2010 Essay Contest Winners and Senior Honors Essay Prize Winner.

In 2006, Bill Gallagher, a friend of the Department of Religious Studies, established a $25,000 endowment to allow the annual Gallagher Essay Prize to be awarded on a permanent basis.  Each year, a first-, second-, and third-place winner is chosen and given a monetary award that totals $1,000.  The quality of this year's submissions was very high, making the choice of just three essays for a prize very difficult.  That difficulty of choice, though, is a wonderful testimony to the strengths of our department and the thoughtfulness of our students. 

The first prize of $500 goes to Sarah Wilensky! Sarah’s paper is entitled “Wisdom, folly, and Worth: Conceptualizations of the Feminine in Proverbs 1-9 and 31.”

Sarah offers a close reading of Proverbs 1–9 and 31, paying attention to the original language and using advanced methods of exegesis.
Although the Book of Proverbs normally has been viewed through the gender construction of "father" and "son," Sarah’s essay focuses on the presence of significant female characters and argues that the text provides valuable insights into the role of women in ancient Israelite society. The writing is highly polished, cogent, and persuasive. In the words of two committee members, Sarah’s thesis is “stunningly original” and the paper “lovely.”

The Second Prize of $300 goes to Aaron Ethridge (on the left in the picture). Aaron’s paper is entitled, “An Evolved Religion: The Benefits of Modern Science in Nation of Islam Ideology.” Aaron’s paper casts the nation of Islam as a post-Darwinian religion and notes the fascinating way in which Nation of Islam borrows from scientific and pseudo scientific materials to legitimate its status and to illustrate its superiority to competing religions. Aaron shows how the Nation of Islam gleans from Social Darwinism both a form of reverse racism and grounds for industriousness and bodily purity for the sake of racial progress and integrity. Overall, Aaron seeks to correct misperceptions about and general lack of interest in Nation of Islam as a religion deeply invested in at least a certain reading of biology. Along the way, his paper makes important contributions to science-religion studies and the study of American religion. Aaron’s paper is highly original and creative.

The third prize of $200 goes to Alexander Sheppe. Alexander’s paper, titled, “The Varieties of Religious Engagement: Assessing Religion in a Scientific Age,” examines the very different ways in which three thinkers with strong commitments to evolutionary theory—Richard Dawkins, Francis Collins, and Michael Dowd—engage religious tradition and ideas. These approaches range from efforts to “de-convert” religious believers, to arguments intended to show that evolutionary theory can be translated into a sacred story with mass appeal. Alex assesses the strengths and weakness, as well as areas of overlap, in each of these thinkers, in a manner that is both sophisticated and fair-minded. The paper is well written and the arguments clear and concise.

2010 Honors Thesis Paper Competition

This year’s honors essay award goes to Dan Burnham. Dan’s thesis is entitled: “The Master Who Embraces Simplicity: Ritual Science and Self-Cultivation in the Baopuzi Neipian.” Dan’s thesis examines the reciprocal relationship between scientific empiricism and religious philosophy in early medieval China, with reference to the aforementioned alchemical text. Dan’s analysis shows how these early scientists interpreted their findings in light of their understanding of the natural world and Daoist conceptions of cosmology.
The committee felt that the essay makes a contribution not only to Chinese religious history but also to religious studies as an academic field of study. Dan argues against those scholars who typically separate "science" and "religion" into different intellectual categories. As one of the judges noted, “Dan is very successful in orienting his readers to material that is likely to strike most as alien (and alienating). He guides readers through a mass of details while remaining focused on the work those details are doing in the service of his main claims. The reader is afforded access to fascinating trees, but is never allowed to lose sight of the forest.” The essay is extremely well written and organized. Its thesis is clear and cogent, and challenges current scholarship.

Congratulations to Dan for an outstanding honors thesis!