Historian honored by Indiana Humanities Council

Author: Erik Runyon

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UniversityofNotreDame historian George M. Marsden was one of six scholars to receive the inaugural Indiana Humanities Award from the Indiana Humanities Council at a ceremony last month inIndianapolis.

The award was established to recognize distinguished scholars in the humanities for their service in helping to advance and strengthen American culture, and whose writing, teaching and thought help prepare future humanistic leadership. The other recipients were Jean Bethke Elshtain from theUniversityofChicago, John Dittmer fromDePauwUniversity, William Placher fromWabashCollege, William Rowe fromPurdueUniversityand Scott Sanders fromIndianaUniversity. The honorees were selected by a committee of academic deans fromIndianacolleges and universities.

One of the nations leading scholars of American religious history, Marsden is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History and the author or co-author of more than a dozen books on the history and present state of fundamentalism inAmerica. His most recent book,Jonathan Edwards: A Life,garnered four national book prizes.

An expert on the history of Christianity inAmerica, Marsden holds bachelors degrees fromHaverfordCollegeand Westminster Theological Seminary, and masters and doctoral degrees in American studies fromYaleUniversity. He taught atCalvinCollegeandDukeUniversitybefore coming to Notre Dame in 1992.

Marsden has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Pew Freedom Trust and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Jonathan Edwards: A Life,published by Yale University Press, won the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion, a Bancroft Prize from Columbia University,the Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians, and the Annibel Jenkins Prize from the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. It also was named one of 10Books of the Yearfor 2003 by Atlantic Monthly, one of eightBest Religious Books of 2003by Publishers Weekly, and one of 12Notable Religious Books of 2003by religion reporter Richard Ostling of the Associated Press.

The Indiana Humanities Council is a non-profit organization that supports leadership, promotes education and nurtures the culture that will makeIndianainternationally attractive and competitive.

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