Religion Writers Honor Gustav Niebuhr

EP News--- Gustav Niebuhr comes from a family of prominent theologians.

But when Gustav started his journalism career three decades ago, the 2010 winner of the William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award never imagined he’d report on religion for several of America’s leading newspapers. The Religion Newswriters Association announced Niebuhr’s award on April 14. He’s the 10th winner of the award that originated in 2001.

A former colleague piqued Gustav’s interest in religion when she mentioned that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was serious about covering religion and wanted someone to help put religion on the front page.

“She only mentioned it, but it caught my attention in a major way,” Gustav recalled in a recent interview. “I realized then it was exactly what I wanted to do.”

After landing the job with the Journal-Constitution, a collection of stories he wrote on the rise of evangelical Christianity in Latin America and its influence on conflicts nearby caught the attention of editors at The Wall Street Journal, who hired him as the paper’s first full-time religion writer. A few years later, he tackled the religion beat at The Washington Post before finally capping his religion-reporting career at The New York Times.

His work has received numerous accolades, including RNA’s Supple Award for Religion Writer of the Year in 1988, 1991 and 1993, and RNA’s Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award in 1993.

Niebuhr also served as an RNA treasurer, secretary and second vice president in the 1990s.

In 2003, Gustav accepted a position as an associate professor at Syracuse University, where he now teaches history of religion courses for the religion department and journalism at the Newhouse School of Public Communications. Niebuhr will receive his award at RNA’S Annual Conference in Denver, Sept. 23-25.
(4/19/2010)

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