Scott E. Hendrix of Carroll University and Uchenna Okeja of Goethe-Universität Frankfurt are co-editing The Encyclopedia of World Religious Figures, which ABC-CLIO will publish. This encyclopedia is targeted at high school as well as college students and seeks to cover religious figures from a broad range of traditions. We are looking for contributors with a minimum of an M.A. (or M.Div) who are able to write about one or more of these figures in as unbiased a manner as possible. Graduate student who are currently completing these requirements are encouraged to apply. Contributors can come from a range of academic disciplines, such as history, religious studies, or philosophy. Most figures have already been assigned and this project is over 50% complete, so entries on figures other than those listed below will not be entertained. Those interested should contact Scott E. Hendrix at shendrix@carrollu.edu. Please send a copy of your C.V. and the name of the religious figure whom you would like to cover, chosen from the list below. The names listed are those figures who have not yet been chosen for coverage, and the process is first-come, first served. Once a figure has been assigned to an author, he or she is no longer available. The list has been established collaboratively between the editors and the publisher, so please do not suggest new figures for inclusion as they cannot be considered at this time.
Each entry will be 2000 words in length, consisting of a 1500 word narrative biography (including both details of the individual’s life as well as why he or she is important), a 300 word narrative “on further reading,” and a 200 word sidebar. The sidebar could be an excerpt from a primary source of 150 (ish) words with 50 words of description, or interesting facts, discoveries, trivia, pop culture connections, quotations, definitions of key terms, mini-bios of people connected to the religious leader, info about places and events discussed in the entry, etc. We emphasize that the target audience is made up of students, so the entries should be clear, interesting, and not pitched above their heads.
The editors will supply a model of what an entry should look like.
The figures who still need to be covered are listed below:
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī
John William Colenso
Wallace D. Fard
Usman Dan Fodio
Isaac Oluwole
Parshva
Slocum, John
Smohalla
Moses Ladejo Stones
Han Yu
Wang Zhe
Scott E. Hendrix is an associate professor of history at Carroll University in the U.S.