Last month, the Bulletin for the Study of Religion announced its new book review project. Still in its developing stages, Bulletin Book Reviews will soon have its own tab on the blog site (next to Home and About above) where the information below will have a more permanent home. For now, though, we at the Bulletin wanted to extend a reminder and an invitation to our readership to help us get the ball rolling by reviewing titles.
Given that the project is just getting off the ground, we operate on an unsolicited basis at this point—which means: if you, dear reader, think there is a book that merits review and you want to review it, all you need to do is shoot our book review editor an email and arrangements will be made to have the book delivered to you from whichever press. (If you already have it, great!) Of course, not every book is fair game—we only review academic books of general interest to scholars of religion, and we prefer that the books be three years old or younger.
Doctoral students up to senior scholars are cordially invited, though MA students will be considered as well. We strongly prefer that reviewers have an expertise (developing or well established) that overlaps with the subject treated in the book itself. Which is to say—in the event that the book concerns a specific tradition or set of traditions, the reviewer ideally will specialize in either the tradition(s) or the time period and geographical area in question; similarly, in the event that the book’s content is more methodological or theoretical, the reviewer ideally will have a firm grounding in the methods and theories being discussed (either through application or wide reading and sustained reflection).
In terms of length, we are looking for between 1000 and 1500 words. The review should begin with a charitably objective summary of the contents and argument of the title, followed by a critical assessment with an eye turned toward issues of method and theory.
Have a title in mind that you’d like to review? Email our book review editor, Adam Miller, at [email protected] Please indicate in your email your position, institution, and area(s) of expertise, as well as why you think the book merits review in this forum. We look forward to hearing from you!
