Alice Ogden Bellis has received the “Book of the Year” award from the Association of Catholic Publishers 2019 Excellence in Publishing Awards, which recognizes the best in Catholic publishing. She is honored for her book Proverbs (Liturgical Press, 2018), a commentary on the biblical book of Proverbs. It is part of a 58-volume collection titled the Wisdom Commentary series, containing current feminist biblical scholarship.
Dr. Bellis currently serves as a professor of Hebrew Bible in the School of Divinity at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before joining the Howard faculty, she served first as an assistant, then associate, and twice acting head of staff at Providence Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also an ordained minister.
In addition to Proverbs, Dr. Bellis is the author of many books and articles including Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes: Women’s Stories in the Hebrew Bible (Westminster/John Knox, 2007), and Science, Scripture, and Homosexuality (Wipf and Stock, 2011) which she co-authored with Terry Hufford, professor emeritus of biology at George Washington University.
“I share this honor with the ‘contributing voices’ in the volume, including thirteen alumni of the Divinity School, many of whom are rising scholars and all of whom are accomplished spiritual leaders,” said Dr. Bellis. “They each wrote an essay on some aspect of Proverbs. These essays together add breadth, depth, and diversity to the volume.”
Dr. Bellis is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University where she majored in religion. She holds a master of divinity degree and an MBA both from Howard University, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in semitic languages from the Catholic University of American in Washington, D.C.