Courtney Bender, associate professor of religion at Columbia University, is the author of The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination, winner of the 2011 AAP PROSE Award for Excellence in Scholarly Publishing in Theology/Religious Studies, and coeditor, with Pamela Klassen, of After Pluralism: Reimagining Models of Interreligious Engagement.
Ann Taves is professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and past president of the American Academy of Religion. Her most recent books include Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things, winner of the 2010 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James, winner of the 2000 Association of American Publishers Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Philosophy and Religion.