Archbishop announces 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize shortlist
Monday 17th December 2012
The Archbishop of Canterbury has announced the shortlist for the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize (MRP). The prize will be awarded at The Telegraph Hay Festival in May 2013.
Archbishop Rowan Williams, who initiated the prize in 2005, commented "As in previous years, we have a broad variety of books submitted for the prize, all of them displaying the creative qualities we are looking for. Once again, the Michael Ramsey Prize shows that accessible theological writing of high quality is in good supply, and I and the other judges look forward greatly to tackling these works, and to bringing them to the wider public in the context of the Hay Festival next year."
The shortlisted titles are:
Victor Lee Austin, Up with Authority
Luke Bretherton, Christianity and Contemporary Politics
John Gillibrand, Disabled Church - Disabled Society
Paula Gooder, Heaven
Michael Lodahl, Claiming Abraham
Thomas Yoder Neufeld, Jesus and the Subversion of Violence
The shortlisted books will now be read by the seven judges who will come together in Hay-on-Wye on 28th May 2013 to choose the winning title.
The judges are:
The outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams;
his wife, theologian and teacher Jane Williams;
Prof Sarah Coakley, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge;
Bishop Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford;
Dr Denise Inge, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Worcester;
Fr Alban McCoy, Catholic Chaplain to the University of Cambridge;
and Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum.
The winner of the £10,000 prize will be announced at the Telegraph Hay Festival on 28th May 2013. The winning author will also receive a mosaic plaque handmade by ceramicist Dee Hardwicke. The other shortlisted authors will each receive £1,000 and a commemorative tile handmade by Dee Hardwicke.
As in 2005 (Tom Wright), 2007 (Timothy Radcliffe), 2009 (Richard Bauckham) and 2011 (David Bentley Hart) the Michael Ramsey Prize for 2013 will be awarded to the author of a theological work that is judged to contribute most towards advancing theology and making a lasting contribution to the faith and life of the Church.
The Award, which is sponsored by the Lambeth Fund and administered by SPCK, was inaugurated by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams in 2005 to encourage the most promising contemporary theological writing and to identify it for a wider Christian readership.
The biennial prize commemorates Dr Ramsey, who was Archbishop of Canterbury 1961-1974, and his commitment to increasing the breadth of theological understanding among the Christian, and non-Christian, population at large.
In 2011, the winner of the prize was Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart.
Professor Richard Bauckham's work Jesus and the Eyewitnesses won the prize in 2009. The winner of the 2007 prize was What is the point of being a Christian? by Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP, ex-Master of the worldwide Dominican Order of Friars Preachers. The 2005 prize was won by Bishop Tom Wright's work The Resurrection of the Son of God (SPCK), a book exploring the resurrection of Jesus in the light of ancient pagan, Jewish and Christian beliefs on death and resurrection.
This year's list was chosen from a long list of titles nominated by a diverse reference group including Bishops, heads of theological colleges, Anglican Primates, ecumenical partners and members of the general public.
More information is available at www.michaelramseyprize.org.uk