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10/22/2008 Lindsay honored for best book and best article
The article used semistructured interviews with 360 elite informants, and archival and ethnographic research to explore " the mechanisms through which leaders have sought to advance evangelicalism between 1976 and 2006." It found that "salient religious identity and cohesive networks have played important roles in shaping the goals and ambitions of leaders within the evangelical movement." Moreover, Lindsay's study demonstrated "the persistence of institutional differentiation among America's leadership cohort, but it also points to a religious identity that can provide vital, cross-domain cohesion within the structure of elite power." According to its Web site, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion "stimulates, promotes, and communicates social scientific research about religious institutions and experiences." Founded in 1949, the organization "fosters interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration among scholars from sociology, religious studies, psychology, political science, economics, international studies, gender studies and many other fields." Ted Jelen, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, who chaired the award committee, said, "'Evangelicals in the Power Elite: Elite Cohesion Advancing a Movement' is an excellent example of multimethod social science. Michael Lindsay has expanded our understanding of the mutual interaction between religious leaders and the secular world." Elizabeth Long, professor and chair of sociology at Rice, called Lindsay's award "a real honor," that shows that his "work speaks to and also beyond sociologists, achieving an interdisciplinary importance that is very impressive." Lindsay described the award as "a great honor to be recognized in this way by colleagues I admire so much. Evangelicals," he added, "are an important part of the American population that we need to understand, especially in 2008. A desire to understand evangelicals better was the spark for this line of research, and it is gratifying that an article that emerged from this study has been singled out by the Society." Lindsay's book "Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite" (Oxford University Press, 2007) this week won the best book award from ARNOVA, the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. ARNOVA describes itself as the leading association and network of researchers whose studies focus on nonprofit organizations, voluntary activity, philanthropy and civil society. "This award is given annually to the volume the award committee feels did the most in the previous year to advance general knowledge and theory about civil society, nonprofit organizations and voluntary action or about some specific aspect of the nonprofit sector and civil society," said Thomas Jeavons, ARNOVA's executive director. The award carries a $1,000 prize and will be presented at the organization's 37th annual conference Nov. 20-22 in Philadelphia. |
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