The T & T Clark Blog

Marilynne Robinson wins Orange Prize for Fiction 2009

I red with great joy that Marilynne Robinson was awarded the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction in a ceremony yesterday evening at London's Royal Festival Hall (actually just a stone's throw from our offices!). This was for her new novel Home which revisits places and characters of her earlier novel Gilead. 

Well, none of them was published by us, obviously, but I must admit that I cannot think of a novel from the past four of five years that I found so deeply moving and at the same time so unashamedly theological as "Gilead". Stanley Hauerwas has dubbed it the "first Barthian novel" as you can read in Ben Myers' fine review. 

Here is what the Guardian writes about the event:     

"Fi Glover, the broadcaster who chaired this year's judging panel, admitted the decision had been straightforward and unanimous. Home, Robinson's beautifully crafted exploration of family relationships and redemption, was the easy winner from the six shortlisted books, she said. "All of the judges brought a couple of books to the table which they thought were definitely the contenders and Home was in all of our choices. We were in agreement."

I was also intrigued by this passage:

"Readers were desperate for more but Robinson did not return to fiction for 24 years, winning a Pulitzer prize for Gilead five years ago. In between she wrote a polemical book about the British nuclear industry and a book of essays on such unfashionable subjects as theology and Calvinism."

Unfashionable subjects, well...

Paul Nimmo wins Templeton Prize

Dr Paul T Nimmo of the Faculty of Divinity in Edinburgh University has been awarded the Templeton Prize for Theological Promise for his book Being in Action, published by T&T Clark in 2007. Congratulations!

The prize will be awarded in a ceremony at the university of Heidelberg (Germany) in May.

News story on BBC Scotland

Paul Nimmo is currently working on a second book for T&T Clark to be published in 2010: Barth: A Guide for the Perplexed.

Burgh Wins 2008 Klaus Wachsmann Prize for "Listening to the Artifacts"

We have just learned and are very pleased to announce that Dr. Theodore W. Burgh, author of Listening to the Artifacts: Music Culture in Ancient Palestine, has won the 2008 Klaus Wachsmann Prize for Advanced and Critical Essays in Organology from the Society of Ethnomusicology. This award recognizes a major publication that advances the field of organology through the presentation of new data and by using innovative methods in the study of musical instruments. Dr. Burgh is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. You can also view more about the award by clicking here. Congratulations, Dr. Burgh!

Margaret Barker receives Doctorate from Lambeth Palace

Margaret Barker, scholar and author of several books on the Jerusalem Temple and the Old Testament, has been awarded the degree of a Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The ceremony took place at Lambeth Palace yesterday afternoon.

Margaret received the doctorate "in recognition of her work on the Jerusalem Temple and the origins of Christian liturgy which has made a significant new contribution to our understanding of the New Testament and opened up important fields for research."

The Archbishop of Canterbury's right to grant degrees is derived from Peter's Pence Act of 1533 which empowered the Archbishop to grant dispensations previously granted by the Pope. The practice began during the time when attendance at Oxford and Cambridge, the only universities at that time in England, was frequently disrupted by the difficulty of travel or outbreaks of the plague. The Archbishop was empowered to grant exemption from the residential requirements necessary for a degree.

Margaret Barkers latest book, Temple Themes in Christian Worship was published in January.

Congratulations!

Johnson Wins First Place for Theology and Lakeland Wins Third Place for Social Concerns from Catholic Press Association!

We are very excited to announce today that we have received word that Elizabeth Johnson and Paul Lakeland have both received awards from the Catholic Press Association! Congratulations to you both!

THEOLOGY - FIRST PLACE
The Quest for the Living God, by Elizabeth Johnson,
Continuum, New York, N.Y.
“Gracious mystery, ever greater and ever nearer,” the second chapter of this wonderful book, focuses the reader clearly on the task ahead: coming to a fuller understanding of the many faces and manifestations of the divine in the world in which we live. With each image of God that is presented Johnson offers us the necessary context, the reasoning, and the challenge which animates the believer’s devotion and commitment. This is a wonderful text, comprehensive and unflinching when such critique is required, but perhaps even more encouraging and appreciative of the presence of the sacred and the mysterious in our midst.

SOCIAL CONCERNS - THIRD PLACE
Catholicism at the Crossroads, by Paul Lakeland
Continuum, New York, N.Y.
Lakeland offers new understandings, interpretations, and practices of the laity in the church. It is a book that could be well used by a parish discussion groups, individuals, or in classroom settings. He moves forward the discussion on the power and presence of the laity as a significant and expanding force in the Church. Here is a healthy blend of encouragement and challenge.

The results have been published in the Catholic Journalist and you can download the list of winning authors and their books. (NB: It's 10MB, for those of you with slower connections.)

Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Titles

I'm very happy to announce that Choice Magazine has named two of our books as Outstanding Academic Titles!

 

The Creationist Debate: The Encounter Between the Bible and the Historical Mind by Arthur McCalla

This book places the present Creationist opposition to the theory of evolution in historical context by setting out the ways in which, from the seventeenth century onwards, investigations of the history of the earth and of humanity have challenged the biblical views of chronology and human destiny, and the Christian responses to these challenges. The author's interest is not primarily directed to questions such as the epistemological status of scientific versus religious knowledge or the possibility of a Darwinian ethics, but rather to the problems, and various responses to the problems, raised in a particular historical period in the West for the Bible by the massive extension of the duration of geological time and human history. (Pssst! The paperback is on sale!)

The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy by Oliver Leaman

There has been a long tradition of interest in philosophy in the Islamic world, and it is the aim of these volumes to represent the lives of some of the major thinkers within this tradition. The notion of philosophy has been interpreted broadly to include a large number of intellectuals who were interested in conceptual issues that either directly relate to philosophy or form part of the background of Islamic philosophy as a whole. Included are details about the lives of significant legal thinkers, theologians, political thinkers and even geographers where their lives are relevant indicators of the progress of philosophy in the Islamic world. The Dictionary represents a landmark achievement in the understanding of Islamic philosophy, at a time when such understanding is needed as never before. It is set to become an indispensable reference work for students of Islamic and comparative philosophy.

Big congrats to McCalla and Leaman!

Margaret Farley Wins Grawemeyer for Just Love!

Margaret Farley, professor emerita at Yale Divinity School has won the 2008 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics! We here at Continuum are all extremely proud of her for this very high honor. Below is the official press release:

 

2008 - Margaret Farley
Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics    

Dec. 6, 2007

                                   

high-resolution image

A Yale scholar who says justice is an essential part of sexual ethics has won the 2008 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Margaret Farley, a professor emerita of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity school, earned the prize for the ideas set forth in her 2006 book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. Winner of the 17th Grawemeyer religion prize, her work was selected from among 52 entries from the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil.

Human sexual relationships must be not only loving but fair, because justice is the quality that forms, guides and protects love, Farley writes.    

“It’s an important message in light of all the confusion surrounding sexuality today,” said Susan Garrett, a professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary who directs the award program. “The religious right issues stark decrees while the entertainment industry tells us ‘anything goes.’ People are confused about what’s right.”

Farley draws “clear and compelling guidelines from Christian tradition on what makes love ‘just,’ which helps us understand how to think about sexuality in the context of our faith,” Garrett said.

A Roman Catholic nun and the first woman to teach full-time at Yale Divinity School, Farley has written or co-written seven books. She is past president of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Catholic Theological Society of America.

About Margaret Farley

Margaret Farley has devoted her life to studying some of life’s most difficult ethical questions.        

Farley, the Gilbert L. Stark professor emerita of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity school, began teaching there in 1971. A Roman Catholic nun in the Sisters of Mercy order, she started her teaching career in 1962 at Mercy College of Detroit and also was a visiting lecturer at the University of Detroit.

Her Grawemeyer-winning book, “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” published by Continuum Group in 2006, is the seventh book she has written or co-written. Her other books include “Personal Commitments: Beginning, Keeping Changing” (1986), “Readings in Moral Theology, No. 9: Feminist Ethics and the Catholic Moral Tradition” (1996) and “Compassionate Respect: A Feminist Approach to Medical Ethics” (2002).        

Farley has written more than 90 articles on topics such as celibacy, AIDS and faith, divorce, feminism and embryonic stem cell research and how they relate to religion. In addition, she has lectured on these topics in communities across the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa.

The recipient of 11 honorary degrees, she also has received many fellowships and awards, including the John Courtney Murray Award for Excellence in Theology (1992), a Henry Luce III Fellowship in Theology (1996-97) and a U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute Award (2002).        

A past president of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Catholic Theological Society of America, she co-directs the All-Africa Conference: Sister to Sister, a project designed to empower African women to tackle the AIDS pandemic in their country.

She holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Detroit and master’s and doctoral degrees in religious studies from Yale.

Margaret Farley Receives Seton Medal!

I just got wind from my alumni newsletter that our esteemed author Margaret Farley, whose Just Love we've recently published (and edited by our Frank Oveis), received an award back in October. Congratulations, Margaret! (Looks like I'd better create an "Awards" category...)

COLLEGE  OF MOUNT ST. JOSEPH HONORS FARLEY WITH SETON MEDAL

(CINCINNATI, OH) – The College of Mount St. Joseph honored Margaret Farley, RSM, Ph.D., with the 2007 St. Elizabeth Seton Medal on Wednesday, October 17. After the award presentation, Dr. Farley presented a lecture titled “Gender, Faith and Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa.”

A noted theologian and scholar, Dr. Farley is the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics at the Yale Divinity School and the Yale University Department of Religious Studies in Connecticut. For decades she has been a progressive theological voice on a broad range of areas such as feminist theology, medical ethics and the role of women in the church. She is the author/editor of six books including Personal Commitments: Beginning, Keeping, Changing and Compassionate Respect: A Feminist Approach to Medical Ethics.

Dr. Farley has published more than 80 articles and chapters of books on medical ethics, sexual ethics, social ethics, historical theological ethics, ethics and spirituality, Roman Catholic ethics, and feminist ethics. For the past eight years she has served as co-director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project. The recipient of 11 honorary degrees, she has lectured throughout the United States, in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Western Europe.

She is a co-founder of “Project on Gender, Faith, and Reponses to HIV/AIDS in Africa,” and co-director of the All-Africa Conference: Sister to Sister, which facilitates responses to HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Farley is past president of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Catholic Theological Society of America, and a member of the Sisters of Mercy, Detroit Regional Community.

The St. Elizabeth Seton Medal is named in honor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, foundress of the Sisters of Charity, the congregation that established the College in 1920 and today continues to sponsor it. The College established the St. Elizabeth Seton Medal in 1996 in honor of the Mount’s 75th anniversary and to recognize distinguished women in theology.

The College of Mount St. Joseph is an undergraduate and graduate Catholic college of 2,200 students that provides an interdisciplinary liberal arts and professional curriculum emphasizing values, service and social responsibility.