The Michael Ramsey Prize Shortlist
The Archbishop of Canterbury is pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2023 Michael Ramsey Prize for contemporary theological writing.
Three books have been shortlisted. They are: The Love That Is God: An Invitation to Christian Faith by Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt; God is Not a White Man: And Other Revelations by Chine McDonald, and Where is God in all the suffering? by Amy Orr-Ewing.
Discover the Michael Ramsey Prize 2023 shortlist below – three books that explore timeless questions of love, identity and suffering.
“God is love is the radical claim of Christianity,” writes Frederick Bauerschmidt at the beginning of this little meditation on the essentials of Christian faith. In a rich yet accessible style reminiscent of C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton, Bauerschmidt shows just how countercultural and subversive Christianity is actually meant to be.
Read more about the book here.
Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt is professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland and a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, assigned to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
What does it mean when God is presented as male?
What does it mean when – from our internal assumptions to our shared cultural imaginings – God is presented as white? These are the urgent questions Chine McDonald asks in a searing look at her experience of being a Black woman in the white-majority space that is the UK church.
Read more about the book here.
Chine McDonald is the director of religion and society think tank Theos, and is a regular contributor to BBC Religion & Ethics programmes, including Thought for the Day.
Suffering and evil affect us all, both at a general level, as we look at a world filled with injustice, natural disasters and poverty, and at a personal level, as we experience grief, pain and unfairness. Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing is no stranger to pain and gives a heartfelt yet academically rigorous examination of how different belief systems deal with the problem of pain.
Read more about the book here.
Dr Amy Orr-Ewing is an international author, speaker and theologian. She holds a doctorate in Theology from the University of Oxford and is the co-founder of REBOOT, an innovative youth initiative aimed at helping teenagers think deeply about faith.
The shortlisted books will be judged by the Michael Ramsey Prize 2023 judging panel, find out more about the judges and what they are looking for in a prize-winning book here.
The three shortlisted titles are books which present complex and interesting theology in an accessible way, making a branch of theology a popular and approachable topic. These books have been chosen for how they fulfil the prize’s goals. See more about the Michael Ramsey Prize goals here.
The winner of the prize will be announced by Archbishop Justin Welby at an awards ceremony at Lambeth Palace Library on Thursday 14th December. The winner will receive £15,000 and the two runners up will get £5,000 each.