Congratulations to the 2020 Winner
of the Frederick J. Streng Award for Excellence in Buddhist-Christian Studies
- perry Schmidt-leukel -
(Peeters Publishers, 2019)
The Bodhicaryavatara ("Entering the Course towards Awakening") is an Indian Mahayana Buddhist companion to the path of a Bodhisattva, someone motivated by the altruistic "spirit of awakening". Unlike many other Buddhist scriptures, much of this text is written in the very touching form of personal reflections. Despite its late composition (7th-8th cent. CE), the Bodhicaryavatara quickly gained widespread recognition and high appraisal in various parts of the Buddhist world and even beyond. Today it is one of the most widely translated Buddhist texts. The 14th Dalai Lama has emphasized the special impact of this scripture on his own spirituality, and a number of Western scholars have praised it as a true gem among the world's religious classics. After many commentaries by Buddhist scholars throughout the centuries, this is the first commentary from a Christian perspective, exploring the deep resonances between the "spirit of awakening" and the "spirit of Christ".
Nominations now Open for the
2021 Frederick J. Streng Award for Excellence
in Buddhist-Christian Studies
The Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies is now receiving nominations for the 2021 Frederick Streng Book Award for Excellence in Buddhist-Christian Studies. Nominations must be received by March 1, 2021.
The criteria for nominating and making the award are:
The subject matter of the book should be inspired by and relevant to Buddhist-Christian relations, but subject matter is not narrowly limited to books on dialogue or to books that are half on Christianity and half on Buddhism.
The scholarship must be original and the writing clear. The book must make an important contribution to issues relevant to the context of Buddhist-Christian dialogue.
Books can be considered for nomination within five years of their publication date (i.e. the 2015 award must be for a book published in 2010 or later).
Nominations can be made by any person, using the nomination form below. Publishers of books must be willing to supply review copies to members of the committee for evaluation in order for the book to be considered.
The son of a Lutheran minister, Fred Streng opted to attend University of Chicago, receiving Bachelor of Divinity and Ph.D. in the History of Religions, with a dissertation on Nagarjuna’s understanding of emptiness. He later taught at Southern Methodist University and became noted scholar in Buddhist-Christian studies.
Fred Streng was one of the founding members of the Society. He died in 1993 while serving as its third president. See memoriam here. As David Chappell said of him there: "What is the sound of liberating truth?" This question was presented by Fred as his life's koan in his Presidential Address at the Fourth International Buddhist-Christian Conference in August, 1992. Although granting that others might offer many different answers, it is revealing that the place where he found the sound of liberating truth was in "mutual transformation." Three primary areas where mutual transformation offered liberating truth for Fred were in the internal and external pluralism found in Buddhist-Christian dialogue, second in the dialogue between the personal commitments of religion and the objectivity of academic-scientific studies, and lastly in the encounter between religion and the various physical and human problems of our global community.