Jason David BeDuhn, Ph.D. is an historian of religion and culture, currently Professor of Religious Studies at Northern Arizona University

Northern Arizona University

Northern Arizona University is a public university located in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. It is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and has 39 satellite campuses in the state of Arizona. The university offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees.As of...

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Debuhn holds a B.A. in Religious studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana, an M.T.S. in New Testament and Christian Origins from Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...

, and a Ph.D. in the Comparative Study of Religions from Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

, Bloomington. He first gained brief national attention at the age of 18 when remarks he made in a speech to the high school graduating class of Rock Island, Illinois, sharply critical of oppressive attitudes towards youth by older generations of Americans, were widely reported in the American press. He defended his remarks in subsequent radio and television appearances by pointing to the historical contribution of youth to social idealism and cultural innovation.

He won the Best First Book Award from the American Academy of Religion

American Academy of Religion

The American Academy of Religion is the world's largest association of scholars in the field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association,...

 in 2001 for his book The Manichaean Body in Discipline and Ritual (ISBN 0-8018-6270-1), notable for its analysis of religions as goal-oriented systems of practice rationalized within particular models of reality http://www.aarweb.org/Programs/Awards/Book_Awards/default.asp. His second book,Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, has generated considerable controversy for highlighting cases of theological bias in the translation process, by which, he argues, contemporary Christian views are anachronistically introduced into the Bible versions that most modern English-speaking Christians rely on.

He was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2004 List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 2004.

Books authored

• 2010 Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, 1: Conversion and Apostasy, 373-388 C.E. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• 2003 Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament. Lanham: University Press of America.
• 2000 The Manichaean Body in Discipline and Ritual. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Books edited

• 2009 New Light on Manichaeism: Papers from the 6th International Meeting of the IAMS. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
• 2007 with Paul Mirecki: Frontiers of Faith: The Christian-Manichaean Encounter in the Acts of Archelaus. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
• 2001 with Paul Mirecki: The Light and the Darkness: Studies in Manichaeism and its World. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
• 1997 with Paul Mirecki: Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Sources

• "About the Author," Truth in Translation, p. 200.
• Jason BeDuhn , personal page in Northern Arizona University.