Grawemeyer Award in Religion

The Grawemeyer Award in Religion is accompanied by a prize of $100,000, which is presented in full during the awards ceremony.

Any work (book, address, essay, etc.) presented or published in 2017 or subsequently will be eligible for consideration. Nominations are invited from religious organizations, appropriate academic associations, religious leaders and scholars, presidents of universities or schools of religion, publishers and editors of scholarly journals. There will be no discrimination based on religious affiliation or belief or lack thereof. The Award Committee encourages submissions from a wide variety of intellectual and/or religious perspectives. Please note that a work may be nominated for a maximum of three Award Years. Self-nominations will not be accepted. Previous winners are not eligible for subsequent awards. The Award will not be awarded posthumously.

Purpose
The Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion honors highly significant contributions to religious and spiritual understanding. By “religion” we mean, to paraphrase a classic definition by William James, the feelings, acts and experiences of humans insofar as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they consider the divine. The purpose of the Award is to honor and publicize annually creative and constructive insights into the relationship between human beings and the divine, and ways in which this relationship may inspire or empower human beings to attain wholeness, integrity or meaning, either individually or in community.

Eligibility
Any work (book, address, essay, etc.) presented or published in 2018 or subsequently will be eligible for consideration. Nominations are invited from religious organizations, appropriate academic associations, religious leaders and scholars, presidents of universities or schools of religion, publishers and editors of scholarly journals. There will be no discrimination based on religious affiliation or belief or lack thereof. The Award Committee encourages submissions from a wide variety of intellectual and/or religious perspectives. Please note that a work may be nominated for a maximum of three Award Years. Self-nominations will not be accepted. Previous winners are not eligible for subsequent awards. The Award will not be awarded posthumously.

Criteria For Judging Nominations
The Award competition, which is open to persons of all religious traditions and world views, will consider a wide variety of concerns and issues. Such issues may include but are not limited to:

• The experience of divine or ultimate reality,
• Meaning and purpose of human existence,
• Authority and freedom in religious understanding,
• Pluralism and religious truth,
• Evil, suffering, and death,
• Compassion, joy and hope,
• Religion and science,
• Divine involvement in human history,
• Practices of faith and spirituality.

Preference will be given to ideas:

• which by their clarity and power assist people better to understand the relationship between divine reality and human spiritual striving;
• which lead to a recognition and understanding of religious experience;
• which foster greater understanding and cooperation among adherents of diverse religious traditions and views;
• which stimulate new insights into the relationship between religious awareness and other forms of human knowledge;
• which reflect significant breakthroughs in our understanding of divine-human relationships, particularly in the context of the postmodern world.

Nomination Process
Each person or group nominating an idea for consideration must submit one (1) copy of each of the following in typed or printed form:

• A complete nomination form 2027 Nomination Form
• A supporting statement of between 500-750 words in English setting out the central idea of the work and specifically relating the idea to the criteria for the award.
• The work as published or printed (in the case of a speech, the written text or transcript) including all standard bibliographic and copyright citations.
  • Individuals and groups (non-publishers) submitting nominations are requested to supply one (1) copy of the work.
  • Publishers submitting nominations are requested to supply the required total of six (6) copies of the work.

Deadline
Nominations must be received by January 15, 2026. All submissions become the property of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award Committee. In the event that no idea is considered adequately meritorious in a given year, no award will be made.

The Review Process
A joint Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and University of Louisville faculty review committee will consider all nominations and advance a select number for further consideration. Three judges of international reputation will select three finalists. Recommendation of a winner from among the finalists will be made by a winner selection committee consisting of laypersons and administrators. The recommended Grawemeyer Award winner is subject to approval by the Trustees of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville Board of Trustees.

Awardee Requirements
The winner of the 2025 award will be announced around December 1, 2026. The winner will be expected to come to Louisville during the following spring to make a formal presentation based on the winning idea and to receive the Award. The trip to Louisville is mandatory and failure to fulfill this requirement will result in forfeiture of the Award and the associated cash prize.

Nominee agrees and accepts that, consistent with the intent of H. Charles Grawemeyer, the Award will not be given posthumously. The Nominee must be living in order to receive the Award and must participate in the Award festivities referenced above in order to receive the Award and the associated cash prize. If the nominated Work was created by multiple persons, one or more of whom is deceased, only the living nominees are eligible to receive the Award and the associated cash prize.

The payment will cease upon the death of the recipient. Winning the Award does not create any property rights in the cash prize for the recipient’s heirs or estate. In the event that the Award is given to multiple recipients (such as co-authors), there is only one cash prize associated with the Award and said cash prize will be divided evenly amongst the recipients. If a co-recipient dies before payment of said cash prize is made, the remaining amount will be divided evenly between the still-living co-recipients.

Nominee shall participate, as appropriate, and cooperate in the production of any documentary film or other public relations or publicity matters related to the Competition, including the execution of any necessary releases and/or authorizations.

Nominee hereby grants permanent permission for the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Board of Trustees to use the title and excerpts from the Work and any media depicting their receipt and acceptance of the Award for library and archival purposes, and for the purpose of promoting the Grawemeyer Awards and their affiliation with the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The term “media” is understood to include, but not be limited to, audio and visual images and/or recordings of any format which depict the Recipient’s visit to the campuses of the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, the Awards presentation itself and any comments made by the Recipient as part of the campus visits and the Awards festivities.

All physical materials submitted become the property of the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

For More Information
Retrieve the 2026 Nomination Form

Contact
Nominations and requests for further information may be submitted electronically, by mail, or via facsimile, and should be sent to:

Dr. Tyler Mayfield, Faculty Director
The Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
1044 Alta Vista Road
Louisville, Kentucky 40205-1798

Phone: +1 (502) 894-2291
E-mail: grawemeyer@lpts.edu
Website: www.grawemeyer.org

Charles Grawemeyer was an active Presbyterian and a man who took the study of religious ideas seriously. In fact, he took university religion courses during his retirement, making his inclusion of an award for religion only natural.

Dr. John Mulder, former president of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, recounted the day in 1984 when Grawemeyer invited him to lunch, and simply said: “John, you know the music award won’t be the only one. I’d like to create a prize in education, world order and religion. I want the seminary to be part of the religion award.”

The Grawemeyer Foundation, the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary promptly began to shape the prize. Natural hurdles arose, and many questions surfaced. “What is an award in religion about?” “Is it simply Christian faith, or does it include other traditions from peoples around the world?” Even more contentious: “Should the work be more ‘popular’ and less ‘academic’?” “Should it be inspirational or should it promote questioning or honor revisionary proposals?”

These and other issues were resolved and guidelines were set, including a provision that the selection committee would include at least one person of non-Christian faith and someone from outside North America or with extensive experience outside North America.

The first award was presented in 1990 to E.P. Sanders for his provocative book, Jesus and Judaism, a painstaking look at Jesus’ relationship with his Jewish contemporaries.