Join author and 2024 Grawemeyer Religion Award winner, Charles Halton for three-evening book study sessions on his book, "A Human-Shaped God: Theology of an Embodied God" in anticipation of his public lecture on April 9, 2024.

This book study is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Participants can read book chapters in preparation for the sessions or attend the discussion without reading. If you would like to follow along, here is the reading schedule:

February 27: Chapters 1-2
March 12: Chapters 3-5
March 26: Chapters 6-7

Please note that this book study may be recorded. By registering and participating in this book study, you understand that your video may be included in the recorded video, and you consent to this recording and its use in any and all media throughout Louisville Seminary and its partners.

Questions? Contact Grawemeyer@lpts.edu

About the Award Winning Book

God gets angry. God gets jealous. God hates, regrets and learns.

Theologians often dismiss those depictions of God in the Bible because they seem to clash with God's image as an all-loving being, but an Episcopal priest with a different view has received the 2024 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for helping explain the paradox.

The Rev. Charles Halton, associate rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, Ky., won the prize for ideas set forth in his 2021 book "A Human-Shaped God: Theology of an Embodied God." He argues that embracing God as a deity with human qualities can bring us closer to God and inspire us to become better people.

"We are, like God, to move from a place of exclusion and anger-fueled violence to a life of inclusion, radical forgiveness and compassion," he said. "This is the path God is on. If we are not on it too, we are not imitating God."

As an example, Halton cites the Old Testament story of how God floods Earth, destroying everything except Noah's Ark. Later, God feels regret and creates a rainbow in the sky.

"Many Bible accounts are springboards for theological imagination that help us see God in constructive ways," he said. "As humans, we too lash out in anger, but we also learn to forgive."

Halton explores "an underappreciated view of God that exists in the Bible but is absent from most Eurocentric theology," said Tyler Mayfield, who directs the religion award. "His approach is original, thought-provoking and offers new opportunities for understanding the biblical God."

Halton 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 University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary jointly give the religion prize.

Recipients of the 2024 Grawemeyer Awards were named the week of December 9, 2023, pending formal approval by trustees at both institutions. The $100,000 prizes also honor seminal ideas in music, world order, psychology, and education.

Halton will visit Louisville on the evening of April 9, 2024, to accept the award and give a free lecture on his winning book. More info coming soon!

(photo by Amy Campbell Photography)

About the Grawemeyer Award

The Grawemeyer Award in Religion is made possible by the creative generosity of the late H. Charles Grawemeyer. Louisville Seminary, jointly with the University of Louisville, awards the $100,000 prize to honor and publicize creative and significant insights into the relationship between human beings and the divine. The award also recognizes ways in which this relationship may inspire or empower human beings to attain wholeness, integrity, or meaning, either individually or in community.

"A Human-Shaped God" Zoom Book Study

with Charles Halton, author and 2024 Grawemeyer religion award winner.