Philip L. Reynolds, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Medieval Christianity and Aquinas Professor of Historical Theology, has won the 2019 Haskins Medal, awarded by the Medieval Academy of America (MAA) for a distinguished book in the field of medieval studies. Reynolds was honored for his 2016 book, How Marriage Became One of the Sacraments: The Sacramental Theology of Marriage from its Medieval Origins to the Council of Trent (Cambridge University Press), where he examines in depth the intellectual and institutional developments of marriage as a sacrament through the centuries. Reynolds received the medal at the MAA’s annual meeting on March 9 in Philadelphia.
A member of the Candler faculty since 1992, Reynolds came to Emory after teaching at the University of Bristol in England as Downside Fellow. He is also a faculty member at Emory’s Laney Graduate School and a senior fellow at the university’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion. From 1992 to 1998, Reynolds directed the Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory. He was appointed a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology in 2013.
Reynolds’s research interests lie in Western Christian thought A.D. 400-1400, with a particular focus on scholastic theology and philosophy during the central Middle Ages, especially Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas. He also focuses on contemplative and apophatic theology, and the theology and canon law of marriage. He is the sole author of three books, including How Marriage Became One of the Sacraments.
Highly involved in the life of the academy, Reynolds has held numerous committee positions at Candler and Emory, and regularly convenes and speaks at academic conferences held at Emory. He is a member of the Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale and the Medieval Academy of America.
First awarded in 1940, the Haskins Medal is named in honor of medieval historian Charles Homer Haskins, the academy’s founder and second president.