Book Awards

Cover of the book Citizenship in a Caste Polity, w. link to publisher website

Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies

A Biennial Award Honoring Excellence in Scholarship

Every two years, the society grants an award for the “Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies.” The award, which carries an honorarium of $500, alternates between two categories, history/ethnography and theology/philosophy, each covering a four-year period.

The history/ethnography award is dedicated to the memory of Selva J. Raj, a pioneering scholar of Hindu-Christian studies and active member of the society. The current winner (for Theology/Philosophy, 2019-23) is announced below.

The next prize cycles will be:
History/Ethnography, 2021-2025 — To be presented at the 2026 annual meeting
Theology/Philosophy, 2023-2027 — To be presented at the 2028 annual meeting

Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies

(Theology/Philosophy), 2019-2023

The Society for Hindu-Christian Studies is pleased to announce that Anantanand Rambachan is the winner of the award for the Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies (Theology/Philosophy), 2019-2023, for his book Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue (Fortress Press, 2022). The author is Professor Emeritus of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College. Sincere congratulations to Dr. Rambachan!

The society will hold a panel discussion celebrating this book at its November 2024 Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

Congratulations are due as well to the other finalists for this award: Gloria Maite Hernandez, Savoring God: Comparative Theopoetics (Oxford, 2021); Jonathan Gordon Smith, Advaita, Christianity and the Third Space: Abhishiktananda and Bede Griffiths in India (Peter Lang, 2020); Daniel Soars, The World and God are Not-Two: A Hindu-Christian Conversation (Fordham, 2023); Daniel Soars and Nadya Pohran, Hindu-Christian Dual Belonging (Routledge, 2022).

We want to extend special thanks to the Book Award Committee that served for this award: 

Organizer: Francis X. Clooney (Harvard Divinity School)
Members of the committee: Vasudha Narayanan (University of Florida), Jon Paul Sydnor (Emmanuel College), Jessica Frazier (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies), Bhakti Mamtora (University of Arizona)

Past Winners

Winners of the Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies award in past years are listed below. The society extends its ongoing appreciation to the authors for their extraordinary contributions to scholarship in this field.

2017-2021 (History/Ethnography), Jason Keith Fernandes, Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language, and Belonging in Goa (Orient Blackswan, 2020).Link to publisher.
2015-2019 (Theology/Philosophy), Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Reading the Hindu and Christian Classics: Why and How Deep Learning Matters (University of Virginia, 2019).Link to publisher.
2013-2017 (History/Ethnography), Nathaniel Roberts, To Be Cared For: The Power of Conversion and Foreignness of Belonging in An Indian Slum (University of California Press, 2016).Link to publisher.
2011-2015 (Theology/Philosophy), Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy of Being in Two Gita Commentaries (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013).Link to publisher.
2009-2013 (History/Ethnography), David Mosse, The Saint and the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India (University of California Press, 2012).Link to publisher.
2008-2011 (Theology/Philosophy), Michelle Voss Roberts, Dualities: A Theology of Difference (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010).Link to publisher.
2006-2008, Chad Bauman, Christian Identity and Dalit Religion in Hindu India, 1968-1947 (Eerdmans, 2008).Link to publisher.
2003-2005, Eliza F. Kent, Converting Women: Gender and Conversion to Christianity in Colonial South India (Oxford University Press, 2004).Link to publisher.
2000-2002, Corinne Dempsey, Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India (Oxford University Press, 2001).Link to publisher.
1997-1999, Julius J. Lipner, Brahmabandhab Upadhyay: The Life and Thought of a Revolutionary (Oxford University Press, 1999)Link to publisher.
1994-1996, Francis X. Clooney, Seeing Through Texts: Doing Theology among the Srivaisnavas of South India (State University of New York Press, 1996)Link to publisher.
1991-1993, Diana L. Eck, Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey From Bozeman to Banaras (Beacon Press, 1993)Link to publisher.