Editor's Note: JAAR Letter of Apology

IN THE MARCH 2007 issue (75[1]) of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, we published a review of two books, The Hindu World and The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, which did not meet the criteria by which we at the JAAR seek to hold ourselves accountable.

Apart from poor editorial control of the review itself, what is crucial is that the review was done by a person with no recognized scholarly competency in the field of religious studies, let alone in the area of South Asian religions.

This review, written by a non-specialist, should not have passed muster with us, nor should it have gone through our review processes without its inadequacies being caught. That it did—that we failed to catch it—is inexcusable.

For these errors, we—the Editor and Book Review Editor of the JAAR—are accountable. We apologize to the editors of these two books and the authors of the essays contained therein, and to the readership of the JAAR for these lapses. We are taking steps to ensure that such a mistake will not happen again.

We will run a new review of these two books, done by professionals in the field of religious studies with the requisite competency, to provide the works the scholarly attention that they deserve.