PROFESSOR Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt was awarded the 2023 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing on Thursday evening.
The award was given for his book The Love That Is God: An invitation to Christian faith (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2020). Dr Bauerschmidt is Professor of Theology at Loyola University, Maryland, in the United States, and is a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Professor Bauerschmidt received £15,000, and was presented with a medal by the Archbishop of Canterbury during an awards ceremony in Lambeth Palace Library.
Archbishop Welby said that the winning book “embodies the heart of Christian faith”, and presents “a timeless message that drives us deeper into God’s arms and outwards to love others. . . I am grateful to all the immensely talented writers who featured in the prize this year, and greatly enjoyed reading the wide array of excellent writing on the shortlist.”
The two other shortlisted authors were Chine McDonald, for God is Not a White Man (Hodder Faith, 2021) (Books, 11 June 2021), and Amy Orr-Ewing, for Where is God in All the Suffering? (The Good Book Company, 2020).
Professor Bauerschmidt said: “When I was writing The Love That Is God, I thought a lot about not just what I wanted to say, but also how I wanted to say it; I wanted to write something for a wide audience that was neither simplistic nor condescending in tone. Winning the Michael Ramsey Prize is particularly gratifying, since it suggests that I succeeded in writing something that was both accessible and made a contribution to the life of the Church.”
Paula Gooder, who chaired the judging panel, said: “This book seeks to spark our imaginations into what it means to live as people who believe that God is love. Using love as its start, middle, and end-point, the book takes us on a journey through some of the best writers on Christianity, from Catherine of Siena to Dorothy Day, from John Chrysostom to Martin Luther King Jr, and, in doing so, shines new light on the mystery of God’s love.”
The 2019 Prize was awarded to Dr Mark Oakley, who is now the Dean of Southwark, for The Splash of Words: Believing in poetry (Canterbury Press) (News, 30 August 2019).