American Academy of Religion Book Awards

The American Academy of Religion Book Awards honor new scholarly books that make a lasting contribution to the study of religion. The academy presents them each year to works judged to reshape how religion is examined, understood and interpreted. Each award carries a prize of $1,000.

Winners are chosen in several categories that have shifted over time. Recent awards have recognized the best first book in the field, books on religion and the arts, and outstanding works of historical, textual, analytical and constructive scholarship. The academy's online list of past recipients reaches back to the late 1980s. Most winning titles come from university presses, and together they span traditions and regions from Buddhist philosophy and Sikh history to early modern Europe and contemporary American religion.

New scholarly books in the study of religion, submitted by their publishers, are eligible; each category has its own criteria.