Vincent Phillip 惭耻帽辞锄, the Tocqueville Associate Professor of Religion and Public Life at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a winner of the 2011 American Political Science Association鈥檚 Hubert Morken Award for his book 鈥溾�� (Cambridge University Press).
will receive this biennial prize for the best book in religion and politics at the association鈥檚 annual meeting in early September. He shares the award with Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, author of 鈥淭he Politics of Secularism in International Relations鈥� (Princeton University Press).
A specialist in constitutional law, American politics and political philosophy, 惭耻帽辞锄 is a faculty member of the in the and of the . 鈥淕od and the Founders鈥� is his first book.
鈥淢y scholarship is a bit more traditional than what is currently trendy in academia,鈥� Munoz says. 鈥淚 try to ask big questions that are relevant to current legal and political issues鈥攖hen I try to provide normative answers. That鈥檚 a bit risky for a young scholar, so to be recognized by the leaders in my discipline for such work was validating and, to be honest, quite surprising.鈥�
In 鈥淕od and the Founders,鈥� he analyzes the public documents, private writings and political actions of James Madison, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to explain their competing philosophies of religious freedom and to show how each might have decided key Supreme Court cases.
鈥淚 believe the right to religious freedom is one of our most precious natural rights,鈥� 惭耻帽辞锄 says. 鈥淏ut hard questions exist related to its philosophical foundations, its limits, and how it can best be protected under the rule of law. I was hoping to help scholars, legal practitioners and citizens better understand the meaning of the right to religious freedom so we can better protect it.鈥�
Michael Gibbons, associate professor of government and international affairs at the University of South Florida and a member of the Hubert Morken Award committee, called 鈥淕od and the Founders鈥� 鈥渁 very thorough, well argued and researched book addressing an issue of significant theoretical and practical importance.鈥�
惭耻帽辞锄 is currently working on a sequel that will focus on how the American Constitution was designed to protect religious freedom. Articles from that project have already appeared in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law.
This fall, he teaches American Constitutional Law as well as Constitutionalism, Law and Politics鈥攖he gateway class to the University鈥檚 new undergraduate minor in constitutional studies.
Originally published by at on July 18, 2011.