Abram Van Engen, chair and professor of English, has won the Pelikan Award from Yale University Press for his 2020 book City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. The award — named in honor of the late Jaroslav Pelikan, a celebrated scholar of the history of Christianity, Christian theology, and medieval intellectual history — recognizes a distinguished book on religion published by the press in the last two years. A committee composed of Yale faculty members select the award winner. A committee composed of Yale faculty members select the award winner.
“The Pelikan Award committee members unanimously agreed that Abram Van Engen’s book is a remarkable piece of scholarship, a beautifully written historical narrative, and a deeply researched investigation with important contemporary relevance,” wrote Jennifer Banks, Yale University Press’s senior executive editor in religion and the humanities. “They admired the book’s originality and praised its careful attention to a crucial, overlooked piece of American political and religious history.”
In City on a Hill, Van Engen shows how the phrase “City on a Hill,” from a 1630 sermon by Massachusetts Bay governor John Winthrop, shaped the story of American exceptionalism in the 20th century. This sermon’s rise reveals the way national stories take shape and shows us how they continue to influence competing visions of the country — the many different meanings of America that emerge from its literary past.
“I’m deeply honored by this award and grateful to my editor, Jennifer Banks, and all the readers at Yale,” Van Engen said. “In all my work, I try to combine serious study of literature and serious study of religion for a broad audience. I hope readers of all sorts will find in this book a compelling story about the way Pilgrim and Puritan stories have shaped stories of the nation from the 1600s to the present day.”
Van Engen previously won the Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize from the Massachusetts Historical Society for City on a Hill.
