The Colin Gunton/John Webster Memorial Prize

Each year, in association with the International Journal of Systematic Theology, the Society runs an annual essay prize, inviting essays on a particular theme from any scholar working within the area of Christian systematic theology who is either a current student or within three years of their doctoral graduation at the closing date for submissions.

The Prize, which is now 20 years old, has until now been awarded in celebration of the contribution to systematic theology by Colin Gunton, a former President of the Society. At its AGM in 2022 it was decided that the prize would henceforth also commemorate the contribution to the same field of John Webster.

The prize for 2021 was awarded to Hannah Malcolm for her essay entitled ‘Body Without End: Biological Mutualism and the Body of Christ’. All winning essays feature in a forthcoming issue of IJST, and the winner is invited to attend the following year’s SST Conference at its expense.

And the winner of the prize for 2022 has just been announced. He is Abraham Wu, a first year doctoral student at Cambridge University. His winning essay is entitled “Augustinian Memory and the Communion of Saints”. Abraham will be presented formally with his prize at this year’s Conference.

We are pleased to announce that ‘Theologies of Peace’ will be the topic for the 2023 competition. Because the prize celebrates Colin Gunton’s and John Webster’s contribution to constructive Christian systematic theology, entries should attend to this same broad sphere.  Entries will be judged anonymously and on academic merit alone. The winner of the 2023 prize will be invited to attend the annual conference of the SST in 2024, where a presentation of the prize of £200 will be made as a part of the conference reception. Alongside the winning essay being published in IJST, other entries may also be considered for publication.

Essays must follow the current version of the ‘Submission Requirements for accepted Journal Articles’ found on the IJST web-site. There is an absolute word limit of 8,000 words (including abstract and footnotes). Essays should not include the author’s name, and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere or have been published previously. The closing date is 31 October 2023. The judges (two from the SST and two from IJST) hope to contact entrants regarding the results of the competition in February 2024.

Entries should be submitted to the Managing Editor of the IJST, Dr David Moser, at david.moser@dordt.edu.