In 2008 faculty members in the Department of Religious Studies gave twenty-eight scholarly presentations. They published one book and nine articles, and they received eleven grants for a total of just under $35,000. Some recent highlights are:

In 2008, the Schyler Elizabeth Strong Biblical Archaeology Award and the DeVries Family Religious Studies Scholarship were endowed.  Added to existing scholarships, this enabled the department to offer support to nine undergraduate and graduate students in 2008-2009.

Stephen Berkwitz published "Resisting the Global in Buddhist Nationalism: Venerable Soma's Discourse of Decline and Reform" in the prestigious Journal of Asian Studies.

Victor Matthews published More than Meets the Ear: Understanding the Hidden Contexts of Old Testament Conversations (Eerdmans).

John Schmalzbauer contributed fifteen articles to the Christian Science Monitor's online Patchwork Nation Project, documenting the presidential election in the Ozarks (<http://patchworknation.csmonitor.com/nixa/>).

John Strong published "Shattering the Image of God: A Response to Theodore Hiebert's Interpretation of the Story of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9)" in the prestigious Journal of Biblical Literature.