English-religion professor wins Mormon History Association award for best book of the year
June 24, 2008
Terryl Givens, a professor of English and religion at the University of Richmond and a scholar of Mormonism, has been awarded the Mormon History Association's Best Book Award for "People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture."
The book analyzes the faith's cultural and intellectual history from its foundations to the present. Against the backdrop of past and present Mormon cultural expression, it examines four apparent contradictions of Mormonism: authority and radical freedom; searching and certainty; the sacred and the banal; and election and exile.
Givens received the award at the association's 2008 conference in Sacramento, Calif. The association promotes understanding, scholarly research and publication about Mormon history.
"People of Paradox" previously received the Best Book in Criticism award from the Association of Mormon Letters.
Givens has written extensively on the intersection of religion and literature. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and began his career as a scholar of 19th century works. He has since written six books, several of them examining Mormon religion, history and culture as represented in American literature and history.