Charles Halton wins prestigious prize for A Human-Shaped God

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Westminster John Knox Press is proud to announce that The Rev. Charles Halton is the recipient of the 2024 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his book A Human-Shaped God: Theology of an Embodied God, published in 2021.

A bold, incisive project, A Human-Shaped God approaches the humanlike accounts of God in the Old Testament as the starting places for theology, using them to build a picture of the divine. In doing so, Halton argues that embracing God as a deity with human qualities can bring us closer to God and inspire us to become better people.

“Westminster John Knox Press is extremely honored to have published this work,” said David Dobson, President and Publisher of WJK Press. “Dr. Halton’s book promises to give people new ways to think about God. We are excited for him and look forward to working with him in the future.”

“When I finished reading the manuscript, I knew that Halton’s work was a badly needed corrective in how we conceive and imagine God and how we do theology,” said Dan Braden, Acquisitions Editor. “His work in this book is erudite, precise, convincing, practical, important, and relevant; it is very satisfying to know that he has been recognized with this distinguished reward, and it’s absolutely wonderful that, as a consequence, a wider audience will read A Human-Shaped God. I’m convinced that readers of this book will come away with an understanding of why it won the Grawemeyer.”

Halton is currently associate rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, Ky., and previously taught Old Testament and Semitic languages at seminary and college levels for nearly a decade. He holds a doctorate from Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Bible and ancient Near East studies and is an external affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London.

The $100,000 prize in religion is jointly given by The University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Other prizes also honor seminal ideas in music, world order, psychology, and education. Winners will visit Louisville in the spring to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.

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Contact:
Jose Santana
Westminster John Knox Press
216-233-1827
jsantana@presbypub.com

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