Sydney Anglicans have featured heavily in the Australian Christian Literature Awards for 2008, which were announced at St Michael's, Vaucluse on Wednesday night.
While Australian Christian Book of the Year went to Simon Carey Holt for his book God Next Door, five current Sydney Anglicans received honourable mentions and one former Sydney Anglican received the top Australian Theological Writers Award.
Centre for Public Christianity co-founders and co-directors Dr Greg Clarke and Dr John Dickson received third prize for their book 666 and All That: the Truth About the Future (Aquila Press).
Dr Dickson was not able to gain the top award for a third time this year, having won in 2000 for Simply Christianity: Beyond Religion (Matthias Media) and in 2005 for A Spectator's Guide to World Religions: An Introduction To The Big Five (Blue Bottle Press), however, the judges were still clearly pleased with the work he produced with Dr Clarke.
Dr Clarke says he is "delighted the book has been acknowledged".
We wrote it because we really think it’s important people sort out what the Bible says is going to happen in the future and what is not going to happen. We are really pleased about the feedback we have received from readers who agree with us and who disagree with us," he says.
"There’s a new fear about the future springing up in relation to things like climate change and the oil crisis. Christians always have something to say about the future, it's just that we more often than not forget to go back to Bible to work out truth from error."
Judges speak out
In commenting on 666 the judges said the book successfully tapped into "the current interest in spirituality, heaven, and end times."
"Dickson & Clarke address a popular and controversial topic in a way that equips Christians by providing a solid biblical basis for future events," the judges said.
"Using a sensible, rather than a sensationalist approach, the authors seek to clarify and encourage, providing assurance in dealing with people's uncertainties and anxieties by highlighting the centrality of Jesus in God's promises.
The judges were pleased to note that Dickson and Clarke unpack the broader teaching of Scripture and not just Revelation.
"They deal seriously with the problem of sin and what a response to sin demands. Balanced and comprehensive without being academic, this book clarifies Christian expectations of death and beyond; cuts through the fuzziness; and brings clarity to an area that has been muddied by the entertainment industry," the judges said.
Winner God Next Door (Acorn Press) by Simon Carey Holt seeks to bring to life Jesus' command to "love your neighbour as yourself " and explains how living Jesus' words will transform neighbourhoods.
The Melbourne-based lecturer in spirituality at Whitley College (University of Melbourne) and former adjunct lecturer at Fuller Seminary in California "shares practical wisdom on the "how to' of engaging neighbours and neighbourhoods, by thinking about the distinctives of one's own neighbourhood", according to the judges.
Second prize went to My Seventh Monsoon (Ark House Press) by Naomi Reed. The book is a contemporary Australian missionary biography by a Sydney-based writer.
Moore College lecturers honoured
The Australian Theological Writers Award went to Dr Graham A. Cole for He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Wheaton / Crossway).
Dr Cole is professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago which he joined in 2002. Prior to that he served for ten years as principal of Ridley College, University of Melbourne, where he lectured in philosophy, systematic theology, ethics, and apologetics, and from 1980 to 1992 he taught at Moore College.
According to the judges He Who Gives Life, "while aimed as a textbook, was extremely well written, succinct, well-argued, thoughtful, and pastoral".
Honorable mentions in this category were all awarded to current Moore College lecturers.
Bishop Paul Barnett was awarded for Paul: Missionary of Jesus (Eerdmans), Dr Brian Rosner for Greed as Idolatry: The Origin and Meaning of a Pauline Metaphor (Eerdmans) and Moore College principal, the Rev Canon J W Woodhouse, for 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader (Crossway).
The Australian Christian Literature Awards are sponsored annually by the Australian Christian Literature Society, a unit of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Australia.
