997

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Lionel M. Jensen Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization Durham: Duke University Press, 1997

1997

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	David Chidester Savage Systems: Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Edward Farley Divine Empathy: A Theology of God Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996

Historical Studies

	Bernadette J. Brooten Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996

	Michael A. Sells The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Stephen R. Prothero The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

1996

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, eds. Fundamentalism Project, 5 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991-1995

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Van A. Harvey Feurbach and the Interpretation of Religion New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Historical Studies

	Steven Wasserstrom Between Muslim & Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Judaism Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Jeffrey J. Kripal Kālī's Child: They Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teaching of Ramakrishna Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995

1995

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Susan Starr Sered Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister: Religions Dominated by Women New York: Oxford University Press, 1994

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	William Dean The Religious Critic in American Culture Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994	No Image Available

	Gordon Kaufman In the Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993

Historical Studies

	Elliot R. Wolfson Through a Speculum that Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994

Best First Book in the History of Religions

	Devin DeWeese Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tukles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Sikh Tradition University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994	No Image Available

	Harjot Oberoi The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition Chicago and Oxford: University of Chicago Press and Oxford University Press, 1994	No Image Available

1994

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

	Theophus H. Smith Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of Black America New York: Oxford Univrsity Press, 1994

Constructive-Reflective Studies

	Mark C. Taylor Nots Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993

Historical Studies (co-winners)

	David L. Haberman Journey Through the Twelve Forests: An Encounter with Krishna New York: Oxford University Press, 1994 Patrick Olivelle The Asrama System: The History of Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution New York: Oxford University Press, 1993

1993

Constructive-Reflective Studies

Ian Barbour
Religion in an Age of Science and Ethics in an Age of Technology
Gifford Lectures, 1989–1991, volumes 1 and 2
HarperCollins, 1990, 1993

Historical Studies (Co-winners)

Juan Eduardo Campo
The Other Side of Paradise: Explorations into the Religious Meanings
of Domestic Space in Islam
University of South Carolina Press, 1991

Evelyn Brooks Higgenbotham
Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920
Harvard University Press, 1993

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

Nancy Jay
Throughout Your Generations Forever: Sacrifice, Religion, and Paternity
University of Chicago Press, 1992

1992

Constructive-Reflective Studies

Nancey Murphy
Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning
Cornell University Press, 1990

Historical Studies

John Clifford Holt
Buddha in the Crown: Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Tradition
of Sri Lanka
Oxford University Press, 1991

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

Caroline Walker Bynum
Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body
in Medieval Religion
MIT Press, 1991

1991

Constructive-Reflective Studies

Mieke Bal
Murder and Difference: Gender, Genre, and Scholarship on Sisera’s Death
Indiana University Press, 1988

Historical Studies

Paula Sutter Fichtner
Protestantism and Primogeniture in Early Modern Germany
Yale University Press, 1989

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

Howard Eilberg-Schwartz
The Savage in Judaism: An Anthropology of Israelite Religion
and Ancient Judaism
Indiana University Press, 1990

1990

Constructive-Reflective Studies

David Chidester
Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of Jim Jones, the People’s Temple, and Jonestown
Indiana University Press, 1988

Historical Studies

Bruce B. Lawrence
Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt against the Modern Age
Harper and Row, 1989

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

Robert Detweiler
Breaking the Fall: Religious Reading of Contemporary Fiction
Harper and Row, 1989

1989

Historical Studies

Sallie McFague
Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age
Fortress Press, 1987

Analytical-Descriptive Studies

Ivan Strenski
Four Theories of Myth in Twentieth Century History: Cassirer, Eliade,
Levi-Strauss, and Malinowski
University of Iowa Press, 1987

Reflective Studies

Mark C. Taylor
Altarity
University of Chicago Press, 1987

1988

Claude Welch
Protestant Thought in the Nineteenth Century, Volume II
Yale University Press, 1985

Eugene Rice
Saint Jerome in the Renaissance
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985

Norman Petersen
Rediscovering Paul: Philemon and the Sociology of Paul’s Narrative World
Augsburg Fortress Press, 1985

Masao Abe
Zen and Western Thought
Macmillan Press, 1985

1987

Wayne Meeks
The First Urban Christians
Yale University Press, 1983

John Van Seters
In Search of History
Yale University Press, 1983

Wayne Proudfoot
Religious Experience
University of California Press, 1985

Merold Westphal
God, Guilt, and Death
Indiana University Press, 1987

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