28TH MAY 2009:
WINNER OF £15,000 THEOLOGY PRIZE ANNOUNCED

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, awarded the 2009 Michael Ramsey prize to Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham at the Guardian Hay festival on 28th May.

The winner, who will receive a prize of £15,000, was announced at a gala lunch in the presence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"The Michael Ramsey Prize is intended for theological writing which, by freshness and originality, somehow changes the theological landscape, and also serves the needs of the Church; not by being safe or orthodox, or by reinforcing the Church's institutional line - but by giving people something with which to nourish themselves and to enrich their lived Christian experiences.

"Richard Bauckham in his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses had, in the words of one of the judges, 'Placed something of a bomb under a good deal of New Testament scholarship'. His book shows why we are right to have confidence in the testimony of those who personally witnessed the life of Jesus as recorded in the gospels."

The prize, which is sponsored by the Lambeth Fund and administered by SPCK, was inaugurated by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams in 2003 to identify the most promising contemporary theological writing to a wider Christian readership.

Richard Bauckham receives the Prize from Archbishop Rowan Williams	Rowan Williams on the Guardian Stage	Michael Ramsey Prize Judges
Rowan Williams at the prizegiving ceremony	AN Wilson talks to Rowan Williams on the Guardian Stage	Madeleine Bunting interviews the authors
Simon Kingston comperes the prizegiving ceremony	Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mrs Jane Williams	Dee Hardwicke, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Archbishop Rowan Williams
Winner Richard Bauckham and Artist Dee Hardwicke	The shortlisted authors: Richard Burridge, David Brown, Richard Bauckham, Anthony Thiselton, Sebastian Moore	AN Wilson, Rowan Williams and Tim Livesey